Staudt To Give Mider Lecture
Dr. Louis Staudt, co-chief of NCI’s Lymphoid Malignancies Branch, will give the annual G. Burroughs Mider Lecture as part of the NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series. His talk, “Therapy of lymphoma inspired by functional and structural genomics,” will be held Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 3 p.m. in Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10.
Staudt received his B.A. from Harvard College in 1976, graduating cum laude in biochemistry. He was awarded a Medical Scientist Training Program fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in 1982. In addition to his laboratory co-chief role, Staudt also serves as director of the NCI Center for Cancer Genomics, which oversees large-scale NCI programs studying the genomic aberrations in cancer. In 2011, he was given the honorary title of NIH distinguished investigator.
The Staudt laboratory initiated the use of genomic-scale gene expression profiling to define the molecular basis of therapeutic response and survival in lymphoid malignancies. This effort revealed that the most common type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, is actually composed of three distinct diseases with different responses to chemotherapy.
To uncover new therapeutic targets, the Staudt laboratory developed RNA interference genetic screens for essential genes in cancer. Using this methodology, in conjunction with high-throughput cancer gene resequencing, the laboratory identified therapeutic targets for the molecular subset of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas that is least curable by current treatments. Staudt and colleagues have conducted clinical trials based on these insights, which have shown a high remission rate using a drug targeting the B-cell receptor signaling pathway in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphomas that have resisted other therapies.
He has received numerous awards for his research, including the 2009 Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology for outstanding contributions in hematology, the 2015 San Salvatore Prize for the treatment of malignant tumors, the 2016 C. Chester Stock Award Lectureship from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2013.
The Mider lecture, established in 1968, recognizes an NIH intramural scientist’s outstanding contributions to biomedical research and honors G. Burroughs Mider, the first director of NIH laboratories and clinics.
For lecture information and reasonable accommodation, contact Jacqueline Roberts, (301) 594-6747 or robertsjm@mail.nih.gov.