The cancer research community is on the verge of a major leap in our understanding of the factors that contribute to human cancer risk. While it is clear that mutations in DNA, either spontaneous or environmentally induced, are essential for cancer development, recent advances have highlighted the importance of non-mutagenic factors as rate-limiting determinants of cancer risk in human populations and in mouse cancer models. The root causes of human cancer have been widely debated, but most of the emphasis has been on the origins of the “driver” mutations that are ubiquitous in human tumours. Although epidemiology studies have highlighted the possible roles of lifestyle factors such as obesity, alcohol consumption and poor diet in cancer risk, it has generally been assumed that these act directly or indirectly to cause mutations in DNA, thus contributing to tumour mutational burden resulting in increased cancer risk. In contrast, recent sequencing studies have uncovered abundant mutations in normal human tissues, suggesting that even strong cancer driver mutations are not sufficient for cancer formation. These results were presaged by studies of mouse tumour models, some carried out more than 70 years ago, showing that promotion is the rate-limiting step in tumour development.
The promoter hypothesis postulates that cells that acquire mutations through exposure to exogenous or endogenous mutagenic factors accumulate cancer-driving mutations while maintaining normal tissue homeostasis. After exposure to a ‘promoting’ stimulus, such as chronic wounding, these ‘initiated’ cells, through an unknown mechanism, gain a selective advantage allowing them to undergo clonal expansion and progress to malignancy.
This 41st edition of Biomed conference will provide an interdisciplinary forum for researchers interested in the principles of cancer promotion and in their implications for understanding tumor initiation and informed prevention. The conference will also showcase novel technologies to study clonal expansion in human normal tissues, promotion studies in organoids and model systems, and functional screens to reveal the mechanisms of promotion.
Topics
• Epidemiology, risk factors and cancer prevention
• Molecular mechanisms of cancer promotion
• Clonal expansions in normal tissues
• Modeling cancer promotion and prevention in organoids and model systems
Presentation
Conference organizers
Dr. Núria López-Bigas
IRB Barcelona/ICREA
Barcelona, Spain
Dr. Allan Balmain
San Francisco,
CA, USA
Dr. Paul Brennan
IARC
Lyon, France
There is no registration fee for this conference, but the number of participants is limited, with a number of seats saved for IRB Barcelona alumni. Previous registration is required.
Priority will be given to those who submit the highest quality abstracts for short talks or posters and the order of registration will be considered.
Abstracts should include a title, authors, affiliations, summary (max 250 words) and references
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 15 APRIL, 2024
(Note: Any issue about the registration or abstract, please contact: meritxell.gavalda@irbbarcelona.org)
Programme
Monday, 3 June
8.30 Registration
9.00 Welcome by Dr. Francesc Posas (IRB Barcelona, Director)
and organizers (Dr. Núria López-Bigas, Dr. Allan Balmain, Dr. Paul Brennan)
Session I: Epidemiology, risk factors and cancer prevention
Chair: Dr. James DeGregori, University of Colorado (Denver, CO, USA)
Co-Chair: Raquel Blanco, IRB Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
9.15 Tracing the origins and evolution of cancers induced by environmental carcinogens
Dr. Allan Balmain, UCSF (San Francisco, CA, USA)
9.50 The Promoter Hypothesis: A Long View from the History and Philosophy of Science
Dr. Anya Plutynski, Washington University (St. Louis, MO, USA)
10.25 Short talk 1: Obesity, diabetes, and pancreatic cancer: revisiting epidemiological causality
Dr. Núria Malats, CNIO (Madrid, Spain)
10.40-11.15 Coffee break and poster session
11.15 Can we identify ubiquitous causes of cancer?
Dr. George Davey-Smith, Bristol University (Bristol, UK)
11.50 Short talk 2: Dissecting the contribution of circulating proteins to multiple myeloma risk: a Mendelian randomization study
Dr. Lucy J. Goudswaard, University of Bristol (Bristol, UK)
12.05 Short talk 3: Early-life tobacco smoke exposure is associated with off-target RAG-mediated deletions in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Dr. Adam J. de Smith, USC (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
12.20 The mutagenic and promotional effect of known and suspected risk factors across multiple cancer sites – Emerging results from Mutographs
Dr. Paul Brennan, IARC (Lyon, France)
12.55-14.00 Lunch and poster session
Session II: Clonal expansions in normal tissues
Chair: Dr. Dan Landau, NY Genome Center (New York, NY, USA)
Co-Chair: Saumya Bollam, UCSF (San Francisco, CA, USA)
14.00 Somatic mutations, clonal expansions, and cancer risk
Dr. Rosana Risques, UW Medicine (Seattle, WA, USA)
14.35 Comparative two-stage chemical carcinogenesis in the skin: from mouse, to naked mole-rat and Ansell’s mole-rat
Dr. Angela Goncalves, DKFZ (Heidelberg, Germany)
15.10 Positive selection and mutation dynamics in normal reproductive tissue
Dr. Raheleh Rahbari, Wellcome Sanger Institute (Hinxton, UK)
15.45-16.15 Coffee break and poster session
16.15 Short talk 4: Timing the origin, early diversification and evolution of Richter transformation in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Ian Márquez-López, FRCB-IDIBAPS (Barcelona, Spain)
16.30 Short talk 5: Quantitative genetic and epigenetic lineage tracing of blood in the decades preceding AML diagnosis
Dr. Jamie Blundell, Early Cancer Institute, University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK)
16.45 Clonal selection in normal tissues shaped by cancer promoters
Dr. Núria López-Bigas, IRB Barcelona/ ICREA (Barcelona, Spain)
17.20 End of session
Tuesday, 4 June
Session III: Clonal hematopoiesis
Chair: Dr. Rosana Risques, UW Medicine (Seattle, WA, USA)
Co-Chair: Dr. Santiago Demajo, IRB Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
9.00 Inherited and environmental modifiers of clonal hematopoiesis fitness
Dr. Kelly Bolton, Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO, USA)
9.35 Stem cell memories as drivers of cancer heterogeneity
Dr. Alejo Rodriguez-Fraticelli, IRB Barcelona/ ICREA (Barcelona, Spain)
10.10-10.40 Coffee break and poster session
10.40 Somatic evolution of blood during ageing and disease
Dr. Jyoti Nangalia, Wellcome Sanger Institute (Hinxton, UK)
11.15 Short talk 6: Studying PIK3CA cancer-associated mutations in congenital disorders
Dr. Mariona Graupera, Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (Barcelona, Spain)
11.30 Short talk 7: Investigating clonal haematopoiesis using a novel single cell multi-omic approach
Dr. Laura Mincarelli, Wellcome Sanger Institute (Hinxton, UK)
11.45 Tumor-infiltrating clonal hematopoiesis in non-small cell lung cancer
Dr. Elsa Bernard, Gustave Roussy (Villejuif, France)
12.20-13.20 Lunch and poster session
Session IV: Molecular mechanisms of cancer promotion
Chair: Dr. Kamila Naxerova, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, USA)
Co-Chair: Dr. Rocio Chamorro, IRB Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
13.20 Environmental challenge rewires functional connections among human genes
Dr. Luke Gilbert, Arc Institute (San Francisco, CA, USA)
13.55 Mapping phenotypes and lineage history in human somatic evolution with single-cell multi-omics
Dr. Dan Landau, NY Genome Center (New York, NY, USA)
14.30 Short talk 8: Understanding the causes of head and neck cancer using mutational signature analysis
Dr. Laura Torrens, IARC/WHO (Lyon, France)
14.45 Epigenetic co-option of epithelial-immune crosstalk promotes pancreatic tumorigenesis
Dr. Direna Alonso-Curbelo, IRB Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
15.20-16.00 Coffee break and poster session
16.00 Somatic evolution of the hematopoietic system in health and disease
Dr. Kamila Naxerova, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, USA)
16.35 Short talk 9: Uncovering Global Exogenous Mutagenic Exposures
Dr. Aida Ferreiro-Iglesias, IARC/WHO (Lyon, France)
16.50 The neuronal RNA-binding protein is a master regulator of the tumor microenvironment that promotes malignant progression and immune evasion
Dr. Douglas Hanahan, EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland)
17.25 Exploring evolutionary contingencies and constraints by rewinding the tape of malignant transformation
Dr. Samra Turajlic, The Francis Crick Institute (London, UK)
18.00 End of session
20.30 Speakers dinner (Restaurant Can Pineda) (Sant Joan de Malta, 55)
Wednesday, 5 June
9.00 Major late-acting determinants of human cancer: endocrine treatments, and smoking cessation
Keynote: Prof. Sir. Richard Peto, University of Oxford (Oxford, UK)
Chair: Dr. Paul Brennan, IARC (Lyon, France)
Session V: Modeling cancer promotion and prevention in organoids and model Systems
Chair: Dr. Allan Balmain, UCSF (San Francisco, CA, USA)
Co-Chair: Maria Guarini, IRB Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
9.35 Short talk 10: Species-specific role of RAS in Malignant Transformation
Dr. Nikhil Gupta, UTU (Turku, Finland)
9.50 Short talk 11: A robust ex vivo system to study cellular dynamics and development of human pulmonary NE cells
Noah Candeli, EMBL (Barcelona, Spain)
10.05 Metabolic disorders promote oncogenic mutant expansion in normal
oesophagus
Dr. Phil Jones, Wellcome Sanger Institute (Hinxton, UK)
10.40-11.20 Coffee break and poster session
11.20 Somatic Evolution, Cancer, and Our Inevitable Decline with Age-Inextricably Linked
Dr. James DeGregori, University of Colorado (Denver, CO, USA)
11.55 Short talk 12: Estimating mutation risks conferred by mutational processes in cancer genomes
Dr. Axel Rosendahl Huber, IRB Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
12.10 Short talk 13: Somatic evolution and treatment mutagenesis
Dr. Oriol Pich, The Francis Crick Institute (London, UK)
12.25 Organoid models of the tumor immune microenvironment
Dr. Calvin Kuo, Stanford University School of Medicine (Stanford, CA, USA)
13.00 Concluding remarks and end of conference
Venue
The BARCELONA BIOMED CONFERENCE CANCER PROMOTION: understanding cancer promotion to inform prevention will be placed at the Casa Convalescència in the heart of Barcelona. Talks will take place in the Aula Magna.
Casa Convalescència
C/ Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 171
08041 Barcelona
Tel +34 934 335 000
www.uab-casaconvalescencia.org
How to reach the Casa Convalescència:
Underground
Yellow line (L4) - GUINARDÓ – HOSPITAL DE SANT PAU station
Blue line (L5) - SANT PAU – DOS DE MAIG station
By bus
Lines: 15, 19, 20, 45, 47, 50, 51, 92 and 192.
For the GPS
Introduce the following coordinates:
Latitude: 41.413702 (41° 24' 49.33'' N)
Longitude: 2.177482 (2° 10' 38.94'' E)
From the airport
* Train + Underground. At the RENFE station, take the train to Sants-Estació. Once there take the Underground's blue line (L5) till SANT PAU – DOS DE MAIG station.
* Bus + Underground. Outside the airport terminal, take the AEROBUS to Plaça Catalunya. Walk one corner till Plaça Urquinaona and take the Underground's yellow line (L4) to GUINARDÓ – HOSPITAL DE SANT PAU station.
Barcelona Metropolitan Transport webiste (with metro and bus maps)
Accomodation
Speakers will be lodged at the Hotel Catalonia Sagrada Familia
Aragó 577- 579
08026, Barcelona
Telephone: +34 93 245 89 05
www.cataloniahotels.com/en/
Other hotels
A list of additional hotels within walking distance of the Casa Convalescència can be found at: https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/hotels/hotelmaps/eixample-right-barcelona-hotel.html
(The Casa Convalescència is located near the violet point 27/3 star). Rates will vary depending on choice of hotel and season. Please check with the hotel of your choice directly for the best offer.
Residences
Another possibility is the Lesseps Residence Hall, and is available for short-term stays.
Lesseps Residence Hall
Plaza Lesseps, 12 08023 Barcelona
View on map
Telephone: +34 933 941 600
e-mail: lesseps@resa.es
www.resa.es/en/city/barcelona
Participants registered for events in the Barcelona BioMed series should contact the hotels and residences directly to arrange bookings and payment.
Speakers
Dr. Direna Alonso-Curbelo
IRB Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
Dr. Elsa Bernard
Gustave Roussy (Villejuif, France)
Dr. Kelly Bolton
Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO, USA)
Dr. George Davey-Smith
Bristol University (Bristol, UK)
Dr. James DeGregori University of Colorado (Denver, CO, USA)
Dr. Luke Gilbert
Arc Institute (San Francisco, CA, USA)
Dr. Angela Goncalves
DKFZ (Heidelberg, Germany)
Dr. Douglas Hanahan
EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland)
Dr. Phil Jones Wellcome Sanger Institute (Hinxton, UK)
Dr. Calvin Kuo
Stanford University School of Medicine (Stanford, CA, USA)
Dr. Dan Landau NY Genome Center (New York, NY, USA)
Dr. Jyoti Nangalia
Wellcome Sanger Institute (Hinxton, UK)
Dr. Kamila Naxerova
Harvard University (CA, MA, USA)
Dr. Richard Peto
University of Oxford (Oxford, UK)
Dr. Anya Plutynski
Washington University (St. Louis, MO, USA)
Dr. Raheleh Rahbari
Wellcome Sanger Institute (Hinxton, UK)
Dr. Rosana Risques
UW Medicine (Seattle, WA, USA)
Dr. Alejo Rodriguez-Fraticelli
IRB Barcelona/ ICREA (Barcelona, Spain)
Dr. Samra Turajlic
The Francis Crick Institute (London, UK)
Poster
