Title: 'Harnessing chromosomal instability to inform cancer therapy' .

TOPICS COVERED

Chromosomal instability (CIN) results in numerical and structural DNA changes across the genome and has been established as a major driver of the deadliest cancers. These difficult-to-treat tumours exhibit increased intratumoral heterogeneity limiting the efficacy of the state-of-the-art gene-based precision oncology. We have pioneered a computational framework that allows us to comprehensively evaluate the origin and extent of CIN in tumours via mutational signatures and demonstrated their ability to predict resistance to common chemotherapies in primary and metastatic tumours across different cancer types. Extending this approach to the single-cell level, we are now dissecting the mutational processes that shape tumour evolution, enabling us to anticipate future driver alterations before they emerge.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

• PhD students and postdoctoral researchers
• Academic researchers
• Clinical scientists / oncologists
• Master’s students in biomedical sciences, especially those specialising in oncology or genetics.
• Advanced medical students (e.g., intercalated degrees or oncology-focused tracks).
• Members with an interest in cancer biology and genetics.

SPEAKER

Bárbara Hernando, PhD, is a La Caixa Junior Postdoctoral Leader in the Computational Oncology Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO). Her research focuses on uncovering the mutational processes that shape tumour evolution and therapy resistance, with a particular emphasis on cancers driven by chromosomal instability. Trained in biotechnology and biomedical science, she completed a mixed wet-dry PhD at Jaume I University (Spain) before fully transitioning to computational cancer genomics during her first postdoctoral period in the Cancer Genome Evolution Research Group at the UCL Cancer Institute (UK). She then joined Dr Geoff Macintyre’s lab at CNIO to extend the implementation of precision medicine to tumours with chromosomal instability. She is currently a Visitor Research Scientist in Dr Sarah Aitken’s lab at Yale School of Medicine, Department of Pathology.

For more information, please contact: [email protected].