We invite you to join us online on Thursday, November 23rd, from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM.

In this webinar series, presented by the Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre at Imperial College London and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, researchers from both institutions will discuss key challenges facing cancer research and the potential of convergence science to tackle them. Join us to discover how innovative approaches and cutting-edge technologies can elucidate unresolved questions in cancer biology, revolutionise cancer research, and bring pioneering treatments to cancer patients faster.

 

Hosted by our Scientific Director, Professor Axel Behrens, this series aims to fulfil the Centre's mission of fostering collaboration between traditionally separate disciplines.

 

We invite you to join us online on Thursday, November 23rd, from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM, for a presentation by:

 

Dr Amanda Foust - Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London

 

"Voltage imaging reveals the dynamic electrical signatures of human breast cancer cells"

 

Although cancer cells feature depolarized resting membrane voltage (Vm) known to factor directly in their pathophysiology, relatively little is known about their Vm dynamics. Our high-throughput, cellular-resolution Vm imaging platform revealed that Vm fluctuates in several breast cancer cell lines compared to non-tumorigenic MCF-10A cells. The Vm of MDA-MB-231 cells exhibited spontaneous, transient hyperpolarizations suppressed by voltage-gated sodium channel and calcium-activated potassium channel inhibitors. The Vm of MCF-10A cells was comparatively static, but fluctuations increased following treatment with transforming growth factor-β1. Our Vm imaging platform provides a high throughput, cellular resolution characterization of heterogeneous cancer cell electrical phenotypes.

 

Amanda Foust leads the Optical Neurophysiology Laboratory and is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London.  She holds a BSci in Computational Neuroscience from Washington State University, and MPhil and PhD degrees in Neuroscience from Yale University.  An expert in neuronal voltage imaging, Amanda recently completed a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship and is an Associate Editor for SPIE Neurophotonics.  The aim of her research programme is to engineer bridges between optical technologies and physiologists to acquire ground-breaking data on how cells communicate electrically. 

 

 &

 

Professor Victoria Sanz-Moreno - Division of Breast Cancer Research, Institute of Cancer Research 

 

"Organelles take centre stage: secretory, nuclear and mitochondrial dynamics in metastatic cancer cells"

 

Abstract TBC

 

Victoria Sanz-Moreno received a degree in chemistry and later in biochemistry (University of Oviedo, Spain) followed by a PhD in chemical sciences studying Ras-MAPK signalling (University of Cantabria). In 2011, Victoria started her independent group and received a CRUK Career Development Fellowship at King's College London to study transcriptional programs driving metastasis. In 2015, she was highly commended as CRUK Communications and Brand Ambassador. In 2017, she was awarded the BSCB Women in Cell Biology Early Career Award Medal and she received a CRUK Senior Fellowship to study the role of Rho kinase in cancer progression and therapy responses.  In September 2023, Victoria’s lab moved to the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research.  Her lab is interested in deciphering how metastatic cancer cells interact with their microenvironment while evading anti-cancer therapies while the ultimate goal is to find anti-metastasis therapies. 

 

Please note: This webinar is exclusively available to colleagues from the Institute of Cancer Research, the Royal Marsden, Imperial and Imperial College Healthcare. Do not forward to colleagues outside of these organisations.