2^nd International Conference on Pancreatic Disorders and Treatment(10 Plenary Forums - 1Event) September 13-14, 2017 Dallas, Texas, USA

Dr. David A. Boothman is Professor of Pharmacology and Radiation Oncology. Dr. Boothman is a senior leader in the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, serving as Associate Director for Translational Research and co-Director of Experimental Therapeutics. He developed the Laboratory Correlates Group (LCG) and Biomedical Research Core (BRC) infrastructure with Dr. David Gerber. Dr. Boothman works closely with all ET Program themes to promote preclinical and clinical translation. He aids in the development of infrastructure needed for standardized pharmacodynamic (PD) lab correlates. Dr. Boothman also co-leads (with Dr. Jinming Gao) a Cancer Nanomedicine Group within the SCCC. He has been funded by the NIH for the past 27 years, is elective representative for FASEB for the Society of Experimental Biology, and is currently a permanent member of the Radiation Therapy and Biology (RTB) NIH study section. His current research projects include: (a) Use of NQO1 bioactivatable drugs for therapy of human solid NQO1+ cancers; (b) Use of NQO1 bioactivatable drugs to promote the tumor-selective use of DNA repair inhibitors, such as PARP inhibitors; and (c) Elucidating the roles of RNA termination factors for R-loop resolution, DSB repair defects, genetic instability and cancer vulnerabilities. His lab is currently funded by the NIH (2), two grants from the AACR/Pancreatic cancer action network (PanCan) and the Alex Lemonade Society (in collaboration with Drs. Ted Leatsch and James Amatruda).

Dr. David Boothman research interest includes Altered Metabolism in cancer cells, +/-radio- /chemo-therapiesIGF-1 Pathway Regulation, Repair of DNA Double-Strand Breaks and Mismatch lesions, Stress-Inducible and Noncaspase-Mediated Gene Apoptosis, Targeted Cancer Therapeutics, Tumor-specific BER alterations using NQO1 bioactivatable drugs

Dr. Saurabh Chawla did his medical school and surgical residency in New Delhi, India at the University of Delhi, which is recognized as one of the top medical universities in India. After coming to the US, he did his Internal Medicine residency at the famous Cook County Hospital in Chicago, IL where he won numerous awards for academic and clinical excellence. He then went on to become the Chief Medical Resident at Cook County which is one of the largest and the busiest clinical training programs in the country. He stayed on in Chicago to complete his gastroenterology fellowship training at Cook County following which he came to the Emory University School of Medicine for additional training in Interventional Endoscopy. He is currently faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine and the director of interventional endoscopy at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Dr. Chawla is an academic gastroenterologist actively involved in Medical School teaching, resident and fellow training in Gastroenterology and clinical research. He has several original publications including research studies, review articles and book chapters and has presented extensively at various national and international conferences. He is on the editorial board of a gastroenterology journal and committees of various national and regional gastroenterology societies.

His clinical interests include medical education, pancreaticobiliary diseases and malignancies, and inflammatory bowel disease.

Dr. Nicholas Zavazava's work primarily focusses on stem cells. His lab is interested in studying stem cell derived hematopoietic cell and insulin producing cells. Type 1 diabetes is one of the most devastating chronic diseases which costs billions of dollars every year. By establishing a stem cell based source of insulin producing cells, they belive they might be able to treat many patients who would otherwise remain untreatable. Embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells possess an unparalleled characteristic of being pluripotent and therefore able to differentiate into progenitor cells of any cell type. Their laboratory seeks to exploit this property and derive hematopoietic cells and insulin producing cells from human ES and iPS cells. More importantly, they are interested in determining whether these cells are rejected in both the syngeneic and allogenic setting. Using proteomics, they have discovered a “stem cell factor” that is only produced in vivo by the progenitor cells leading to recruitment of NK cells and rejection of the progenitor cells. A second aspect that they are interested in is to coax human iPS cells to differentiate into insulin producing cells for the treatment of diabetes. They are working on how they can convert near 100 % of the iPS cells into Pdx1-expressing cells that further differentiate into insulin producing cells. Pdx1 is a pancreatic transcription factor that regulates pancreatic development. Our goal is to establish iPS cells as a novel source to treat diabetes reducing the management costs of diabetic patients.

Opportunities establishing new therapies using embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells

Khaled Abou-El-Ella is Professor of Hepatopancreatobilliary surgery (HPB), Gastro-Intestinal Surgery and Liver Transplantation. He is the Head of the Surgical Department at the National Liver Institute, Menoufiya University, Egypt. He is the Director of the Liver Transplantation Program in New Alex Medical Center, Alexandria, Egypt. He is the Consultant of gastrointestinal and liver specialized hospital, Alexandria, Egypt. He graduated from Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University in 1984. He obtained his PhD from Ain Shams University, Egypt in 1997 and Surgical and Research Fellowship in the University of Tennessee, Memphis Tennessee, 1994-1996.

Dr. Urrutia is a Professor of Medicine and Biophysics and directs a laboratory that studies Epigenetics and Chromatin Dynamics. Raul Urrutia member of Telethon scientific committeeHis mission is to promulgate the study and application of epigenetics and epigenomics to medicine, mechanistically and translational. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1987 from the University of Cordoba Medical School in Cordoba, Argentina as a MD. During medical school, he carried out research in the Cell Biology Institute at the University, where he published studies on diet-induced genomic changes during the development of pancreatic cancer. Straight after he joined the National Institutes of Health for 5 years and trained in the fields of cell biology, molecular biophysics, protein chemistry, and recombinant DNA techniques. After joining the Mayo Faculty, in 1992, Dr. Urrutia established the first laboratory dedicated to transcriptional regulation and epigenetics in normal cell populations and in diseases such as diabetes and pancreatic cancer. His laboratory has discovered diabetes-causing genes such as KLF11, which causes juvenile and neonatal diabetes as well as KLF14 for the insulin resistance metabolic syndrome. Dr. Urrutia’s laboratory has made fundamental contributions by identifying members and helping to put together the family of KLF proteins, which are critical regulators of biology and pathobiology. In the area of chromatin and epigenetics, the Urrutia laboratory discovered new HDAC, HATs, and HMTs, epigenetic pathways. All of these complexes associate with the development of cancer and are currently being explored as an extremely promising area in experimental therapeutics.

His research interest includes Molecular Mechanisms of Pancreatic Morphogenesis and Cancer, Zinc Finger Transcription Factors, Transcriptional Repression, Modular Structure of Transcription Factor Proteins

Dr. Paresh Dandona is an endocrinologist in Buffalo, New York and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Buffalo General Medical Center and Erie County Medical Center. He received his medical degree from All India Institute of Medical Sciences and has been in practice for more than 20 years. Dr. Dandona accepts several types of health insurance, listed below. He is one of 2 doctors at Buffalo General Medical Center and one of 6 at Erie County Medical Center who specialize in Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism. He also speaks multiple languages, including Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.

Dr. Tang received a B.S. in Biophysics from Fudan University, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Pennsylvania State University. She completed her postdoctoral training supported by two postdoctoral fellowships, (1) NIH Postdoctoral fellowship and (2) Leukemia and Lymphomia Society (LSA) Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley. Dr. Amy Tang is a Professor of Cancer Biology at Eastern Virginia Medical School. She is a lead pancreatic cancer researcher and a recipient of the highly prestigeous national cancer award – 2010 AACR-PanCAN Innovative Award. Dr. Tang and her research team have developed an innovative strategy and therapy-responsive prognostic biomarkers to control and eradiacte oncogenic K-RAS-driven pancreatic cancer in preclinical and clinical settings. She has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals, and secured NIH/DOD/AACR-Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Innovative Grant/Lustgarden Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. Dr. Tang has served as reviewers at multiple NIH study sections for more than 10 years, and she has served the editorial advisory board member and reviewers at numerous scientific journals.

Research interest includes: Tumor Biology and Cancer Metastasis Advanced Cell Biology Developmental Biology Molecular Genetics Tumor Immunology

Dr. Hosein Shokouh-Amiri is a Transplant and General Surgeon with special interest in Hepato- Pancreato-Biliary Surgery. He received his Medical Degree from Pahlavi University Medical School in Shiraz, Iran in 1976. He started his surgical training in Iran, but moved to Denmark in 1980, where I finished my general surgery residency, and subspecialty in gastrointestinal and transplant surgery. During my 13 year stay in Denmark, he established the second liver transplant program there and became the first vice president of Denmark's transplant society before moving to the USA in 1992 to continue my career in transplantation at University of Tennessee.

Dr. Hosein Shokouh-Amiri areas of expertise are in Transplantation with special interest in pancreas, liver and kidney. His other interest and expertise is in the management of hepato-pancreato-biliary pathology, including benign and malignant liver tumors, benign and malignant pancreas tumors and complications of laparoscopic surgery.

Shailesh Kumar completed MBBS from Gauhati University, Assam, India and basic specialist training in Internal Medicine and Advanced Training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology from Singapore. He is also Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London and Glasgow. He is trained in Advanced Interventional Endosocpy from Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands. He is currently Head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Belhoul Speciality Hospital, Dubai, UAE.

Pamela Paris, PhD received her undergraduate degree from John Carroll University, where she obtained a degree in chemistry magna cum laude. She was awarded two fellowships, the Sherman Clarke Fellow and Merck Fellow, while conducting her advanced education in biophysical chemistry at the University of Rochester. Upon completion of her PhD, Paris did a post doctoral fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in prostate cancer genetics. She joined the Department of Urology in 2001 as an Associate Researcher, received support from the Prostate Cancer Career Development Program from 2001 to 2003, and was promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Urology in 2009. Dr. Paris received a joint appoint in the Division of Hematology-Oncology in 2010 and was advanced to Professor in 2012

The Paris laboratory conducts translational cancer genomics research. Their overarching goal is to identify drug targets with associated prognostic biomarkers. The primary focus has been prostate cancer. Dr. Paris published a landmark paper demonstrating the use of formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue with array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH). This research advance makes possible clinically significant studies because stored tissue from patients with prostate cancer with extensive follow-up can now be studied. As a co-leader of a UCSF prostate SPORE program project, Paris helped identify a set of DNA based biomarkers (named GEMCaP for Genomic Evaluators of Metastatic Cancer of the Prostate) that may help identify patients at the time of surgical intervention who are at high-risk of recurrence and metastasis, and therefore may assist Urologists in adjuvant therapy decisions. Their current research is aimed at validating these biomarkers with the goal of bringing a predictive tool into the clinic. Up and coming work will involve evaluating GEMCaP’s prognostic ability in the Active Surveillance setting.

Dr. Pradeep Kumar Vaitla has a medical practice at 2500 North State Street, Jackson, MS 39216, United States. Currently, Dr. Pradeep Kumar Vaitla specializes in nephrology in Jackson area and has over 10 years of experience in the field of medicine. He graduated from his medical school with his medical degree in 2007. He is affiliated with numerous hospitals, including University Of Mississippi Med Center (MS) and more.

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Haitao Shen has completed his PhD at the age of 36 years from China Medical University and now he is working as a visiting scholar at the Temple University. He is the Medical Doctor of Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University. He has published more than 10 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an group menbers in Emergency branch of Chinese medical association.

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Jose R Torrealba has completed his MD in 1994 from the Central University of Venezuela. He then did a Post-doctoral fellowship in Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, Wisconsin and obtained his degree in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology from the Univeristy of Wisconsin. He specialized in Immunopathology of Transplantation at the University of Toronto, Canada in 2005. He held a job as Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Wisconsin until 2010 and currently is the Dr. George and Anne Race Distinguished Professor of Pathology at the Department of Pathology, UTSW Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.

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