Dr. Yuka Imamura and the stem cell program are hosting Ms. Theresa Beech, a space engineer and a patient advocate, who had applied her professional knowledge to find an effective chemotherapeutic drug against osteosarcoma and to prolong life of her son Daniel battling this devastating disease.
Her lecture “Applying Space Engineering Techniques to Osteosarcoma Genomics” will take place on Monday, February 18, 2019 in Lecture Room D (C7619) from 11:30am-12:30pm. Lunch will be provided at 11:15am.
Ms. Theresa Beech has 20 years of experience as a space engineer designing satellite mission ground systems. She has been responsible for the ground system design and development of almost twenty satellite systems including multiple NASA missions, NOAA’s GOES-R weather spacecraft, Landsat-9, several US Air Force missions, and more than half a dozen commercial satellite ground systems around the world.
When her son Daniel was dying from osteosarcoma, Theresa taught herself cell biology and cancer genomics in order to try to save his life. With genomic and medical history data received from other parents and osteo patients, she built IRB-approved POWR, the Parent-patient Osteosarcoma genome-Wide Registry, which today has data for over 150 osteosarcoma tumors. Applying systems engineering and statistical methods techniques used widely in space engineering, Beech identified the gene inactivated in at least 90% of osteosarcoma patients (TP53), 7 statistically significant and biologically relevant subtypes which correlate to disease progression, response to therapy, and outcome. Using satellite communications network traffic analysis applied to an osteosarcoma cell, she identified a potential vulnerability in the cell which is being tested by researchers at NCI. Daniel died on August 28, 2016, but Beech continues to follow her son’s request to “Look for the light” for other osteosarcoma patients and families.
Please join Theresa Beech’s lecture to hear about her journey and the approaches she used to identify genomic alterations associated with osteosarcoma.
Sincerely,
Dr. Yuka Imamura
Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dr. Irina Elcheva
Assistant Professor of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology