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The 6th Minnesota Neuro-Oncology Symposium

Scientific Program

Monday, May 23, 2022

6th Minnesota Neuro-Oncology Symposium

Scientific Program

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Kevin Eliceiri received his undergraduate and graduate training in Microbiology and Biotechnology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He worked in Professor John White's laboratory developing imaging approaches for the model nematode C. elegans. He received further post-graduate training at the National Integrated Microscopy Resource (Madison, Wisconsin) in the area of computer science and microscopy. Since 2000 he has lead investigator of the Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation (LOCI) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is currently Associate Professor of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering and a Principal Investigator in the Center for Quantitative Cell Imaging at the University of Wisconsin in Madison Graduate School. His current research focuses on the development of novel optical imaging methods for investigating cell signalling and cancer progression, and the development of software for multidimensional image analysis.

Lab Website: https://eliceirilab.org/

We study the tumor microenvironment in brain and breast cancers.

To do this, we combine in vivo imaging methodology with in vitro tissue engineered models to examine the role of interstitial fluid flow and the cellular components of the microenvironment in cancer progression and treatment. We use patient-derived cells to create personalized models of disease and use these systems to test hypotheses related to fluid and tissue transport in tumors and the brain and to identify new drug targets and treatment approaches. In vitro, we combine tissue engineered cell culture systems with microfluidic devices to analyze cellular behavior in the tumor and surrounding tissue using flow cytometry and microscopy. In vivo, we employ a host of imaging methods and disease models to parameterize our systems and validate our measurements.

Our goal is to find new targets in the tumor microenvironment and to examine cancer and disease in the proper context to properly study outcomes such as tumor invasion, response to chemotherapy, and immunity.

Lab Website: https://www.munsonlab.com/jenny

John H. Rossmeisl is the Dr. and Mrs. Dorsey Taylor Mahin Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Director of the Animal Cancer Care and Research Center at Virginia Tech. He received the DVM degree from the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine, an MS in molecular biology from Virginia Tech, and is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in the specialties of small animal internal medicine and neurology. He also holds joint appointments in the Brain Tumor Center of Excellence at the Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Virginia TechWake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering.

Dr. Rossmeisl has worked for more than 20 years on elucidating the mechanisms that initiate and drive the formation of canine brain tumors, developing novel systems for the delivery of therapeutic agents to the brain and minimally invasive neurosurgical techniques, and the design and conduct of clinical trials in companion animals with central nervous system cancers leading to the publication of more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Brain Tumor Association, American Kennel Club, and numerous private foundations. He serves on several national research advisory boards, including the National Cancer Institute’s Comparative Brain Tumor Consortium Steering Committee, and is a past-president of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine specialty of neurology.

Lab Website: https://vetmed.vt.edu/research/labs/faculty-labs/rossmeisl-lab.html

Dr. Phillips is a graduate of the GKT School of Medical Education at King's College London, where he obtained both MD and PhD degrees. He then completed his internship at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a residency in neurology at MGH/Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and a fellowship in neuro-oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Board certified in neurology and neuro-oncology, Dr. Phillip's clinical and research interests are in primary brain tumors, with a particular focus on malignant glioma. His laboratory investigations have included examinations of the ways in which epigenetic mechanisms drive glioma and work to characterize novel therapeutic approaches for glioma.

Dr. Phillips is deeply committed to advancing laboratory discoveries to improve outcomes for brain tumor patients, particularly young adults between the ages of 18 and 40 years of age.

Lab Website: https://www.thephillipslab.com/

Dr. Gasper Kitange is an Associate Professor at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota. Dr. Kitange joined Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for post-doctoral training soon after he received Ph.D. degree in Japan. While at Mayo Clinic he moved up his career ladder to become Associate Consultant and Associate Professor.

Dr. Kitange’s research interest is focused on understanding the epigenetic regulation of therapy resistance in glioblastoma (GBM), identifying novel molecular targets modulating therapy sensitivity, and develop these targets for therapy in GBM. Dr. Kitange has over 15-year experience in brain tumor research with focus on GBM. He uses high throughput genome wide screening as strategy to identify novel molecular targets for therapy as single agents or for sensitizing the current therapy used for treatment of GBM patients, including radiation and temozolomide. These novel molecular drug targets are validated using biochemical and pharmacologic techniques in vitro and in vivo using patient derived GBM xenografts.

Overall, Dr. Kitange has strong expertise in multiple areas of brain tumor research and his current focus is on understanding the epigenetic and non-epigenetic mechanisms that influence the evolution of therapy resistance in GBM and leveraging the results to discovery of novel anticancer agents. Dr. Kitange is NIH funded investigator studying how epigenetic regulates DNA repair genes to enhance recovery from DNA double strand breaks induced by temozolomide. 

Website: https://www.hi.umn.edu/portfolio-items/gasper-julius-kitange-md-ph-d/

Margaret Wrensch, PhD, Professor and Lewis Chair of Brain Tumor Research, Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco (2004-present; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics 1985-2004). In 1991, I began a population-based case-control epidemiologic study of adult glioma in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Over the past 30 years, along with NCI and donor funding and many colleagues, we developed a data and specimen resource for ongoing studies of glioma etiology and prognosis.  Our UCSF glioma epidemiology research group (co-led by Dr. John Wiencke) has collaborated extensively in international and national glioma brain tumor epidemiology consortia and with Dr. Robert Jenkins and others at the Mayo Clinic.

Research highlights include completing one of the first genome wide association studies of adult glioma (2009), discovering a glioma risk allele that confers a six-fold risk of oligodendroglial tumors and IDH mutated astrocytomas (2012), and defining five molecular groups for adult glioma with distinct pathogenesis and risk based on 1p/19q co-deletion, IDH mutation, and mutations in the TERT promoter (2015). Current studies include: (a) using recently developed techniques for exploring tumor mutagen signatures and lifetime carcinogenic exposures (exposomes) to identify environmental causes of glioma in our and other historic cohorts and (b) collecting longitudinal blood specimens from adult glioma patients, pre-surgery and at other clinically relevant time points to conduct immunomethylomic and other studies.  

I have served as US Co-President of the Brain Tumor Epidemiology Consortium and am currently on the Board of the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States. I received the Society of Neuro-oncology Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.  My current primary interest is to facilitate the collaborations necessary for further progress on understanding causes and outcomes of adult glioma.   

Lab Website: https://braintumorcenter.ucsf.edu/people/margaret-wrensch

Dr. Melissa Bondy is the inaugural chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health and the Associate Director for Population Sciences at the Stanford Cancer Institute. Before joining Stanford, she was Associate Director of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences and section chair of Epidemiology and Population Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine.

Her research focus is in genetic and molecular epidemiology and is at the forefront of developing innovative ways to assess the roles of heredity and genetic susceptibility in the etiology of cancer and outcomes, primarily brain and breast cancer. Currently, she leads the largest family study of glioma patients, as well as a study of molecular predictors of outcome for glioma patients. She has a strong interest in health disparities and has a current study to investigate the ethnic differences in glioma.

She has been working on studying the health effects of exposure to Hurricane Harvey. She serves on the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Board of Scientific Advisors, where she provides direct counsel to the Director of the NCI, and is a member of the External Advisory Board for several NCI-designated cancer centers. In 2018, she received the Visiting Scholar Award from the NCI Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics. 

Lab Website: https://med.stanford.edu/bondylab.html

Dr. Pluhar received her D.V.M. from Oregon State University in 1989. She earned a master of science degree in molecular biology from Northern Illinois University. In 1999, she earned a Ph.D. in veterinary sciences/comparative orthopaedics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests include improving total joint longevity, development of bone graft substitutes, the study of osteoclasts and bone graft incorporation, and the investigation of novel gene and immunotherapies for brain tumors.

Website:  https://vetmed.umn.edu/bio/college-of-veterinary-medicine/liz-pluhar

Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, Dr. Tomoyuki Koga was a postdoctoral researcher at Ludwig Cancer Research in La Jolla, CA. Before that, he was an Assistant Professor of Neuro-Oncology at Saitama Medical University in Saitama, Japan (2011 to 2013); and an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Tokyo in Japan (2007 to 2011).

Website: https://cancer.umn.edu/staff/tomoyuki-koga 

Dr. Sloan’s clinical practice specializes in the treatment of primary brain tumors and brain metastases with radiotherapy. As a physician-scientist, she leads a translational research laboratory within the University of Minnesota Brain Tumor Program (UMBTP), focused on understanding the role of myeloid cells in primary brain tumors. Sloan is particularly interested in the impact of radiotherapy on deleterious peripheral blood myeloid cell populations in glioblastoma. The overall goal of her translational science program is to personalize radiation therapy based on systemic immune biomarkers.

Website: https://med.umn.edu/bio/departmentofradiationoncology/lindsey-sloan 

Dr. Ning received her undergraduate degree in biological science from Central China Normal University, her PhD in microbiology from China’s Wuhan University, and completed a fellowship in neurosurgical research at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Neurology and Experimental Neural Science.

Dr. Ning has made several presentations at professional association meetings and is the first or contributing author of numerous peer-reviewed articles published in professional journals. As a member of the Brain Tumor Research Center of Massachusetts General Hospital team, Dr. Ning contributed to discoveries that could potentially lead to more effective treatments for brain tumor patients.

Website: https://med.umn.edu/bio/neurosurgery-specialties/jianfang-ning

Dr. Dave Odde, is a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Minnesota, who studies the mechanics of cell division and migration. Trained academically as chemical engineer, I joined the newly created Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 1999. Our group builds computer models of cellular and molecular self-assembly and force-generation-dissipation dynamics, and tests the models experimentally using digital microscopic imaging of cells ex vivo and in engineered microenvironments. Current applications include the modeling of chemotherapeutic effects on cell division, molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration, and migration of cancer cells through complex microenvironments such as the brain. Ultimately, our group seeks to use the models to perform virtual screens of potential therapeutic strategies. I’m an elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES).

Carl Flink is an American choreographer, dancer, director and academic based in Minneapolis, MN. He is the founder and artistic director of Black Label Movement, a contemporary dance company based in Minneapolis. He is also the Nadine Jette Sween Professor of Dance and director of the dance program at University of Minnesota. Flink was a member of the Jose Limón Dance Company from 1992 to 1998, among other NYC based dance companies including Creach/Koester Men Dancing, Janis Brenner & Dancers and Nina Winthrop & Dancers. He has been a frequent guest artist with Shapiro & Smith Dance. Flink's work is focused in choreography, theatrical movement direction, contemporary dance and partnering technique, and dance/science collaborations. His work as a dancer, choreographer and director has been featured in the media numerous times. He has been named to the University of Minnesota Theatre Arts & Dance Department Wall of Note and was featured in Dance Magazine in an article entitled "Flying through Space."

Our Patient & Caregiver Program is set as a hybrid event for 2022. 

This event will take place concurrently with our Scientific Program from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Monday, May 23, 2022 at McNamara Alumni Center in the Swain Room. We have a separate designated entrance for this program.

Registration is FREE  and Donations are WELCOME

 Both in-person and virtual attendance registration can be found HERE

In collaboration with:

Assistant Professor, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

Florence John, MD, MPH is a Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Physician (PM&R) providing cancer rehabilitation care as an integral part of our Oncology team. She has been working collaboratively with Oncology to build a robust multidisciplinary cancer rehabilitation program at MHealth. Dr. John serves as the Director of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine's Cancer Program at the University of Minnesota. She is also the Associate Program Director of the Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Residency Program helping to train future PM&R physicians. Dr. John is a graduate of Bangalore University in Karnataka State, India for medical school and completed her PM&R residency at the University of Minnesota where she was Chief Resident. In addition, Dr. John received her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Minnesota. Dr. John’s clinical areas of interest include cancer rehabilitation and neurorehabilitation. Dr. John’s research interests are primarily focused in cancer rehabilitation, general rehabilitation and health disparities. She primarily practices out of the M Health Fairview Masonic Cancer Clinic and the M Health Fairview Cancer Center-Edina.

 Judy Connolly, M.A., M.Div., D.Min., served as a board-certified chaplain at the University of Minnesota Medical Center for 20 years. Alongside her work with adult oncology patients and their families, she conducted many workshops for frontline staff and hospital leaders, eventually undertaking an initiative in 2015 to employ evidence-based interventions to support resilience and wellbeing throughout M Health Fairview. Judy supports patients, families, and staff who are experiencing difficult circumstances to build on their authentic commitments, hopes, and gifts – primarily by noticing how our normal and automatic stress reactions can threaten to obscure them. She continues as a volunteer chaplain with M Health Fairview, using virtual means to provide coaching and workshops from her current home in Houston, TX.

Cancer Legal Line (CLL) formed its board and began meeting at various Caribou Coffee shops around the Twin Cities, forging a vision and laying plans to bring the mission to life. Funding for planning came from the Livestrong Foundation and the Otto Bremer Foundation, and Lindy served as the organization's sole—and volunteer—staff when the figurative doors opened on October 1, 2007. Lindsay moved into the role of Board Chair, providing wise counsel, pep talks, so many ideas, and plenty of elbow grease as CLL weathered the Great Recession.

Transformative change came in April 2011 when CLL received funding from Susan G. Komen Minnesota, enabling both Lindy and Lindsay to leave their other work and become full-time staff attorneys serving Minnesota's breast cancer community with the legal care it needed to be well. This funding not only helped to better serve breast cancer patients, but galvanized other funders and donors to support the work CLL did for the wider cancer community. All of this served to put Cancer Legal Line on the map, attracting more motivated, compassionate, giant-hearted folks to join the board and help spread the message of the tremendous impact getting legal care can have on a cancer patient's well-being. More changes came in May 2017, when Cancer Legal Line became Cancer Legal Care to better reflect the nature and impact of the work.

And those little guys in preschool who got Lindy and Lindsay together all those years ago? They've graduated from college, and we are still the best of friends.

Nadia’s personal meditation practice started in 2017, soon after she received over a 100 hours of meditation teacher-training in different lineages/styles, such as: Loving kindness meditation, mindfulness meditation, Shamatha meditation, and Vipassana meditation. She uses her daily practice to bring mindfulness to her life as a student and a teacher. Nadia believes that meditation should be an accessible tool to manage stress and cultivate emotional well-being.

The 2022 Neuro-Oncology Symposium will be located at the McNamara Alumni Center at 200 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

Directions and Parking: In a typical year, as many as 90,000 people attend events at the McNamara Alumni Center for conferences, wedding receptions, meetings and other special events. This University of Minnesota office building and special event venue is located on the East Bank of the University of Minnesota Minneapolis campus, across from Williams Arena and Huntington Bank Stadium. An adjacent 500-car ramp is connected by tunnel to the Alumni Center. The ramp entrance is on University Ave. Parking is $3.00 per hour with a daily maximum of $13.00. Evening events at the Alumni Center may qualify for event rates of $8.00-$10.00 per car. Once inside the parking ramp, take the East elevator to tunnel B or street level. The Alumni Center is the copper building adjacent to the ramp. 

Submit your abstracts by April 22, 2022:

HERE