Centre for Research on Biomolecular Interactions presents Assist. Prof. Andrew A. Beharry, Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga

Talk Title: "Molecular Probes for Cancer Biology"

Abstract:

Standard care for cancer therapy is highly dependent on the cancer type and patient. As a consequence, only marginal improvements (if any) in patient survival rates are observed. Undetected/unremoved cancer during surgery and resistance to treatments such as chemo and radiation therapy, are major causes for poor prognosis. To tackle these issues, research in my lab will focus on developing small molecule fluorescent chemosensors as cancer diagnostic tools that can be used to assess anticancer drug resistance and for the discovery of inhibitors to knockdown resistant pathways. The design and characterization of chemosensors targeting DNA repair enzymes will be discussed, along with future plans for sensing the enzyme class, methyltransferases.  We are also interested in developing next-generation probes for photodynamic therapy (PDT). Our probes will enable real-time fluorescence imaging and can function as a guide for PDT, which in turn will permit combining PDT with fluorescence-guided surgery to overall improve patient prognosis.

Please join us,

Refreshments will be served.