Rabinowitz, Princeton Faculty Members Present at Cancer Symposium

Joshua Rabinowitz, a professor in the Department of Chemistry, and additional Princeton University faculty members will present at the inaugural Rutgers Cancer Institute-Princeton University Annual Cancer Research Symposium this Friday, Nov. 20.

The one-day virtual event is co-hosted and co-organized by Princeton in concert with the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (RCINJ). The symposium will feature faculty presentations, trainee talks, and poster flash presentations in the interest of facilitating collaborations between the two institutions. Breakout sessions will focus on cancer genomics; cancer metabolism and the tumor microenvironment; and understanding and addressing the cancer burden in the population. 

All members of the University community are welcome to attend, although a Princeton or Rutgers email is needed to pre-register. Pre-registration is required.

Rabinowitz, also a professor in the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and a longtime member of RCINJ, will open the symposium at 10 a.m. with his presentation on “Diet, Metabolism and Cancer Therapy.” He will chair the session on Cancer Metabolism, running from 10 to 11:20 a.m. Rabinowitz is a leader in the field of metabolomics and metabolic flux analysis using isotope tracers. 

Princeton’s Olga Troyanskaya, professor of computer science and Lewis-Sigler, will speak on “Decoding the Genome – Regulatory Mutations in Cancer.” Yibin Kang, the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology, will speak on “Therapeutic Targeting of MTDH in Metastatic Breast Cancer.” And Heather Howard, Lecturer in Public Affairs and Director, State Health and Value Strategies at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, will speak on “COVID-19 and Missed Screenings: Policy Levers to Expand Access to Cancer Prevention.” 

Several Princeton faculty, students, and postdocs will also participate in the session talks (10 minutes each) and the poster flash talks (two minutes each).

Kang, associate director of consortium research at RCINJ, said the symposium has grown in part out of Princeton’s proud history of cancer research, from the development of the cancer-fighting drug Alimta by Edward C. Taylor, the late A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Organic Chemistry, Emeritus, to more recent breakthroughs in cancer metabolism and metastasis research. 

“The relationship between RCINJ and Princeton University creates mutual benefit and strong synergy by combining Princeton’s outstanding cancer-focused basic and computational science with RCINJ’s strength and unique resource in clinical and translational cancer research,” said Kang. “Symposia like this generate new opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration in order to accelerate research advances and therapeutic development.”

For more information, the symposium agenda, and registration, please visit the event website: https://www.cinj.org/education/rutgers-cancer-institute-princeton-university-annual-cancer-research-symposium