Deciphering How p53 Governs Cell State Transitions in Cancer and Tissue Regeneration
Event Details
- Type
- Friday Lecture Series
- Speaker(s)
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Laura D. Attardi, Ph.D., FAACR, Catharine and Howard Avery Professor of the School of Medicine, departments of radiation oncology and genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine
- Speaker bio(s)
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The TP53 gene, encoding the p53 transcription factor, is mutated in over half of all human cancers, but how it acts mechanistically to suppress cancer remains incompletely understood. Using mice expressing p53 transcriptional mutants, the Attardi Lab has aimed to deconstruct the transcriptional programs through which p53 suppresses lung and pancreatic cancer in vivo. The lab's work suggests that p53 limits carcinogenesis by promoting specific differentiation programs, a role that reflects a normal function of p53 in regeneration after tissue damage. Understanding the basic biology of p53 is critical for ultimately targeting this pathway in the clinic, a goal that has been elusive.
Laura D. Attardi received her B.A. from Cornell University and her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where she worked with Professor Robert Tjian. Dr. Attardi did her postdoctoral training with Professor Tyler Jacks at the MIT Center for Cancer Research. In 2000, Dr. Attardi joined the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She was promoted to Professor in 2014 and became the Catharine and Howard Avery Professor of the School of Medicine in 2021. Her research program has focused for many years on understanding the pathways through which the p53 transcription factor acts in vivo, ranging from beneficial effects in suppression of lung and pancreatic cancers to pathological phenotypes associated with developmental syndromes or side effects of cancer therapies. She has been a recipient of a Damon Runyon Scholar Award, an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant, and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar Award. She was named an AAAS fellow in 2007, an NIH/NCI Outstanding Investigator in 2015 and again in 2022 and elected as a Fellow of the AACR Academy in 2024. Dr. Attardi also serves as co-director of the Stanford University Cancer Biology Ph.D. program, co-leader of the Stanford Cancer Institute Cancer Biology and Cancer Stem Cell program, and a co-director of the Stanford Pancreas Cancer Research Group. She is co-editor of the Annual Reviews of Cancer Biology.
- Open to
- Tri-Institutional