The rockefeller university

Stopping Cancer in Its Tracks: Fighting Cancer Metastasis

Featuring Sohail Tavazoie, M.D., Ph.D.

Speaker

Sohail Tavazoie, M.D., Ph.D.

Leon Hess Professor
Elizabeth and Vincent Meyer Laboratory of Systems Cancer Biology
Senior Attending Physician
The Rockefeller University

Dr. Sohail Tavazoie is the Leon Hess Professor at The Rockefeller University, where he heads the Elizabeth and Vincent Meyer Laboratory of Systems Cancer Biology. He is also the director of Rockefeller’s Black Family Center for Research on Human Cancer Metastasis and an attending medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Tavazoie received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard Medical School. Following internship and residency training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and postdoctoral research at Harvard, he completed an oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Dr. Tavazoie has been the recipient of the NIH Innovator Award, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize, the NCI Outstanding Investigator Award, and the DOD Era of Hope Award. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the past president of the American Society of Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Tavazoie’s research group studies the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer metastasis, and they apply their insights towards the development of novel experimental therapeutics that target the biology of metastatic disease.

Stopping Cancer in Its Tracks: Fighting Cancer Metastasis

One of the most important strategies in the fight against cancer is learning how to stop cancer cells in their tracks. Most cancer-related deaths result from metastasis, a process that enables malignant cells to leave their original site in the body and seed new tumors, potentially wreaking havoc in distant organs. Rockefeller University physician-scientist Sohail Tavazoie is a leader in the study of metastasis. On January 11, at Talking Science, Dr. Tavazoie will discuss some of his laboratory’s recent discoveries about genetic mechanisms that enable cancer cells to invade tissues, evade immune defenses, and overcome other challenges to their survival. He will also talk about his efforts to develop targeted new cancer drugs that can block metastasis—including promising candidate therapies that are the focus of ongoing clinical trials in cancer patients.

Moderator

Jeanne Garbarino, Ph.D.

Executive Director
RockEDU Science Outreach
The Rockefeller University