The TED (Technology Entertainment Design) conferences have been held annually for almost two decades. It draws together innovators in a broad spectrum of disciplines. With invited speakers ranging from Harvard's Edward O. Wilson to business leaders like Microsoft's Bill Gates, the lectures cover a panoply of interesting topics.
Dr. Robert Nagourney was invited to present at the TEDxSoCal conference held in Long Beach, CA on July 16th. His interest was to engage this group in a discussion of cancer biology with the focus on biochemistry and metabolism. His lecture was timely in the context of the New York Times article on the failures of genomics platforms for cancer treatment.
Over the past year, there has been a growing recognition that genomic analyses are not providing the therapeutic insights that patients so desperately need. The Duke University lung cancer gene program, which received much attention, is emblematic of the hubris associated with contemporary genomic analytic platforms.
Dr. Nagourney has reviewed the contemporary experience in clinical trials, examined the potential pitfalls of gene-based analysis, and described the brilliant work conducted by biochemists and cell biologists, like Hans Krebs and Otto Warburg, who published their seminal observations decades before the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.
He described insights gained using the cell-based funtional profiling analytic platform, that lead to treatments used today around the world, all of which were initially discovered using cell-based studies. More interesting still will be the opportunity to use these platforms to explore the next generation of cancer therapies – those treatments that influence the cell at its most fundamental level – its metabolism.
http://www.guidetocancertreatment.com/
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAGhNhrHMJs