Season 2 – Episode 9: Live from AACR!
In this episode, host Oliver Bogler speaks with NCI fellows live at the American Association for Cancer Researchers (AACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. They share their science, career path, and thoughts on attending the AACR annual meeting.
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Episode Guests
Jazmyn L. Bess, M.S.
Ms. Jazmyn Bess joined DCEG as a postbaccalaureate fellow and iCURE Scholar in the Clinical Genetics Branch (CGB) and the Trans-Divisional Research Program (TDRP) in November 2022. She earned an M.S. in microbiology and cell science from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and a B.S. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Texas, San Antonio.
In CGB, Ms. Bess primarily studies HPV 35 variation in HPV 35-associated cervical cancer and benign infections among women of African ancestry and worldwide, under the mentorship of Lisa Mirabello, Ph.D., M.S., senior investigator. She is also working on a systematic review examining Cardiofaciocutaneous Syndrome and estimated cancer risk under the mentorship of Douglas Stewart, M.D., senior investigator.
In TDRP, she is working on the Connect for Cancer Prevention Study, exploring numerous areas including liquid biopsy pilot efforts, GWAS chip design, and diversity recruitment under the mentorship of Mia M. Gaudet, Ph.D., senior scientist, and Nicolas Wentzensen, M.D., Ph.D., M.S., senior investigator. Ms. Bess is also involved in additional projects including examining disparities in leading causes of death between Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander populations in the U.S., under the mentorship of Jacqueline Vo, Ph.D., R.N., M.P.H, assistant clinical investigator in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch, and Jaimie Z. Shing, Ph.D., M.P.H., postdoctoral fellow in the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch.
Patricia Erickson, M.P.H.
Patricia Erickson, M.P.H., joined the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB) in 2019 as a predoctoral fellow through the NIH Graduate Partnership Program. Ms. Erickson earned her M.P.H in epidemiology from the George Washington University, Washington, DC. As part of her master’s thesis, she worked with Dr. Bríd Ryan (NCI) on a study that examined ethnic and racial differences in the relationship between aspirin use and non-small cell lung cancer risk and survival.
Ms. Erickson is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in epidemiology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and in partnership with DCEG. In OEEB, she is working under the mentorship of Jonathan Hofmann, Ph.D., M.P.H., senior investigator, and Laura Beane Freeman, Ph.D., senior investigator, on projects within the Biomarkers of Exposure and Effect in Agriculture (BEEA) Study and the Agricultural Health Study.
Katrina Jia, B.S.
Katrina Jia is a Postbaccalaureate Fellow in the Oncogenomics Section of the NCI Center for Cancer Research. She graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry from Northeastern University, and is hoping to attend medical school in 2024. She has been passionate about alleviating pain and bringing joy to others, which became prominent through her experiences working in the hospital and volunteering at retirement homes. In the meantime, she is eager to further develop my laboratory skills and scientific knowledge through biomedical research.
Wayne Lawrence, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
Dr. Wayne Lawrence earned his Dr.P.H in epidemiology from the State University of New York at Albany in 2020. He joined the DCEG’s Metabolic Epidemiology Branch as a postdoctoral fellow through the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program in 2020 and was promoted to research fellow in 2022. He was then elected to serve a three-year term on the AACR Associate Member Council, which develops programs that address the needs of early-career scientists and advises leadership on issues of concern to the next generation of cancer researchers. Dr. Lawrence received the 2022 NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program Merit Award, which recognizes trainees with the ability to rise to the highest level of science, leadership, and service. Additionally, he received the 2022 NCI Director's Award for mentoring and building professional and social support for fellows. Moreover, he was the recipient of the NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence.
Deborah Tadesse, B.S.
Deborah Tadesse joined DCEG as a postbaccalaureate fellow in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB) in July 2023, after completing a B.S. in public health from American University, Washington, DC, in 2023.
Under the mentorship of Stella Koutros, Ph.D., M.P.H., tenure-track investigator, Ms. Tadesse works on projects related to evaluating the health effects of pesticides and risk of prostate cancer in diverse populations and on occupational and environmental factors associated with bladder cancer.
Sonam Tulsyan, Ph.D.
Sonam Tulsyan, Ph.D., joined DCEG as a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Translational Genomics (LTG) in June 2023. She received her Ph.D. in biotechnology from the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow, India, in 2018. She completed a master’s in biotechnology from the CCS University, Meerut, India, and a bachelor’s in biotechnology from Kanpur University, Kanpur, India. Her Ph.D. research was in breast cancer genetics and pharmacogenetics, where she observed that higher order gene-gene interaction of drug metabolizing enzymes play an important role in prediction of breast cancer treatment outcomes in terms of response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy and myelotoxicity. Prior to joining DCEG, Dr. Tulsyan worked as a postdoctoral fellow in ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida, India, which involved identification of somatic mutations in gallbladder cancer through whole-exome sequencing.
In LTG, Dr. Tulsyan is working on projects related to whole-genome sequencing of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumor samples and breakage bridge fusion events in different cervical cancer cell lines by long-read sequencing, under the mentorship of Michael Dean, Ph.D., senior investigator.
Show Notes
American Association for Cancer Researchers (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024
Wayne Lawrence, Dr.P.H.,M.P.H.
- Abstract Title: "Severe housing cost burden and premature cancer mortality by state Medicaid expansion status"
- Abstract Title: "A high rate of episomal HPV16 is present in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumors by long-read whole genome sequencing"
- Abstract Title: "Carbaryl use and cancer incidence in the agricultural health study - An updated analysis"
- Abstract Title: "Endogenous HiBiT-tagging of PAX3-FOXO1 reveals downregulation of the fusion oncogene by CDK inhibitors and has synergy with vincristine"
- Abstract Title: "Impact of delayed processing on cfDNA quantity and quality using STRECK cfDNA tubes: Connect Pilot Study"
- Connect for Cancer Prevention Study
- Intramural Continuing Umbrella of Research Excellence (iCURE) Program
- Abstract Title: "Interaction between solvent exposure and genetic susceptibility and risk for bladder cancer"
Ad: NanCI - Connecting Scientists mobile application
Transcript
Oliver Bogler
Hello and welcome to Inside Cancer Careers, a podcast from the National Cancer Institute where we explore all the different ways people fight cancer and hear their stories. I'm your host, Oliver Bogler from NCI's Center for Cancer Training.
Today, we're doing something a bit different – we are talking to people at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. This meeting is one of the high-points of the calendar for people working to end cancer as we know it for all, and it is truly big tent – at the April 2024 conference in San Diego, over 22,000 people registered to attend.
AACR is a strong community of over 55,000 people and 53% are Associate Members who, according to the AACR website, are young laboratory scientists and physicians-in-training (graduate students, medical students and residents, and clinical and postdoctoral fellows). I’ve been a member since my postdoc days – and I am proud of the way AACR welcomes and supports early career individuals.
There is a lot going on at the AACR annual meeting – far too much to cover in this episode – check out AACR.org to learn more. We are going to focus in on one of the most important elements of a scientific conference – the opportunity it gives to scientists to present their work to their peers. And specifically, we will visit with NCI fellows at their poster sessions.
Because of this format we won’t have a Your Turn segment – Your Turn will be back next time.
Let’s start by meeting some of our fellows and hearing about their science.
So I'm speaking with Wayne Lawrence, who's here presenting his poster. You are a research fellow at NCI. Right, Wayne?
Wayne Lawrence
Yes, I am a research fellow.
Oliver Bogler
So tell me, where in the NCI are you?
Wayne Lawrence
I'm in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, specifically in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch.
So all my research seeks to understand why are certain people more likely to be diagnosed with cancer, and why is the mortality proportion greater amongst certain populations than others? So what role does the social environment contribute to disparities in cancer outcomes? So part of my work here, for example, is I want to examine the role of severe housing cost burden on premature death due to cancer. So we know that in the United States, more and more people are spending more of their household income on housing. So we've seen that recently, there's been an increase in people expending 50% or more of their income on housing, which we know that if you spend that much on housing, you’re more likely to sacrifice seeking medical care or other basic needs to thrive.
Oliver Bogler
Right, you just don't have money for your medicines or to see the doctor.
Wayne Lawrence
Exactly. So I want to see among individuals that reside in areas with high housing cost burden is that associated with an increased risk and premature deaths due to cancer? So what we did is that we pulled data from the American Community Survey, and we pulled housing cost burden national throughout the entire United States.
We see that in the coastal areas, both East Coast and West Coast and parts of the south areas, they had that highest quintile of severe housing cost burden. So we wanted to see is that associated with increased risk of premature cancer mortality.
What we observed is that compared to areas that the lowest severe housing cost burden, so lowest number of people that spend less than 50% of their household income on housing, compared to them, those who reside in the highest quintile had an increased risk of all-cause mortality.
Oliver Bogler
What are the practical implications?
Wayne Lawrence
So, my work, I guess, at the end of day is to provide evidence to show to highlight populations that are disadvantaged or structurally marginalized to say, hey, this is a group that we have not truly examined, or this is a group that is disproportionately burdened by cancer and disease. And we try to gather information and hopefully to pass on to inform policy or interventions more specifically.
So, my master's and doctorate are in public health in epidemiology and with a focus in cancer epidemiology. But my training at the end of the day is in social epidemiology, so I examine why does where you live, work, age, play, how does that affect your quality of life, of disease risk and long-term survival?
Oliver Bogler
Fantastic. And if I can ask, do you already have plans for your next step?
Wayne Lawrence
Yes, I'm getting ready or am in the process of preparing to apply for tenure track positions. I've been fortunate to get some recruitment letters. So I'm gonna start seeing what's out there.
[music]
Oliver Bogler
Next I caught up with Sonam Tulsyan, postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Michael Dean's lab in laboratory of Translational Genomics in the Center for Cancer Research.
Sonam Tulsyan
Okay, I'm presenting on high rate of episomal HPV 16, which I found in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. I have taken 16 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. These are fresh frozen tumor biopsies, and out of 10 samples I found 8 to be episomal, and 2 to be HPV negative.
And I've also done the whole genome distribution of the CNV burden. And I found that there is a gain of chromosome 3q and chromosome 5q. And sometimes some activities also going on in chromosome 8, and chromosome 12 over here.
It's causing chromosome duplications, ploidy. And then basically the chromosome integrates at E1 E2, and which is which are responsible for the E6 is E7 gene activation.
Oliver Bogler
And is that then associated with the development of cancer?
Sonam Tulsyan
Yes, especially for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. So this is a special subtype of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, where HPV… it is basically dependent on HPV. HPV infection.
Oliver Bogler
And so this knowledge that you've developed, will that lead to better screening or more prevention, how can you apply this practically?
Sonam Tulsyan
This is responsible for better screening.
[music]
Oliver Bogler
All right, we're talking with Patricia Erickson, who is a graduate student at the University of Maryland and doing her research at the NCI. Tell us about your work.
Patricia Erickson
Yes. So for my, my poster here, and my dissertation research is focused on pesticide exposures, and risk of cancer and specifically, I was looking at carbaryl. And I did another project looking at telomere length, but today carbaryl and it's a pesticide that's used residentially and agriculturally. And so I looked at a host of different cancer sites, I think about 30, and did different analysis for and I found some really interesting findings for stomach cancer and aggressive prostate cancer.
Oliver Bogler
Okay, so this it's an insecticide. So it's primarily coming into our food chain, is that kind of what's happening or food supply?
Patricia Erickson
I'm looking at it in terms of occupational exposure.
Oliver Bogler
Oh, people were spraying it onto the field. Sorry, OK.
Patricia Erickson
Yes, people whore are spraying it, but you could go to Home Depot and buy it and spray it yourself. So oh, there's potential to be exposed through dietary sources to residential sources, and then occupational ways as well.
Oliver Bogler
Okay. And what and what did you find? Did you find that it was a significant risk factor?
Patricia Erickson
Yep. So for stomach cancer, I found that those who are in the highest exposure category had about a twofold increased risk of stomach cancer, compared to the non-users. It is based on small numbers, okay. But there was something there. And then when I lagged the exposure by five years, which means I just count the exposure five years prior to the diagnosis, we're still seeing about a twofold increased risk of stomach cancer.
Oliver Bogler
So I mean, stomach cancers, probably not that common, but a twofold increase is significant.
Patricia Erickson
Yeah, it's a pretty big deal. Yeah.
Oliver Bogler
So what do you think this should lead to? Should we ban this compound? Or should it just be handled with more care?
Patricia Erickson
I think we don't know enough yet. So my next step, there's some evidence that suggests that when carbaryl reacts with nitrate, it forms this compound known as n-nitroso-carbaryl. And that's previously been associated with gastric cancer in rats, and it's shown to be mutagenic. And you can be exposed through drinking water, to nitrates in drinking water and red meat. And so my next step is kind of to look at some if I have enough numbers, to look at dietary exposures to nitrates, and kind of parse out that association a bit more.
Oliver Bogler
You told me just a moment ago, before we started taping that you are defending very soon.
Patricia Erickson
Yes, in five days.
Oliver Bogler
In five days, that is very soon! So by the time our listeners hear this, you will have defended
Patricia Erickson
Yes.
Oliver Bogler
That's fantastic. I wish you all the best with that. And do you already have a next step in mind?
Patricia Erickson
I do. I'm going to do a postdoc at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Oliver Bogler
In Utah…
Patricia Erickson
In Salt Lake City. Yeah.
Oliver Bogler
Very nice. Very nice. Why the Huntsman?
Patricia Erickson
It kind of happened. I wasn't looking for it. But a couple people had sent me the job posting. And that was the third time this group came on my radar. And I took it as a sign. I emailed them, they responded. And three weeks later, I went out for an interview and got offered the position and fell in love. And now moving to Salt Lake City.
Oliver Bogler
And you know already what you're going to be working on?
Patricia Erickson
Um, yeah, the group will be joining does a lot with colorectal cancers. So that will be the focus but haven't figured out exactly what projects.
Oliver Bogler
But again, sort of exposure, epidemiology type research, or is it something completely different?
Patricia Erickson
Potentially both? It could be some exposures. It could be shifting gear. Yeah.
Oliver Bogler
So this is the time to shift gear when you're when you go for postdoc, right.
Patricia Erickson
Yup.
[music]
Oliver Bogler
Alright, I'm talking with Katrina Jia. She is in the Center for Cancer Research and you're presenting a poster tell us about your research.
Katrina Jia
So our research is on rhabdomyosarcoma, which is the most common soft tissue childhood sarcoma, and it's on the alveolar subtype, which is most commonly characterized by PAX3-FOXO1. And we wanted to find small molecule compounds that suppress the PAX3-FOXO1 levels, and we to do that we have to directly monitor those levels. So we tagged PAX3-FOXO1 with a HiBiT tag, which is a small fragment of the NanoLuc luciferase enzyme. So when you add LgBiT and a substrate, it luminesces.
And then we validated that it was actually tagged PAX3-FOXO1. And you can see like the HiBiT tagged cell lines are closely related to the parental cell lines compared to like, fusion negative cell lines, by RT-PCR.
Oliver Bogler
So it's kind of a way of screening for drugs, right?
Unknown Speaker
Is makes it easy to screen like a whole bunch of drugs.
Oliver Bogler
Okay, so like high throughput screening? Okay, so where did the drugs come from, that you're interested in?
Katrina Jia
Yeah. So we used the MIPE 5.0 drug library.
Oliver Bogler
OK what is MIPE? I've never heard of MIPE. Sounds like an acronym.
Katrina Jia
I don’t remember the acronym, exactly, but it is a library of compounds with known mechanisms of action mechanisms. And then also, most of them are in clinical trials or FDA approved already.
Oliver Bogler
So, really drugs that you could take to the clinic pretty quickly.
Katrina Jia
Yeah, hoping that it can translate. And then we wanted to narrow down our screen to drugs that downregulated PAX3-FOXO1before the cells died. So we did that in two cell lines. And we found that like a lot of CDK inhibitors were part of that screen.
Oliver Bogler
So, CDK, that's a cyclin dependent kinase right?
Katrina Jia
And then we wanted to combine it with like an already known treatment like either vincristine or irinotecan , but we have more data for vincristine.
Oliver Bogler
So, traditional chemotherapeutics?
Katrina Jia
So you can see like, 0.33 nanomolar and 37 and below for TGO2, there are synergistic at those doses. And those are the doses like right under the IC50s for both, okay, single drugs.
Oliver Bogler
That’s encouraging.
Katrina Jia
Yeah, that's promising.
Oliver Bogler
Tell me a little about your career. Your postbaccing now but you're on your way to medical school, right?
Katrina Jia
Yes, in July.
Oliver Bogler
So where are you going?
Katrina Jia
I'm going to the University of Arizona, Phoenix. That's where I'm originally from.
Oliver Bogler
Okay. Okay, fantastic. And then are you planning a career in medicine or also having medicine and research together?
Katrina Jia
Right now medicine I'm not too sure like, how much research I can get involved in I mean, I would like to but okay, I know. Yeah. And I don't like really know what specialty I want to go.
Oliver Bogler
Yeah, you got to give yourself some time to choose. Will it be, might it be oncology, it could be oncology?
Katrina Jia
Yeah, I was thinking of oncology or like cardiology, I'm not sure yet. Those are like the two things I kind of know about.
Oliver Bogler
Okay, fantastic.
[music]
Oliver Bogler
All right, I'm here with Jazmyn Bess at her poster. Jazmyn, tell me about the research you're sharing here in AACR.
Jazmyn Bess
Yeah, so the Connect for Cancer Prevention Study wanted to conduct a pilot looking at how processing time impacts cell free DNA quality and quantity. And so the Connect for Cancer Prevention Study is a prospective cohort where we're looking to recruit participants between 30 and 70, from 10 different health care systems across the US. And so we're hoping to monitor them over time to understand the etiology of cancer as well as being informed about prevention as well as understanding early cancer detection. And so liquid biopsy, of course, is a promising cancer detection technology that Connect is interested in incorporating into our baseline collections.
Oliver Bogler
Why is that? Why is liquid biopsy so exciting?
Jazmyn Bess
So liquid biopsy, of course, can detect cancer in the blood as well as monitor tumor progression over time. And so being able to incorporate this technology is very crucial, because this will help to detect cancer early on, as well as you know, helping us to understand where people are in terms of stages of cancer. And so it's a really big public health impact.
Oliver Bogler
So in the future, there might be you might go to your, your, your general doctor, your family doctor, and they take blood for a bunch of reasons. And then they could also do a test to see if there's any reason to maybe suspect that there's cancer. Is that the kind of scenario you're hoping to? Right?
Jazmyn Bess
Yes, yeah.
Oliver Bogler
And then, of course, also, if you're already a patient, following your progression through through treatment, and how the cancer behaves, right? Correct. So this critical that, you know, when you take a blood sample, how it fares between taking it and testing it, that's what you're focused on. So what did you find?
Jazmyn Bess
So what we found was that processing time doesn't meaningfully impact cell-free DNA quality and quantity, which is good. And so we are underway to do a second pilot, when we are going to look at other pre analytical variables, as well as other tube types, and other QC assays to see the optimal conditions for doing this local biopsy assay.
Oliver Bogler
So lots of details. And I guess the reason you're doing this now is that then when Connect really scales up, you want to make sure that you're doing it in the best way.
Jazmyn Bess
Exactly. Right.
Oliver Bogler
So it's really important prep work. Very cool. Very cool. So you're in the postbac program in the iCure program. What's that, like?
Jazmyn Bess
So iCure has been phenomenal. It is a great program that helps, you know, fellows who are interested in cancer health disparities to explore different research areas. And so it has been a phenomenal experience. I'm on my second year. And so being able to come here to conferences like AACR, because of iCure is phenomenal, right? You get to connect with so many different people learn the research, and just grow as a scientist, but also as a person.
Oliver Bogler
So you mentioned that your second year. So you're thinking actively about what's next. Do you have anything you can share with us on that score?
Jazmyn Bess
Yes. So I do plan to apply to doctoral programs this fall where I will be starting my PhD next fall 2025 in epidemiology.
Oliver Bogler
Okay, so you're going research. Cool. Very cool.
Oliver Bogler
All right, I'm talking with Deborah Tadesse. She's a postbac at the NCI and she's here presenting some of her research. Deborah tell us about your your science.
Deborah Tadesse
Sure. Um, so I'm in the population science, I'm in OEEB. So what I'm really doing right now is looking at the interaction between occupational exposure and genetic susceptibility and risk of bladder cancer. The majority of my work involves bladder cancer within the occupational exposures category.
Oliver Bogler
So, that's things you exposed to at work, like, like I see on your poster solvents and things like that. So if you're in the building industry or something like that,
Deborah Tadesse
Particularly for ours, it would be people who are auto mechanics. People who are exposed to like gasoline, a lot.
Oliver Bogler
Gasoline, right. And what did you find?
Deborah Tadesse
So, we found that in individuals who are exposed to occupational solvents, specifically benzene, toluene, and xylene, and the combined mixture BTX, those who also harbor some of the same genetic mutations have an increased risk of bladder cancer.
Oliver Bogler
Okay, and so what does this lead to? Does this lead to more warning labels or changes in policy or …?
Deborah Tadesse
This could definitely lead to more restrictive policies. So you … I mean, you can't change your genetics, right, you can definitely change the policies related to where you work. And when results like these come out that say that there are certain places that can increase or like certain occupations that can increase your risk of bladder cancer, it's really important for those who are in charge of creating like these, these regulations and rules, that they can understand these risks, and then implement strategies to kind of decrease these occupational exposures.
Oliver Bogler
And does it also lead to time when people might be able to do like a test to see if they're more at risk than maybe the average person?
Deborah Tadesse
That definitely could be a thing? I don't I'm not really sure as it relates to this, this study, but there definitely would be a time where you would be able to do that because it involves genetic testing. We already… since we already know that occupational exposures do, can increase your risk of bladder cancer. Doing genetic testing could also be beneficial, but it's a lot of extra work and so in individuals who are in high-risk occupations, that would be more beneficial.
Oliver Bogler
Right. Makes sense. So if you have the exposure risk, then also know if you have the genetic risk. And if you have both, then I guess you could be more vigilant. Exactly. Fantastic. So you're a postbac? Where are you going next? What's your next step for yourself?
Deborah Tadesse
So right now I'm in the current application cycle for medical school. So I'm not really sure as to where I'm going. I just know that it'll be medical school.
Oliver Bogler
OK. And do you already have an idea of what kind of medicine you want to do?
Deborah Tadesse
Yes, I want to practice oncology. But more specifically, pediatric, pediatric oncology.
Oliver Bogler
Okay, fantastic. And are you thinking of combining research with medicine in your career?
Deborah Tadesse
Definitely in the future, because I feel like that's the best thing to do translational medicine. So I am thinking of possibly adding a PhD onto it, or any sort of research component along the way, maybe even during medical school. Definitely, a possibility, because now I'm a little bit more interested in it. More experienced in it.
Oliver Bogler
You've caught the bug.
Deborah Tadesse
Exactly.
[music]
Oliver Bogler
PubMed lists over 270,000 cancer papers published in 2022 – that is a staggering 750 papers every day. It’s great that cancer research is such an active field, but it makes finding the pubs that are critical to your work a challenge. What if you had an AI that paid attention to the papers you read and suggested others as they appear in PubMed? That is exactly what the NCI is building with an app called NanCI. With me to discuss NanCI are two members of the team that are creating NanCI.
Duncan Anderson
NanCI is an app for cancer scientists and it helps them to discover the research in new ways and connect with each other and build their personal networks and share information and get to know each other. We've just launched the ability to actually chat with a piece of research, so you can actually have a conversation and ask questions about a research paper itself.
JD Wuarin
Instead of having to read the whole paper yourself, you can now simply ask questions and NanCI will answer those questions. One of the cool features we've also added is that it will read the abstract and figure out what questions you might want to ask the paper.
Duncan Anderson
We're using artificial intelligence within NanCI to help to make information easier to find and easier to understand and easier to interact with. The only information we're using is the scientific data. So the research paper, for example, we don't allow our AI to go off and answer random questions that might introduce all sorts of concerns.
JD Wuarin
And so the idea will be that eventually with NanCI straight from your pocket, you'll not only be able to chat with papers and understand what papers are about, but also based on your interest, it will suggest to you what you might want to investigate, maybe which gene mutation you might want to look at, which new disease might be related to what you're doing. And that's gonna be interesting, I think.
Duncan Anderson
If you start working in a field which you don't have a lot of experience in, it can be a bit daunting. There's a lot of information to read. We have this idea that you could tell NanCI what the field is and NanCI would go off and present you the key influential papers in that space so you can very quickly get your head around what this new field is.
So today, NanCI can be used by cancer researchers in the USA. So it's available from the Apple App Store for the iPhone. And there's a restriction on the downloads, which means that you need to have an email address associated with a cancer research institution.
[music ends]
Wayne Lawrence
Yeah. I love AACR, the energy, the excitement of folks here who are all dedicated to understanding cancer to develop interventions to both prevent cancer, but also increased cancer survivorship over time. So we're all here with one common goal, and that is to help people stop to reduce the risk of cancer and reduce mortality to cancer and being here with other folks from various fields. It's exciting, it's motivation, and I'm excited to get back to it.
Oliver Bogler
What's it like to be here?
Patricia Erickson
I think it's really exciting. As cliche as maybe that sounds. It's cool seeing all the other work and just getting exposure from I've been deep in the trenches with carbaryl for the past couple of years. And so just to take a step back and see all the other research that's being done. I think it's inspiring and just I don't know it gives me hope.
Oliver Bogler
That's fantastic. You have a lot of energy, right?
Patricia Erickson
Yeah. Great.
Sonam Tulsyan
Oh, it's a huge conference and so much science, good science to learn, and so much to see. It's awesome.
Oliver Bogler
And is this your first time at AACR or …?
Katrina Jia
This is my second your second time?
Oliver Bogler
So you are an old hand at this? What's it like to be here?
Katrina Jia
It's really like, at first it was a little overwhelming last year because I like just started and then I was here. But now like, I feel like it's crazy, just after a year, how much I've learned and like I can actually understand some of the talks. I'm like, oh, like, we do stuff that's kind of related to this. So I think that's really cool. Yeah.
Jazmyn Bess
It's been amazing. This is my first time in California. So no better way to do that. Right.
Oliver Bogler
Yeah. And the energy here. I mean, it's amazing, right?
Jazmyn Bess
Amazing.
Oliver Bogler
And are you getting lots of people stopping by your poster and asking you hard questions?
Jazmyn Bess
Yes.
Oliver Bogler
Fantastic.
Jazmyn Bess
Yes.
Oliver Bogler
Alright. So tell me, what about AACR is this is your first time?
Deborah Tadesse
My very first time.
Oliver Bogler
And how's it been?
Deborah Tadesse
It's been wonderful. This is like one of the biggest conferences I've ever been to. But it's been really fun to see kind of like, a possible future in cancer. That's everybody. I mean, a bunch of the speakers that I was listening to are MDs, or MD PhDs. So it definitely shows like the avenues and opportunities that are yet to come.
Oliver Bogler
That's great, very inspirational. Well, I wish you all the best with the applications to med school and the continuation of your research and your future. Thank you so much.
Deborah Tadesse
Thank you.
Oliver Bogler
My heartfelt thanks to our guests for allowing me to visit them during their poster sessions, for sharing their science and their career plans and their enthusiasm for the AACR Annual Meeting. Maybe I’ll see you there next year?
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That’s all we have time for on today’s episode of Inside Cancer Careers! Thank you for joining us and thank you to our guests.
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Inside Cancer Careers is a collaboration between NCI’s Office of Communications and Public Liaison and the Center for Cancer Training. It is produced by Angela Jones and Astrid Masfar.
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