Scientist Spotlight

Avrum Spira, MD

Boston University's Avrum Spira, MD, discusses the discovery of a gene expression signature and a potential preventative treatment for lung cancer.

A group of scientists, led by Dr. Avrum Spira, has used Affymetrix expression arrays to discover an 80-gene biomarker that can identify lung cancer in its early stages. Their research has shown that the gene expression signature of lung cancer can be detected not only in deep lung tissues, but also in the cells that line the upper airway. This discovery may lead to less invasive clinical procedures that can be used to diagnose lung cancer, the number one cause of cancer death worldwide.

Joshua Schiffman, MD

The University of Utah's Joshua Schiffman, MD, discusses the use of molecular inversion probe (MIP) technology for studying copy number alterations in pediatric cancers.

Lisa Baumbach, MD

The University of Miami's Lisa Baumbach and Maastricht University's Torik Ayoubi discuss how ethnicity-specific genetic changes govern aggressive breast cancer risks.

Chris Smith, PhD

Chris Smith of Cambridge University, Tyson Clark of Affymetrix and Melissa Cline of UCSC discuss EURASNET's approach for comparing commercial microarrays.

Robert Norgren, PhD

Rob Norgren of The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Katja Nowick of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory discuss the development of the Rhesus Macaque Genome Array.

Yong-Jie Lu, PhD

Yong-Jie Lu of Queen Mary, University of London and Colleen Elso of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute discuss a method for rapidly identifying chromosome rearrangements.