Tag

Professor Robert Brown is Chair in Translational Oncology and Head of Division of Cancer within the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College, where he heads the Epigenetics Unit. His post is a joint appointment between Imperial College London and Institute of Cancer Research where he is the Epigenetics Team Leader in the Section of Molecular Pathology. Bob is Principal Investigator of a Cancer Research UK research programme, Drug Resistance and Epigenetic Mechanisms, and is a joint Principle Investigator of the Imperial Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre. He moved to London in 2007 after working for nearly 20 years at the CRUK Beatson Laboratories in Glasgow where he was Director of Laboratory Research in the Centre for Oncology and Applied Pharmacology. He obtained his BSc in Biological Sciences (Genetics) at Edinburgh University, his PhD at MRC Radiobiology Unit, Harwell, and his Post-doc at the German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg.

He has provided key insight into epigenetic mechanisms involved in tumorigenesis and resistance to chemotherapy, particularly in ovarian cancer. Recent areas of his research include; identifying novel epigenetic targets in ovarian and breast cancer, characterising histone marks and DNA methylation in breast and ovarian tumours as risk, prognostic and/or predictive biomarkers, and development of novel histone methyltransferase inhibitors.

He is Chair of the NCRI Biomarker and Imaging Clinical Studies Group whose remit is to facilitate and support biomarker and imaging studies in UK clinical trials. He is Deputy-Chair of CR-UK New Agents Committee and member of MRC Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board.

Elena Ioana Braicu is a senior gynecologist at the Department for Gynecology Campus Vrchow, Charité Medical University Berlin. She is leading the translational research within this department, and coordinating the Tumor Bank for Ovarian Cancer network (www.toc-network.de).

She qualified in medicine in 2003 from “Iuliu Hatieganu” Medical University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She was research fellow at Max Delbrück Research center Berlin in 2003 and 2004, than at the Charité from 2005 and 2006 and at the University of Basel in 2008. Since 2009 she is working at the European Competence Center for Ovarian Cancer at the Charité Medical University.

She is representing the translational group of NOGGO, north eastern German society for gynecological oncology within ENGOT. She is a founding EUTROC member and is leading the working group for biobanking. She is also consultant for pediatric gynecology at the Charité Medical University.

Dr. Braicu participated in several European projects, like OVCAD (www.ovcad.eu) and OCTIPS (www.octips.eu). She is work package leader for biobanking and data repository in the Fp7 European Phase I/II clinical study, Gannet53 (www.gannet53.eu).

She is member in several national and international study groups (e.g. AGO, NOGGO, TOC, ENGOT, EUTROC, GCIG). She is member of the German Foundation of Ovarian Cancer.

Furthermore she is participating in several Phase I to Phase III clinical study as sub-investigator. She is the vice-coordinator of the clinical trial study center at the Charité Medical University.

Since 2013, she is a fellow of the clinical scientist program of the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Berlin Institute of Health.

Her main interests are prevention and diagnostic of pelvic tumors in general and high risk population. She is focusing also in the discovery of predictive biomarkers for clinical outcome in ovarian cancer patients.

EUTROC (European Translational Research network in Ovarian Cancer) is a European cancer network addressing the fragmentation currently hindering translational research for cutting edge therapies in ovarian cancer.

It will strengthen European excellence in the diagnosis and treatment of OC.

The need to bring promising drug candidates and treatments into clinical settings is currently delayed by the lack of standardised protocols for preclinical animal studies, lack of suitable ovarian cancer models, lack of validated predictive biomarker diagnostics, and integrated appropriate management of translational research partners (including pharma and biotech companies).

Developing effective diagnostic and treatment strategies require structured joint efforts of experts on tumor immunology, epigenetics, pathology, bioinformatics, drug development and delivery, trial development, clinical oncology and gynecological oncology.

Leading European researchers and clinicians together with the pharmaceutical industry and biotech companies will focus on preclinical and clinical studies in ovarian cancer. Therefore new targets will be identified, validated and translated to new drugs and brought to clinical practice. Standardisation and harmonisation of laboratory practices and good clinical practice procedures will BE performed within the consortium.

The consortium combines expertise in clinical as well as preclinical research. Involved researchers are coordinating a number of investigator-initiated Phase I, II trials.The Network will build a platform for research and strong educational programs for the next generation of experts aimed at developing individualised patients benefit.

Ovarian Cancer Action is the UK’s leading ovarian cancer charity. Its focus is to improve the prognosis of all women diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It aims to transform ovarian cancer treatment and improve survival through creating a research environment that encourages scientific breakthrough; this is why it is vital to establish and continue to fund the UK’s first research centre dedicated solely to ovarian cancer.

OCA's passion is to reach every woman and GP in the UK with key messages about ovarian cancer and its symptoms. This, we feel, will contribute to ensuring that a greater proportion of women are diagnosed as early as possible giving women a greater chance of survival.