Dr. Jeremy P. Blaydes has a BSc. in Biochemistry from the University of Bath and a PhD in tumour biology from the University of Wales. In his first postdoctoral position he made use of in vitro models of Ras oncogene-induced tumorigenesis developed during his PhD, to demonstrate the potential of molecules that block the p53:MDM2 interaction to activate p53 function in cancer cells. He then undertook a second postdoctoral post with Dr. Ted Hupp, University of Dundee, prior to establishing an independent research group in 2000, at the Cancer Research UK Centre, University of Southampton., United Kingdom.

Professor Gerard Evan received his MA in Biochemistry from Oxford in 1977 and his PhD in Molecular Immunology in 1981 from Cambridge for work conducted at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the laboratory of J. Michael Bishop at UCSF from 1982-84, a Research Fellow at Downing College, Cambridge University and Assistant Member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research 1984-8. In 1988 joined the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in London and held the Royal Society’s Napier Professor of Cancer Research 1996-9. In 1999 he moved to UCSF as Distinguished Professor of Cancer Biology and co-Leader of the Cell Cycle and Signaling Program at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Prof. Evan was elected to EMBO in 1996, the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999 and the Royal Society in 2004. In 2004 he was awarded the Neal Levitan Research Chair from the Brain Tumor Society and in 2006 he became a Senior Scholar of the Ellison Medical Research Foundation for Aging. In October 2009, he became the Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Prof. Evan’s research is focused on understanding the processes responsible for genesis and maintenance of cancers, in particular the interactions between the dominant oncogenes Myc and Ras and the p53 tumor suppressor.

Professor Monica Hollstein received her PhD at the University of California at Berkeley, where she subsequently joined the laboratory of Bruce Ames to develop new DNA repair-deficient bacterial strains for mutagenicity testing. In 1984 she was invited to join the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, Lyon) to investigate genetic changes in cancers of the liver and oesophagus. During a sabbatical year in 1990 at the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda USA) in the laboratory of C.C. Harris, she began what was to become the IARC TP53 Mutation Database, and initiated laboratory research on the origins and consequences of p53 mutations. In 1994 she moved from the IARC in Lyon to the DKFZ (German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg) where she developed mouse models with humanised p53 to study p53 biology in vivo. Two years ago she accepted the Chair in Somatic Mutation at the University of Leeds, but maintains a satellite research group at the DKFZ in Heidelberg. The current focus of Prof. Hollstein’s research is the role of tumour suppressor pathways in control of cellular senescence.

Professor Ted Hupp obtained a PhD at Michigan State University in USA under the inspiring guidance of Jon Kaguni working out enzymological mechanisms of initiation of DNA replication where the first demonstration of mutant protein reactivation was described by the heat shock protein system. Working as a post-doctoral scientist with the even more inspiring David Lane, the concept of p53 activation was developed using emerging tools in the peptide therapeutics field.

Prof. Hupp is now Professor of Experimental Cancer Research at Edinburgh University applying concepts in the Protein Science field to identify novel p53 regulators in human cancers.

Professor Xin Lu completed her PhD at the Claire Hall Laboratories of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London in 1991. After a Postdoctoral position at Dundee University, Prof. Lu joined the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in 1993 as an associate member, then full member and became Director of its University of Oxford Branch in 2007.

Prof. Lu's research has focused on the functional interplay of oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes. She identified the ASPP family of proteins and is investigating their biological importance. The three members of the family, ASPP1, ASPP2 and iASPP, all bind to p53. ASPP1 and ASPP2 stimulate the apoptotic function of p53, but iASPP is an inhibitor. Hence, downregulation of ASPP1 and ASPP2 or upregulation of iASPP is likely to play an important role in tumour development and response to therapy.

Professor Alastair Thompson graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1984 and following training as a clinician (surgeon) scientist now works at the University of Dundee as Professor of Surgical Oncology. Through collaborations with David Lane and colleagues, the p53 network in breast cancer has been a longstanding research interest.

Prof. Thompson is Chief Investigator for several breast cancer trials in the UK, chairs the Board of the Breast Cancer Campaign National Breast Tissue Bank (based in London) and leads the translational breast cancer portfolio in Dundee.

Professor Karen Vousden is presently the Director of the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow – one of five institutes core funded by Cancer Research UK and the only one in Scotland. The Beatson Institute carries out a programme of world-class science directed at understanding key aspects of cancer cell behaviour, and provides a state of the art facility where basic and clinical scientists can work together to translate these discoveries into new therapies and diagnostic/prognostic tools to help cancer patients.

Before joining the Beatson Institute, Prof. Vousden was Chief of the Regulation of Cell Growth Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD. Prof. Vousden's own research focuses on the regulation and function of the tumour suppressor protein p53.

She received her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of London, followed by postdoctoral fellowships with Chris Marshall at the Institute of Cancer Research in London and Douglas Lowy at the National Cancer Institute in the USA. After joining the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in London, she moved back to the NCI in 1995 before taking up her current position in 2002. She has been elected to the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, EMBO and the Academy of Medical Sciences and has been awarded an honorary DSc from the University of London.

Dr. Nick Westwood's main research interest is in the application of advanced synthetic chemistry to discovery programmes in chemical genetics. This interest arose from research training in chemical biology (D.Phil. with Professor C.J. Schofield, Oxford), natural product synthesis (NATO fellowship with Prof. P.D. Magnus, Texas) and chemical genetics (Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School). Since 2001, Dr. Westwood has been a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the School of Chemistry and the Biomedical Sciences Research Complex at the University of St Andrews.

Professor Sir David Lane FRS is one of the scientists credited with the landmark discovery of cancer gene p53 in 1979. p53, called the "Guardian of the genome" is considered the most significant of all the genes altered in cancer cells because mutations of the gene are known to cause almost 50% of all human cancers.

Sir David is currently the Chief Scientist of A*STAR, where his main role is to advise and engage in scientific development across the Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) and the Scientific Engineering Research Council (SERC) at the strategic level. He also runs a research lab primarily focusing on research on p53 using both mammalian and zebrafish systems. His lab just recently published a paper in the journal, Genes and Development, on how an alternative variation of the p53 protein acts as a “control switch” for p53 in zebrafish and several papers focusing on drug discovery in the p53 pathway. Sir David was previously the Chairman of BMRC from 2007-2009, Executive Director of A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) from 2004-2007 and Chairman of IMCB scientific advisory board from 2002-2003. He was also the founding CEO of A*STAR’s Experimental Therapeutics Centre, which was setup in 2006. Sir David is also currently holding appointments as the Chief Scientist with Cancer Research UK and as a member of the advisory board of the Ludwig Institute.

For his efforts in cancer research, Sir David was knighted in 2000 and has won several awards including the Royal Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2008 and in 2009, the Datta medal of FEBS.

Sir David has published more than 300 research articles in international peer reviewed journals many of which have been very highly citied and has co-authored a successful practical guide to the use of immunochemical methods called “Antibodies” with Ed Harlow, selling more than 40,000 copies. « less

Professor Edison Liu graduated from Stanford University and its medical school. He received residency training at Washington University, Oncology training at Stanford University, and post-doc training in molecular oncogenesis at the University of California.

From 1987-96, Prof. Liu was Professor of medicine, biochemistry and epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, and Director of its Specialized Program of Research Excellence in Breast Cancer. From 1996-2001, he was the Division Director of Clinical Sciences (Intramural program) at National Cancer Institute. In 2001, Dr. Liu became the founding Executive Director of Genome Institute of Singapore and Professor of Medicine at the National University of Singapore.

Prof. Liu's earlier work focused on the discovery of kinases involved in cancer biology and in molecular clinical epidemiology. During this period, I discovered and investigated a new class of receptor tyrosine kinases (AXL) involved in invasion and metastases, and determined the importance of HER2 in modulating breast cancer response to specific forms of adjuvant chemotherapy. Since 1998, my scientific research has focused on the functional genomics of human cancers investigating the dynamics of gene regulation on a genome scale that modulates cancer biology. We have explored the expression signatures in breast cancers that define biochemical and genetic perturbations. From this point, we have pursued the transcriptional regulation by estrogen receptor on a genomic scale. Collectively, my work spans cancer biology, genomics, human genetics, and molecular epidemiology. « less

Dr. Jayantha Gunaratne is currently a Research Scientist of the Systems Biology and Mass Spectrometry lab (headed by Dr. Walter Blackstock) in the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR. He is also the Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Cancer Science Institute in the National University of Singapore.

Dr. Gunaratne received his PhD from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan in 2003 and was a Postgraduate Scholar with the Scripps Institution in the University of California San Diego from 2004 to 2007.

Dr. Gunaratne currently leads the biology group of Dr. Blackstock’s lab, managing SILAC biology projects of collaborators. His research interests are on the tumor suppressor interactomics and the system biology of fission yeast using SILAC.

Dr. Koji Itahana obtained his Ph.D. degree at Kyoto University in Japan. After joining the laboratory of Dr. Yanping Zhang in USA, he worked extensively on ARF-Mdm2-p53 pathway. He identified the nucleolar protein B23/NPM1 (Mol Cell, 2003) and the mitochondrial protein p32 (Cancer Cell, 2008) as ARF-binding partners. He also reported the E3 ligase-deficient Mdm2 knock-in mouse model (Cancer Cell, 2007) which focuses the E3 function of Mdm2 in vivo. Dr. Itahana is now an Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, studying the ARF function in mitochondria.

Professor Frank McKeon works on the lesser p53 species, p63 and p73, and endeavors to understand their function in tumor suppression, stem cell renewal, and airway inflammation using murine and cellular models. He studied under Marc Kirschner at UCSF’s Biochemistry and Biophysics department, and has worked at the Department of Cell Biology at the Harvard Medical School since 1986. Dr. McKeon is also the Visiting Professor at the ISIS at the University of Strasbourg.

Professor Kanaga Sabapathy has been with the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) for over 9 years, as the head of the Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis. Prior to joining NCCS, he was trained at the Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, in the generation of gene targeted mice models, and at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore, in tumor immunology.

Prof. Sabapathy group focuses on investigating the molecular mechanisms involved in cancer development and progression, through the study of the p53/p73 and c-Jun/JNK signaling paradigms. His research is aimed at both understanding the molecular nature of cancer and to design effective targeted-therapies against the disease.

Prof. Sabapathy is an Associate Professor with the Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Program at the Duke-NUS GMS, and an adjunct Professor with the Department of Biochemistry at the NUS.

Professor Yoichi Taya graduated from The University of Tokyo, Faculty of Science, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in 1969 and got PhD degree at the same department in 1974. He became a research associate at National Cancer Center Research Institute in Tokyo in 1974, and then became section head and finally chief of Radiobiology Division at the same Institute. During 1980-82, he was a postdoc at Ghent University in Belgium. He moved to Singapore as a Professor of a new cancer institute of National University of Singapore since August, 2008.

Prof. Taya showed for the first time that RB protein is phosphorylated by cyclin-dependent kinase in 1989. Afterwards, he has generated many phospho-specific antibodies against phosphorylation sites of RB protein and p 53, and applied them for elucidation of functions of RB protein and p 53. He is an editorial board member of Cancer Cell.

Dr. Xian Wa received Bachelor's degree from Nankai University in China in 1996 and PhD degree from the University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, US. In 2002, she started her post-doctoral work with Prof. Jeffrey Rosen at Baylor College of Medicine, also in Houston, where she studied fibroblast growth factor signaling in early stages of mammary tumorigenesis. In 2009, she joined Prof. Christopher Crum’s laboratory in Brigham and Women’s Hospital at the Harvard Medical School in Boston to investigate the cellular origins and progression of high-grade ovarian cancers. In July 2009, Dr. Wa was appointed to the Institute of Medical Biology, where she is advancing her research on stem cells and tumorigenesis.

Dr. Ho Sup Yoon is currently the Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has graduated from the Seoul National University and completed his Master of Science in Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1993. After which, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Abbott Laboratories, USA from 1993 to 1994 and was a Senior Research Scientist in Abbott Laboratories, USA from 1995 to 2002.

His research interests focus on Biological NMR Spectroscopy, Apoptosis, Molecular Chaperones and Structure-Based Drug Design.

Professor Antony Braithwaite is currently the Head of the Cell Transformation Unit and Senior Principal Research Fellow in the Children’s Medical Research Institute, Westmead, Sydney. He is also the Conjoint Professor in Medicine at Sydney University, as well as the Research Professor in the Dept of Pathology of the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Prof. Braithwaite’s research focused on the regulation of cell proliferation and cell survival and the roles played by the p53, YB-1 and Runx 1. Currently using mouse models to dissect functions of p53 involved in tumour suppression. Recent publication, Slatter et al (2009), CDD, showing that mice impaired for p53 mediated apoptosis is required to prevent B but not T cell tumours.

Dr. Sonia Lain obtained her PhD in Madrid and has worked in cancer related topics at the Universities of Gothenburg and Dundee. She recently moved to Karolinska Institutet where her main area of interest is in the identification, elucidation of the mechanisms of action and optimisation of compounds that activate p53.