The genetics of extrachromosomal DNA and its importance in cancer: Episode 9

Paul Mischel is a Professor and Vice Chair for Research for the Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine and Institute Scholar, Stanford ChEM-H. The Mischel lab has made a series of seminal discoveries that identified ecDNA (extrachromosomal DNA) as a driving force of cancer heterogeneity and therapeutic resistance. This research has provided a paradigm shift in understanding the fundamental mechanisms of oncogene amplification, intratumoural heterogeneity, and the spatial organization of altered tumour genomes. Bridging cancer genetics, signal transduction and cellular metabolism, research from the lab has provided a new understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of oncogene amplification and the spatial organization of altered tumour genomes, launching a new area of cancer research that links circular architecture with tumour pathogenesis.

Roel Verhaak, PhD., is a Professor and Associate Director of the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, CT. The Verhaak lab studies glioma using genomic characterization and computational analyses, work that has helped redefine the way glioma in adult patients is classified. More recent efforts are focused on tumor evolution, which the lab is investigating using longitudinal tumor sequencing, single-cell sequencing, and via comparative oncology approaches. Roel Verhaak is a recipient of the AAAS Wachtel Award, the Agilent Early Career Professor Award, and the Peter Steck Memorial Award. He is a co-founder of Boundless Bio, a biotech company developing therapies against cancers containing extrachromosomal DNA amplifications. 

Dr Anton Henson is currently a leader of a research group at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center at the Max Delbruck Center, Berlin. Anton studied medicine in Düsseldorf and Paris before completing a doctoral thesis in neuroscience at Aachen University. He did his postdoctoral research fellowship in cancer biology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. His group specialises in rare childhood cancers.