FICAN West Guest Lecture by Cory Abate-Shen

FICAN West Guest Lecture

Welcome to this afternoon’s seminar featuring Professor Cory Abate‑Shen, a leading international expert in cancer biology and metastasis. This guest lecture offers a valuable opportunity to gain insights into cutting‑edge research on circulating tumor cells and metastatic mechanisms, and to engage with advances that are highly relevant to both basic and translational cancer research.

Attendees are welcome to join for coffee and pulla starting at 14:30 before the program begins on site.

There is a possibility to listen to the lecture by Dr. Abate-Shen remotely via Zoom at 15: Link to Zoom.

All researchers across FICAN are warmly welcome to listen. No registration is needed.

Date & time: 21.5.2026 at 14.45-16
Place: Säätiö-Sali, Medisiina D, 1. krs., Kiinamyllynkatu 10 D, Turku

Program

14.45-15.00    Introduction, Maria Sundvall, MD PhD, Consultant in Clinical Oncology, University of Turku

15.00-16.00   How circulating tumor cells find their way to distant sites — studying metastasis in genetically engineered mouse models, Cory Abate-Shen, Ph.D., Columbia University

Get to know the guest speaker: Abate-Shen Lab, Dr. Abate-Shen National Academy of Sciences

Selected references from the speaker for this talk:

Arriaga JM, Ronaldson-Bouchard K, Picech F, Nunes de Almeida F, Afari S, Chhouri H, Vunjak-Novakovic G, Abate-Shen C. In vivo genome-wide CRISPR screening identifies CITED2 as a driver of prostate cancer bone metastasis. Oncogene. 2024 Apr;43(17):1303-1315.

Vasciaveo A, Arriaga JM, de Almeida FN, Zou M, Douglass EF, Picech F, Shibata M, Rodriguez-Calero A, de Brot S, Mitrofanova A, Chua CW, Karan C, Realubit R, Pampou S, Kim JY, Afari SN, Mukhammadov T, Zanella L, Corey E, Alvarez MJ, Rubin MA, Shen MM, Califano A, Abate-Shen C. OncoLoop: A Network-Based Precision Cancer Medicine Framework. Cancer Discov. 2023 Feb 6;13(2):386-409.

Papachristodoulou A, Rodriguez-Calero A, Panja S, Margolskee E, Virk RK, Milner TA, Martina LP, Kim JY, Di Bernardo M, Williams AB, Maliza EA, Caputo JM, Haas C, Wang V, De Castro GJ, Wenske S, Hibshoosh H, McKiernan JM, Shen MM, Rubin MA, Mitrofanova A, Dutta A, Abate-Shen C. NKX3.1 Localization to Mitochondria Suppresses Prostate Cancer Initiation. Cancer Discov. 2021 Sep;11(9):2316-2333.

Arriaga JM, Panja S, Alshalalfa M, Zhao J, Zou M, Giacobbe A, Madubata CJ, Kim JY, Rodriguez A, Coleman I, Virk RK, Hibshoosh H, Ertunc O, Ozbek B, Fountain J, Jeffrey Karnes R, Luo J, Antonarakis ES, Nelson PS, Feng FY, Rubin MA, De Marzo AM, Rabadan R, Sims PA, Mitrofanova A, Abate-Shen C. A MYC and RAS co-activation signature in localized prostate cancer drives bone metastasis and castration resistance. Nat Cancer. 2020 Nov;1(11):1082-1096.

More information about the speaker:
Dr. Abate-Shen is an internationally recognized leader in genitourinary malignancies. Her innovative studies of genetically engineered mouse models for these cancers have led to the discovery of new biomarkers for early detection, as well as advances in cancer prevention and treatment. Her studies of castration-resistant prostate cancer led to the identification of lineage plasticity as a key mechanism of drug resistance, and her investigations of prostate cancer metastasis have elucidated new mechanisms of metastasis as well as potential new targets for treating bone metastasis.
Dr. Abate-Shen is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including an American Cancer Society Research Professorship and most recently a recipient of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) -Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Award. She has served in various leadership roles in the AACR, including as a member of its board of directors. She has also participated extensively in national grant review sections, including as chair of the NIH Molecular Oncology Study Section. She has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute, as well as its Blue Ribbon Panel Working Group for the Cancer Moonshot Initiative.