Student Research Forum

The dates for the 2013 Student Research Forum are Thursday, April 4 and Friday, April 5.

 Each year the Graduate Student Council sponsors the Student Research Forum (SRF). A two-day interactive event, this year's SRF will be held on April 4-5, 2013. It will showcase research conducted by students from the schools of medicine, nursing, health professionals, and graduate studies. In addition to the student presentations, the SRF features the extremely popular A.L Chapman Keynote Research Lecture focused on the professional development of attendees.

2012 SRF A.L. Chapman Keynote Research Lecture

  The A.L. Chapman Lecture series was created in honor of A.L. Chapman, Professor Emeritus of Anatomy & Cell   Biology and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Emeritus.

C. Athena Aktipis, Ph.D.

Friday, April 5, 2013
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
G013 School of Nursing Auditorium

Title of Presentation:

"Fundamental Questions in Cancer Evolution: Knowns and Unknowns"

Bio

University of California, San Francisco

Director, Human and Social Evolution, Center for Evolution and Cancer

Research Scientist, Surgery Department

Arizona State University

Research Scientist (2011-present), Department of Psychology

Consultant (2009-present), Decision Center for a Desert City

Interests: Human evolution of cancer suppression and susceptibility; Social evolution of neoplastic cells.

Cooperation theory and evolutionary modeling can be applied to diverse phenomena, from human altruism to the behavior of cancer cells. Dr. Aktipis' work in cooperation theory has demonstrated that simple rules can underlie the evolution and maintenance of cooperation. She applies her knowledge and background in cooperation theory and evolutionary modeling in several practical domains including medical decision making, evolutionary medicine and cancer biology. Dr. Aktipis works on fundamental questions in cancer evolution, including the evolution of metastasis in neoplasms and the evolution of cancer susceptibility in humans.

Dr. Atkipis also works on the evolution of cancer susceptibility with a focus on life history tradeoffs.  Her work on evolutionary medicine education includes evaluating the uptake of evolutionary thinking by medical students at UCSF and participating in a national working group on evolutionary medicine (through the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, NESCent). She is the director of the human and social evolution area at the UCSF Center for Evolution and Cancer.