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SUMMARY:Determining the age of Barrett’s esophagus using stochastic mult
 iscale modeling and epigenetic clocks  - Dr Kathleen Curtius from UCSD  in
  San Diego 
DTSTART:20210419T160000Z
DTEND:20210419T171500Z
UID:TALK154705@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:101080
DESCRIPTION:Early cancer detection strategies in esophageal adenocarcinoma
  focus on screening individuals at particular ages to check for the precur
 sor Barrett’s esophagus (BE)\, and then monitoring those patients found 
 with BE over time. Due to lack of randomized control trial data\, screenin
 g programs suffer from levels of both under-diagnosis and over-diagnosis a
 s the consequence of sub-optimal risk stratification and timing of initial
  screening and surveillance. To address these shortcomings\, I will presen
 t mathematical methods for inferring dynamics of field cancerization in BE
 \, such as estimating the patient’s age at onset of BE (a clinically uno
 bservable event). Here we will incorporate multiscale data\, ranging from 
 population-level incidence to tissue-level epigenetic changes\, into stoch
 astic models of clonal evolution. I will present a Bayesian molecular cloc
 k model to infer patient-specific Barrett’s onset age based on changes i
 n DNA methylation and discuss extensions of these methods to include spati
 al growth dynamics. \n\nShort bio: \nDr. Kit Curtius obtained a bachelor
 ’s degree in Mathematics at UCLA and then completed a PhD in Applied Mat
 h at University of Washington in 2015. During her PhD\, Kit’s research f
 ocused on mathematical modeling of cancer within the Computational Biology
  Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center\, Seattle\, WA. In 
 2016\, she moved to the UK to do a postdoc with Prof Trevor Graham in the 
 Evolution and Cancer Lab at Barts Cancer Institute\, London. Kit held an M
 RC Rutherford Fellowship at BCI before returning to the US in July 2020 to
  start her group\, the Quantitative Cancer Control Lab\, as an Assistant P
 rofessor at UCSD in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Moores Ca
 ncer Center.  \n\n
LOCATION:ZOOM (live)
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