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SELECTBIO Conferences Prognostic, Predictive, and POC: Biomarkers from Research to Clinic

Chamindie Punyadeera's Biography



Chamindie Punyadeera, Associate Professor, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology

Associate Professor Chamindie Punyadeera is an entrepreneur with a track record in innovation, industry engagement, intellectual property generation, and business development. She is a globally acknowledged pioneer in salivary diagnostics. She obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Chemistry from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, prior to undertaking postdoctoral training with Professor Ton de Goeij, at the University of Masstricht, The Netherlands. She subsequently joined Royal Philips Electronics, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, as a Senior Scientist/Project Leader. Currently she heads the Saliva Translational Research (STaR) laboratory at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Her team focuses on developing novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases, head and neck cancers and linking oral health to systemic diseases. She has collaborative projects with Johnson & Johnson, MDx-health, Mawi-DNA Technologies and Oasis Diagnostics, is a consultant to Oasis Diagnostics® and FLUIDS iQ™. She has 13 PCT patents and over 60 refereed publications, including 4 invited book chapters, and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Oral Oncology and the Associate Editor to the Journal of Dento Medical Science.

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Salivary Epigenetic Biomarkers To Detect Head and Neck Cancers

Thursday, 15 January 2015 at 14:00

Add to Calendar ▼2015-01-15 14:00:002015-01-15 15:00:00Europe/LondonSalivary Epigenetic Biomarkers To Detect Head and Neck CancersPrognostic, Predictive, and POC: Biomarkers from Research to Clinic in San Diego, California, USASan Diego, California, USASELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) encompasses a diverse group of aggressive tumors and is the 6th most common cancer with 650,000 new cases per annum worldwide. HNSCC patients, particularly those with a history of smoking, often develop secondary tumors. Currently, there are no diagnostic tests to detect these cancers at an early stage, as such, most patients present with metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis, leading to 5-year survival  of <60%. With an increasing recognition of the link between oral and systemic disease, attention has turned to saliva as an alternative diagnostic medium. Saliva collection is non-invasive, easy sampling with multiple sampling opportunities and is ideal for 3rd world countries. It is well established that tumor cells secrete biomolecules into the saliva. DNA promoter methylation plays a key role in the transcriptional silencing of these tumor suppressor genes, allowing continuous proliferation and subsequent fabrication of neoplasm. We collected resting saliva from HNSCC patients (n=31) and healthy controls (n=20) and interrogated methylation in RASSF1a, TIMP-3, p16, MED-15, two methylation sites using a sensitive methylation-specific PCR (MSP) assay. For the 5 panel, using logistic regression, an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.96 with a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 90%. We demonstrate that this salivary panel is clinically useful in detecting HNSCC.


Add to Calendar ▼2015-01-15 00:00:002015-01-16 00:00:00Europe/LondonPrognostic, Predictive, and POC: Biomarkers from Research to ClinicPrognostic, Predictive, and POC: Biomarkers from Research to Clinic in San Diego, California, USASan Diego, California, USASELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com