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SELECTBIO Conferences Cancer Immunotherapy & Biofluid Biopsies 2016

Tony Godfrey's Biography



Tony Godfrey, Associate Chair – Research, Department of Surgery, Boston University Medical Center

Tony E. Godfrey, PhD, Associate Chair for Surgical Research and Associate Professor of Surgery, Boston University School of Medicine, earned a bachelor’s of science degree in biochemistry from Brunel University in England, followed by a doctorate in molecular biology and biochemistry, also from Brunel. He attended the University of California, San Francisco, for postdoctoral fellowships followed by faculty appointments at the University of Pittsburgh, Mount Sinai Hospital, NY, and the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY. Dr. Godfrey’s research is focused on cancer genetics and molecular pathology. Research projects use state-of-the-art genetic and genomic approaches to address clinical needs in the areas of cancer diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. Currently the major focus of Dr. Godfrey’s research is on Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma. The Godfrey lab works closely with translational research teams comprised of surgeons, pathologists and oncologists in order to develop new molecular approaches to cancer detection, staging and treatment.

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Detection of Tumor-specific Mutations in Circulating, Cell-free DNA: Potential for a Biomarker in Esophageal Adenocarcinoma

Wednesday, 2 November 2016 at 14:00

Add to Calendar ▼2016-11-02 14:00:002016-11-02 15:00:00Europe/LondonDetection of Tumor-specific Mutations in Circulating, Cell-free DNA: Potential for a Biomarker in Esophageal AdenocarcinomaCancer Immunotherapy and Biofluid Biopsies 2016 in Boston, USABoston, USASELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Recent studies have shown that tumor-specific DNA from multiple types of tumors can be detected circulating in plasma and this has raised the possibility of “liquid biopsies” using mutated tumor DNA as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker. Detection of mutations with allele frequencies below 0.1% remains challenging however given that circulating cell-free DNA is highly degraded and in low abundance.  Detection of multiple different mutations in the same sample presents an additional challenge particularly when the mutation panel may change from patient to patient. We have developed a novel approach, called SimSen-Seq, to introduce molecular barcodes into sequencing libraries with DNA inputs as low as 5ng. Barcodes enable differentiation of true mutants from background noise introduced by Taq polymerase errors and permits detection of variant alleles with frequencies below 0.1%. The barcodes are protected from mis-priming using a hairpin structure which permits a high degree of multiplexing and flexibility for detection of multiple mutations from one plasma sample.  We are using this technology to test the utility of liquid biopsy as a biomarker for esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) diagnosis and disease monitoring.


Add to Calendar ▼2016-11-01 00:00:002016-11-02 00:00:00Europe/LondonCancer Immunotherapy and Biofluid Biopsies 2016Cancer Immunotherapy and Biofluid Biopsies 2016 in Boston, USABoston, USASELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com