Dr Dario Altieri and his War on Cancer
Ira Pastor, ideaXme longevity and aging ambassador and founder of Bioquark, interviews Dr. Dario Altieri, President and Chief Executive Officer The Wistar Institute and Director Wistar Cancer Center. They talk of integrated prevention, diagnosis and therapy to fight the war on cancer.
Discover Dr Altieri’s career, scientific research, whom he would like to meet and why he thinks “Science shouldn’t belong to anybody!”
Ira Pastor comments:
On the last few shows, we’ve spent time on the different hierarchical levels of the biologic-architecture of the life and aging process. We talked about the genome, the micro-biome, dabbled a bit in the area of quantum biology, and even the hydro-dynamic of aspects life.
The importance of the War on Cancer
However, while all these integrated and varied biologic processes are important in the maintenance of our daily health, when things go wrong, the trickle down is unfortunately a wide range of chronic degenerative disorders responsible for human suffering and death, and an annual global healthcare expenditure of over $7 trillion in 2019.
One of the major set of pathologies responsible for that figure remains cancer. Despite the progress made in the last century in improving patient outcomes throughout “War on Cancer #1”, in 2018 The World Health Organization reported 18.1 million new cases of cancer and 9.6 million cancer deaths.
Dr Altieri leads the War on Cancer
Today’s guest, who is going to take us further along this theme as to where the future is taking us in the oncology field as we enter “War on Cancer #2” and strive to have more clinical impact, is Dr. Dario Altieri, President & Chief Executive Officer, and Director, The Wistar Institute Cancer Center.
Preparation for the War on Cancer
Dr. Altieri received his medical degree at the University of Milan School of Medicine, where he later earned a postgraduate specialty degree in clinical and experimental hematology. In 1987, he joined the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, California. In 1999, Dr. Altieri was named professor at the Yale University School of Medicine and in 2002, he became the founding chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Altieri became Wistar Cancer Center Director and first Chief Scientific Officer in September 2010. He was appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer of Wistar in 2015.
The Wistar Institute, founded in 1892 is the first independent institution in the USA devoted to biomedical research and training, and to this day remains an international leader in basic biomedical research in cancer and infectious diseases, with a focus on discoveries leading to the development of novel therapies and vaccines.
The Wistar Institute and Wistar Cancer Center
In 1972, The Wistar Institute was designated a National Cancer Institute Cancer Center in basic research—a distinction that it still holds to this day.
Wistar discoveries over the years have led to the development of vaccines for rabies, rubella, and rotavirus, the identification of numerous genes associated with different types of cancer, the development of monoclonal antibodies, and many other significant research technologies and tools.
On the show Dr. Altieri covers:
His background, where he grew up, how he got interested in science, in medicine, an eventually moved into the area of oncology.
Key research areas for the War on Cancer
Wistar’s three core research pillars. Those research areas include Gene Expression and Regulation Platform (core biology, gene regulatory networks behind oncogenic transformations), Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Platform (cancer signaling networks and tumor development), and the Cancer Dissemination Platform focused on Micro-environment Dynamics, Metastasis, and Immunology. They also include the overarching computational biology structure that is involved in helping Wistar sift through the exceptional amount of cancer data (genomics, metabolomics, proteomics, transcriptomics).
Understanding the processes that promote tumour resistance to fight the War on Cancer
At Dr. Altieri’s lab at Wistar, he is interested in exploring the mechanisms that underlie how tumour cells survive, mechanisms of cellular adaptation, the processes that promote resistance to treatment and acquisition of a more malignant phenotype, specifically targeting mitochondria. He focuses on studying the role of its various molecular chaperones that help regulate tumour bioenergetics, adaptation to cellular stress and cell survival.
Cancer heterogeneity, as we enter this world of “systems thinking” in biology, where we are gaining deeper insight into tumors , where the “old school” view of tumors being clonal, homogenous cell masses is no longer the sole case – but the new systems view is highlighting that they are complex heterogeneic baskets of cells that effect each other’s transcriptional regulatory states and can easily reconstitute one another. Hence why we see such dramatic results with some of these new smart therapies ( very small population).
We have a discussion about epigenetic intervention and cancer cell reprogramming versus cell “kill events”.
And lastly Dr Altieri talks of whom he would like to meet and why in his opinion that “science shouldn’t belong to anybody”.
Credits: text, audio and video interview, sourcing and research: Ira Pastor, ideaXme longevity and aging ambassador and founder of Bioquark.
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