Attenuating oncogenic transcription with small molecules

A Lola and John Grace Distinguished Lecture in Cancer Research
This seminar will also be televised to AGORA Auditorium Paternot + Biopôle B301/CLE + Geneva University-CMU Auditorium Paul Boymond B02.226

Angela Koehler is the Goldblith Career Development Professor in Applied Biology in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT and an intramural member of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. She is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute and a Founding Member of the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine. Her research group aims to discover and develop functional small-molecule probes of transcriptional regulators, including chromatin modifying enzymes and oncogenic transcription factors. Validated probes may be used to advance the understanding of transcription in development and disease. Selected probes may be developed into imaging agents, diagnostic tools, or therapeutic leads.

Angela received her B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Reed College in 1997. There she worked under the guidance of Professor Arthur Glasfeld on structural and biochemical studies of proteins that recognize tRNA or DNA. In 2003, she received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University where she worked with Professor Stuart Schreiber to develop novel technologies for identifying and characterizing interactions between proteins and small molecules. Upon graduation, she became an Institute Fellow in the Chemical Biology Program at the Broad Institute and a Group Leader for the NCI Initiative for Chemical Genetics.

At MIT, Angela serves at the Faculty Director of the High-Throughput Sciences Facility in the Swanson Biotechnology Center. She is also a co-Director of the MIT Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Program and a member of the Committee on Pre-Health Advising. Angela has served on the Chemists in Cancer Research Executive Advisory Board for AACR. Awards include being named a Genome Technology Young Investigator and a Broad Institute Merkin Fellow as well as the Novartis Lectureship in Chemistry, the Ono Pharma Breakthrough Science Award, the AACR-Bayer Innovation and Discovery Award and the Junior Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching. Angela serves as a consultant or scientific advisory board member to several pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies and has founded two biotechnology companies.