Noted cancer biologist Prof Inder Verma visited the campus recently to deliver an Infosys Science Foundation Public lecture. Prof Verma is an Infosys Prize Jury Chair for Life Sciences and American Cancer Society Professor of Molecular Biology in the Laboratory of Genetics at Salk Institute for Biological Studies, California. He is one of the pioneers in development of viral based gene therapy vectors.

The lecture titled “Cancer Stem Cells: Plasticity Vs Hierarchy” was attended by a large number of students and faculty members from NCBS and the neighboring research institutes. In the talk Prof. Verma discussed Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive form of brain cancer with very limited therapeutic interventions, leading to a very short life span of about 14 months in the patients. In his lecture, he discussed experiments done to recapitulate glioblastoma in mouse models similar to human brain tumours. He further demonstrated that each tumor cell displayed stem cell like properties and had the capacity to grow a tumor. These cancer stem cells are self-renewing, differentiating into the cell types of the original cancer and are capable of tumor formation. The stemness of the cancer cells explains the high frequency of recurrence of tumor growth in the patients. He also discussed various experiments done in his lab to show that inhibition of NFĸB signaling could possibly enhance the patient survival and the inhibitors can be used  as a potential therapeutic. Prof. Verma enthusiastically answered all the queries posed to him by the young researchers and was seen interacting with many more students after his lecture.

About the Infosys Science Foundation Public Lecture series

The Infosys Science Foundation organizes ISF Public lectures which are given by the ISF jurors and Infosys Prize winners on their work. The aim of these series of talks given by the well known senior scientists is to motivate and cultivate passion for scientific research and transmit their experiences to the junior researchers in the country. Previous talks coordinated via this program can be accessed here

http://www.infosyssciencefoundation.com/lectures/videos/index.asp