Watch the engaging presentations from the first CONNECT educational seminar for the Norwegian oncology community.
CONNECT Working Group 1 hosted an educational seminar titled "Diagnosis of homologous recombination (HR-) deficiency. Existing & emerging technologies - how to compare?" presented as a digital Zoom meeting on 7 June 2021. The meeting gathered diagnostics and clinical experts from the entire Norway and representatives of the CONNECT consortium.
The two speakers Simon J. Boulton, Senior Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute, honorary Professor at University College London and VP Science Strategy at Artios Pharma, and Maria Rossing, Chief Physician, Center for Genomic Medicine, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark addressed the topic in excellent presentations, which were highly educational and stimulated a lively discussion.
Boulton focussed his presentation on targeting DNA damage response in cancer.
“I am very pleased that we could attract a capacity and leader in the homologous recombination field to give a talk. I have followed Simon´s work since he set up his lab at Cancer Research UK in the early 2000s and we worked together to elucidate the mechanisms of cytotoxicity induced by uracil incorporation. Simon has made many important discoveries about mechanisms of HR, we found that the mechanisms involved are much more complicated than anticipated. As DNA damage responses, including HR, are so central to cancer therapy, it is essential that we utilise this knowledge in full for the benefit of patients,” commented Hilde Nilsen.
Hilde is the Head of The Department of Clinical Molecular Biology at Akershus University Hospital, a member of the IMPRESS Trial Steering Committee, a member of InPreD and co-organized this seminar for CONNECT Working Group 1.
Maria Rossing complemented Boulton’s talk with novel perspectives from Denmark and Finland as she presented The Nordic HRD LDT Consortium.
“AstraZeneca has facilitated the creation of a Nordic HRD LDT Consortium with HRD experts from several Nordic University Hospitals. The Consortium aim is to develop and validate a HRD testing solution, that gives the patient access to a high-quality sensitivity test for treatment decision,” explained Per B. Andersen, Nordic Diagnostic Manager, AstraZeneca Nordic and one of the Working Group Leads in CONNECT WG 1.
You can access the video of the two presentations below. CONNECT partners can access the slide decks via TEAM or reach out to Jutta Heix (jh@oslocancercluster.no).