The 2013/2014 RCSI MiniMed Open Lecture Series continues tomorrow night. Two lectures will be given on the subjects of human evolution and cancer therapies.

Dr Gianpiero Cavalleri, Senior Lecturer in RCSI's Department of Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics (MCT) will give the opening talk on the night. In his lecture, called ‘Health, Evolution and History', Gianpiero will illustrate how indigenous high altitude populations, such as Tibetans, the Oromo (of Ethiopian plateau) and the Quecha (of the Andes mountains in South America), who have been living at high altitude for many generations, have evolved in distinct ways, to adapt to the low levels of oxygen. He will discuss the role of natural selection in this process.

Fresh from a recent research expedition to the Himalayas, Dr Cavalleri will discuss how this adaptation has impacted on the health on these populations and explore why these people suffer less from illness associated with high altitude. Speaking ahead of the lecture, Dr Cavalleri said: “Indigenous populations such as the Tibetans have adapted to low oxygen levels in the body over generations which allows todays population to thrive in areas of high altitude where most of us would suffer from a variety of conditions including chronic mountain sickness. Most people who travel to a high altitude respond to the lack of oxygen by making more haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of human blood. This is why athletes like to train at altitude, but long term this can cause chronic mountain sickness. However, indigenous Tibetan people have evolved in a manner that maintains low haemoglobin concentrations, despite living at high altitude.”

The second lecture of the evening will be given by Dr David Murray, a Senior Research Scientist in the RCSI Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, in association with Dr Annette Byrne, Head of the Laboratory of Tumour Biology & Molecular Imaging & Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, and is entitled ‘Tackling Cancer by Targeting Tumour Blood Vessels'. 

The process of 'angiogenesis' is a unifying hallmark of all cancers where blood vessels are provided to tumours to supply nutrients and oxygen, thus allowing them to develop from a few cells to a life-threatening mass that can grow and spread. Dr Murray will discuss how a better understanding of angiogenesis has allowed the development of targeted therapies (anti-angiogenics) to knock out tumour blood vessels, and in so doing, starve and shrink the tumour.

Speaking ahead of the RCSI MiniMed lecture, Dr Byrne said, “The team at RCSI's Laboratory of Tumour Biology and Molecular Imaging are focused on developing and improving anti-angiogenic therapies for the treatment of human cancers. This work has in particular, been funded by large EU project grants such as the Angiopredict and AngioTox initiatives. 

“During this talk, we will present an overview of angiogenesis and give an update on our research which is largely focused on improving patient treatment response. We will also highlight recent exciting data that supports the use of a new ‘nanoparticle' treatment approach to improve response to anti-angiogenics for patients bearing untreatable malignant brain tumours.”