BME 7900 Seminar - Alexander (Sandy) Anderson, PhD

Description

Next we welcome Dr. Alexander (Sandy) Anderson from the the Moffitt Cancer Center. His talk will be "Eco-Evolutionary dynamics of tumor metabolism and immune response". Bio: Dr. Anderson is Founding Richard O. Jacobson Chair of the Integrated Mathematical Oncology (IMO) department and Co-Director of the Physical Sciences in Oncology Center (PSOC) at Moffitt Cancer Center. For the last 20 years he has been developing mathematical models of many different aspects of tumor progression and treatment that require a tight dialogue between theory and experiment. He has over 100 peer-reviewed, scientific publications, is a Principal Investigator of several NIH/NCI grants and has mentored 7 interns, 10 graduate students and 11 postdoctoral students and 7 faculty. Dr. Anderson performed his doctoral work on hybrid mathematical models of nematode movement in heterogeneous environments at the Centre for Nonlinear Systems in Biology, Dundee University, UK. His postdoctoral work was on hybrid models of tumor-induced angiogenesis with Prof. Mark Chaplain at Bath University, UK. He moved back to Dundee in 1996 where he worked for the next 12 years on developing mathematical models of many different aspects of tumor progression and treatment, including anti-angiogenesis, radiotherapy, tumor invasion, intra-tumor heterogeneity evolution of aggressive phenotypes and the role of the microenvironment. Due to his belief in the crucial role of mathematical models in cancer research he moved his group to the Moffitt Cancer Center in 2008 to establish the IMO department. Since his arrival at Moffitt his focus has shifted to developing organ specific models of tumor initiation and progression that examine the key role of the microenvironment as a selective force in the growth and evolution of cancer. A common theme of these organ specific models is the importance of understanding normal organ form and function particularly in relation to homeostatic regulation and how cancer disrupts and exploits these mechanisms. Building models that can generate testable hypothesis and utilizing experimental data to parameterize them is a key component of his research. Dr. Anderson has developed a diverse suite of mathematical and computational tools covering the gamut of spatial and temporal scales that cancer encompasses. In recent years, cancer treatment has become a significant driver of his research and using mathematical models that connect our basic science understanding of a given cancer with clinical translation. This has led to the development of eco-evolutionary therapies that seek to control cancer rather than eradicate it. Through smart treatment scheduling, with combination therapies as well microenvironment targeted treatments, he has developed novel treatments for prostate, breast, lung and skin cancer.