DR. KORNELIA POLYAK DISCUSSES CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN BREAST CANCER RESEARCH AND TREATMENT IN THE U.S

May 31, 2007

Dr. Kornelia Polyak, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Principal Investigator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will lecture on Current Developments in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment in the U.S. on Thursday, May 31 at 2.00 p.m.  The program is organized by the U.S. Embassy in partnership with FUCA (Cancer Foundation).

Lecture:
Thursday, May 31at 2:00pm
Venue: Alexander Fleming Institute, Auditorium
Address: Cramer 1180, 2nd floor
Entrance: Free

About Dr. Kornelia Polyak:

Dr. Polyak obtained her M.D. in 1991 from the Albert Szent-Gyorgi Medical School in Szeged Hungary and her Ph.D. in 1995 from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences/Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York.  Dr. Polyak completed her postdoctoral training in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center in the laboratory of Drs. Bert Vogelstein and Ken Kinzler.  Dr. Polyak joined the faculty of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in 1998 as Assistant Professor of Medicine and she has been an Associate Professor since 2006.

The focus of her research the investigation of the molecular basis of breast cancer initiation and progression with special emphasis on the role of the microenvironment and stem cells in these processes. Her work is focusing on identifying molecular alterations between normal and cancerous breast tissue using various technologies, determining their consequences, and utilizing them to improve the clinical management of breast cancer patients.

Dr. Polyak has received several awards including the Julienne Rachele Prize (1995, Cornell University), the W. Barry Wood, Jr. Research Prize (1998, Johns Hopkins University), Kimmel Scholar Award (1999, Sidney Kimmel Foundation), V Scholar award (2001, V Foundation), the Tisch Family Outstanding Achievement Award (2005, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), the Claire W. and Richard P. Morse Research Award (2006, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), and the 27th Annual AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement (2007, AACR).