This book, part contributed volume, part proceedings, discusses state-of-the-art advances on human cell transformation in cell models for the study of cancer and aging. Several of the chapters are from the Human Cell Transformation: Advances in Cell Models for the Study of Cancer and Aging conference that was held in June 2018 at McGill University. The authors represent international expertise on a wide variety of topics ranging from different types of cancer (prostate, bone, breast, etc.) to tumor microenvironment, tumor progression, homogeneity, and possible therapies and treatments.
Johng S. Rhim, MD Associate Director, Center for Prostate Disease Research (CPDR), Research Professor Emeritus, Department of Surgery and Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences (USUHS). Dr. Rhim has served as an associate director, the CPDR and professor of surgery in the department of surgery at the USUHS, in Bethesda, MD, a state–of-art translational research program that studies prostate cancer and prostate disease in the military healthcare system. Working in this capacity since 1999, he has also been a research professor in the department of surgery since 2000. Dr. Rhim spent 12 years as a project director of cancer research at Microbiological Associates, and 20 years as a senior investigator for the National Cancer Institute, both located in Bethesda, MD. He is an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of human cell transformation and his success in the development of cell culture systems has opened this field to the analysis of cellular, molecular and genetic mechanism of actions of chemical carcinogens, oncogenes and radiation.
Earning an MD at Seoul National University College of Medicine in Korea in 1957, Dr. Rhim came to the United States in 1958. He quickly began serving a research fellow at Dr. Albert B. Sabin’s laboratory, the Children’s Hospital Research Foundation in Cincinnati, OH, then worked in the same capacity at Baylor University College of Medicine in Huston, TX, for another two years. A research associate for the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburg and at Louisiana State University School of Medicine thereafter, he subsequently spent two years as a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, from 1964 to 1966.
Dr. Rhim has also been a longtime adjunctive professor at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC, since 1988. He has also served as an editor for “ Neoplastic Transformation in Human Cell Cultures” numerous timessince 1991 and has contributed more than 320 articles, book chapters, and patented work to his field. He has been cited in numerous issues of Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare and Who’s who in Science and Engineering since 1999. In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who’s Who community, Dr. Rhim has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement in 2018.
Anatoly Dritschilo, M.D., is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Radiation Medicine (Georgetown University Medical Center) and Chief to Radiation Oncology service at the MedStar-Georgetown University Hospital. Dr. Dritschilo holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a MS degree from the New Jersey College of Engineering, earned his medical degree from the College of Medicine of New Jersey and completed his residency and fellowship at the Harvard, Joint Center for Radiation Therapy. He has held leadership positions at Georgetown University, including Medical Director of Georgetown University Hospital from 1994 to 1997 and Interim Director of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center from 2005 to 2007.
Dr. Dritschilo’s research includes basic science (laboratory) studies of radiation carcinogenesis in human cells, investigations of molecular mechanisms of cancer resistance to radiation therapy and discovery of radiation sensitizing drugs to increase cures of patients treated for cancers with radiation therapy. He has performed clinical trials of radiation sensitizers and has discovered new drugs for cancer treatment in combination with radiation therapy. He has more than 250 scientific publications, is a Fellow of the American College of Radiology and an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
Dr. Richard Kremer is currently Professor and Director of the Bone and Mineral Unit in the Departmentof Medicine of McGill University and McGill University Health Centre. He is also the Academic Director of the Division of Medical Biochemistry at McGill University. Dr Kremer’s laboratory has focused on the role of calcium regulating hormones in health and disease. His laboratory aims to elucidate the role of 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D, the active form of vitamin D, and of parathyroid hormone related protein (PTHrP) in tumor initiation, growth and metastasis.
