Physician-scientist, oncologist and self-proclaimed zebrafish-ologist, Richard White, M.D., Ph.D., is set to give the keynote address at the 30th Annual Graduate Student Research Forum on Tuesday, March 20. Dr. White, who is head of the Richard White Lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, will present “What Do Fish Tell Us About Human Cancer?” His research focuses on cancer metastasis in a transparent strain of zebrafish they have dubbed “Casper.” The transparent nature of the fish, as well as its ability to develop cancer in a manner similar to humans, has allowed unprecedented imaging of how tumors interact with their surrounding microenvironment and its properties allow for the investigation of thousands of potential drugs that could be used to treat metastasis in a way that cannot be done in other laboratory settings.
Dr. White’s lab uses state-of-the-art genetic engineering and imaging to dissect the mechanisms that allow tumors to successfully disseminate and take hold in new locations. Using a powerful genetic model of melanoma, his lab aims to uncover novel mechanisms that underlie cancer evolution and metastasis. Dr. White has rapidly become one of the pioneers in developing an in vivo assay to observe the metastasis of cancer.
Dr. White holds a clinical appointment on the gastrointestinal oncology service and a research appointment in the cancer biology and genetics program of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. at Albany Medical School and completed a residency in internal medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital, a medical oncology fellowship at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The 30th Annual Graduate Student Research Forum will be moderated by Jeanette Sutherland, Ph.D. ’11, M.S. ’06, and Edward J. Messina, Ph.D. ’73, professor of physiology, will be presented with the Honored Faculty Award.
30th Annual Graduate Student Research Forum Schedule