Integrated Calendar

For the past few years our group has been investigating various configurations of gas-avalanche detectors with potential applications as sampling elements in (Semi-) Digital Hadronic CALorimeters (S)DHCALs. This has led to a particularly promising detector structure ¬ the Resistive Plate WELL (RPWELL). Recent results show that this cost-effective, large-area, compact (thin), robust, simple-to-produce, fast gas-avalanche sensing-element can fully meet the DHCAL requirements, with performance characteristics surpassing those of other technologies. In particular, our studies demonstrated a completely discharge-free operation in argon-based gas mixtures, also under a high-rate hadronic beam. This unique feature ¬ key to the successful operation of the detector as an (S)DHCAL sensing element - also makes the RPWELL an attractive, industrially mass-produced detector for large-area applications in particle-, astroparticle- and nuclear- physics, as well as in homeland security.

Tumor-specific combinations of oncogenic mutations often free cancer cells from their reliance on growth factors. One important example comprises the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its kin, HER2. In tumors, both EGFR and HER2 frequently display overexpression, internal deletions and point mutations. Accordingly, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) specific to these receptors have been approved for clinical applications. My lecture will introduce EGFR and HER2 in the context of a signaling network comprising two additional receptors, HER3 and HER4, and 11 growth factors, all sharing an EGF-like structure and binding to HER family members.
The principles of network biology, such as rewiring, robustness and pathway redundancy, translate to short–term responses to oncology drugs. In other words, patients treated with drugs intercepting EGFR or HER2 often develop resistance due to emergence of compensatory mechanisms. My lecture will exemplify these principles in context of several relatively hard to treat tumors. The tumors I will discuss include breast cancers, both HER2-enriched and triple-negative, ovarian cancer and advanced non-small cell lung tumors that acquired resistance to EGFR’s TKIs.

TBA