The Herbert and Florence Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics hosts special seminars from time to time. The presentations are open to the Columbia community (in person and online) and to researchers outside Columbia (via Zoom).
On Wednesday, October 21 (2:00 PM ET), IICD welcomes Dr. Harry Kabodha, co-founder of Varosync. Seminar hosted by Dr. Simon Tavaré. The seminar will take place in person in Schermerhorn Hall 603 (Morningside Heights campus). If you wish to attend the seminar remotely, please register using the following link: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/TgHYou7aTVul40Sg12ZCVg
Title: From Cell States to Patients: Building Cancer Models That Survive Clinical Translation
Abstract: Computational models can describe molecular structure, cellular state, spatial organization, and tumor evolution in remarkable detail. Strong results on molecular or cellular data do not always predict what will happen in patients because important biological and clinical information can disappear between the model and the patient. Cases involving responses linked to biomarkers, acquired resistance, and toxicity caused by treatment show where these gaps appear. They also show how leaked information and tests that do not reflect the clinical decision can make benchmark results look stronger than they are. The talk ends with a practical way to judge whether a model is making a claim its data can support, whether that claim survives new evidence, and what result would show that it is wrong.
Bio: Harry Kabodha is co-founder and CEO of Varosync, an applied research lab focused on clinical translation and therapeutic risk. He earned his MS in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University and conducted research at the Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics in Bianca Dumitrascu’s lab, where he studied generative approaches for reconstructing spatial information from scRNA-seq data. His current work examines how molecular biology, therapeutic history, patient heterogeneity, and clinical evidence can support more defensible decisions before major clinical and capital commitments are made.
If you would like to meet one-on-one (possibly via Zoom) or attend the lunch or dinner with the speaker, please contact the event organizer.
