Natural Killers for Liver Cancer Event
- Time:
- 10:00 - 12:00
- Date:
- 15 November 2013
- Venue:
- International Medical University, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
For more information regarding this event, please telephone Ms Danielle Ho / Pn Rosnah Md Noor on +60 3 2731 7358 / 7421 or email danielle_ho@imu.edu.my .
Event details
Public Lecture by Professor Salim Khakoo in Malaysia
Abstract
Liver cancer is one of the commonest cancers worldwide. Treatment for this cancer is vastly under-developed compared to other forms of cancer. This is particularly important for liver cancer as often patients develop
liver cancer on a background of liver cirrhosis, which makes the cancers even harder to treat than those developing in other organs of the body. Additionally patients often come to the attention of the physician late
when the cancer is relatively advanced. Natural Killer cells are important cells in controlling cancer and viral infections. Importantly they can be associated with the control of viral infections that lead on to liver cancer,
such as Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. Our work has focused on how these cells work to recognise abnormal cells. The liver is full of natural killer cells and recent data suggests that these cells are also important in controlling liver cancer. Currently natural killer cells are used to successfully treat patient with cancers affecting the blood. They are now also a therapeutic
opportunity for patients, which are difficult to treat.
Speaker information
Professor Salim Khakoo,Hepatology and the Director of Biomedical Research (Institute for Life Sciences), University of Southampton, Southampton, UK. Prof Khakoo has previously worked at Imperial College, London, Stanford University, USA, and The Royal Free Hospital, London. He continues to work as a consultant hepatologist and see patients with all types of liver disease. He has a particular interest in viral hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Prof Khakoo was a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow from 2005-2011 and MRC Clinician Scientist from 2001-2005. Prof Khakoo’s main research interest is in chronic liver disease and immunology, particularly viral hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma and the innate immune system. He has a specific interest in natural killer (NK) cells, which are important componenets of the innate immune response to viruses and cancers. He has received funding for his research from The Medical Research Council, The Wellcome Trust, The British Liver Trust, The NIH (USA), The Cancer Research Institute (USA) and The Dana Foundation (USA). Prof Khakoo’s key research achievements to date include 1. The identification of NK cells as key components in the immune response to HCV (published in Hepatology and Gastroenterology) 2. The identification of MHC Class 1 bound peptides as a novel control mechanism for NK cells (two manuscripts in PNAS). Discovery of the rapid evolution of NK cell receptors (published in Immunity). 3. The discovery of an association between inhibitory killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) and the outcome of HCV infection, which was published in Science.