APSA Newsletter - Phi Psi » 2008 Winter, Volume 2, No. 3 » APSA NYC Regional Meeting in Review

APSA NYC Regional Meeting in Review

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Zachary Dezman, Institutional Representative, Albany Medical College

David Braun opens the symposiumThe New York symposium took place at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. 140 students from 40 different institutions attended. APSA president Freddy Nguyen and David Braun, the Organizing Chair, kick off the day with a welcome and opening remarks. Dr. Harold Varmus, the first speaker, shared his experience along his long road towards medicine and science, emphasizing the importance of a prolonged adolescence - a "walkabout" - in his personal and professional development. Dr. Varmus continued by relating the history of cancer genetics and clinical oncology, and how they were once two separate circles on a Venn diagram. As he described his career in both fields, he detailed how new knowledge and new innovations have forced the two fields to come together, as shown by today's genetically targeted cancer treatments. Dr. Varmus concluded by addressing the need for a Human Cancer Genome Project, which would sequence the 50 most common cancers, and the need for the free dissemination of scientific knowledge.