Diana Azzam, PhD joined us on OsteoBites to discuss her lab's work on functional precision medicine for the treatment of pediatric and adult cancers. This presentation describes the foundational principles of functional precision medicine as applied to pediatric cancers and how major technological improvements as well as an explosive broadening of the cancer pharmacopeia has enabled the bridging of genomics with functional drug testing as clinical decision support tools to impact patient care.

Diana Azzam, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and Research Director of the Center for Advancing Personalized Cancer Treatments at Florida International University. She has a Masters in Biochemistry from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon and a PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of Miami, Florida. Her lab focuses on implementing functional precision medicine (FPM) approaches in adult and pediatric cancer patients that have run out of treatment options. Working with local hospitals including Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and Cleveland Clinic Florida, her lab delivers individualized treatment plans based on a patient’s cancer genomic profile and ex vivo drug response. She is currently engaged in two clinical studies to assess feasibility and clinical utility of FPM in relapsed/refractory patients with childhood cancer (ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT05857969) and adult cancer (ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT06024603). Dr. Azzam is working on setting up the first CLIA-certified lab in the State of Florida dedicated for functional cancer drug testing. Her goal is to launch large-scale prospective multi-center randomized clinical trials to better assess efficacy of FPM approaches in the treatment of refractory/relapsed cancers. In parallel, she is working on utilizing FPM as a tool to reduce health disparities in childhood cancer patients from minority populations. She is also integrating a novel machine learning approach to identify specific biomarkers among minority populations that can be targeted using FDA-approved drugs. Her lab also investigates cancer stem cells and how they may result from chronic environmental exposures to toxic metals such as arsenic.
After a short presentation on this research, she will take questions from attendees. Share your questions in advance with us at Christina@MIBAgents.org.

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