The Second Annual Cancer Biology Retreat was held on May 24, 2011 in the Life Sciences Conference Center in BioPark Building Two. The Cancer Biology Retreat was a one day event open to all graduate students as well as postdoctoral and clinical fellows, and faculty involved in cancer or cancer-related research. It was a great success with 117 participants.

This event was a great opportunity for all participants to interact and share research ideas and techniques in an informal and relaxed environment.

The program included oral and poster presentations selected from abstracts submitted by postdoctoral fellows and graduate students.

Outstanding abstracts selected for oral presentation were:

• Graduate Students: Amanda Schech, Michelle Sallin, Nicole Perry, Aric Colunga, Kaushal Asrani
• Postdoctoral Fellows: Michele Vitolo, Sarah Brennan-Laun, Karthika Natarajan, Changyou Zhan, Kavita Bhalla

Outstanding Poster prize winners were:

• Graduate Students: Kathryn Hodge, Jessica Bennett, Nada Binmadi
• Postdoctoral Fellows: Kavita Bhalla, Suryakant Niture, MinJung Kim

Keynote Speaker:

Terry Van Dyke, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Preclinical Research at the NCI in Frederick, MD. Dr. Van Dyke is recognized for her laboratory and research focusing on the development of mouse models of human cancer.

Organizing Committee:

Kathryn Hodge (Chair), Kaushal Asrani, Emily Cheng, Gabriel Eades, Marey Shriver, Marguerite Buzza, Ph.D., Jeff Winkles, Ph.D. (Faculty Advisor) and Sharron Graves, (Program Manager, GPILS Molecular Medicine)

Sponsors:

The Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, the University of Maryland BioPark and the Graduate Program in Life Sciences.