Dr. Luis Diaz, will offer The Nathan Ackerman Memorial Lecture, “A New Immunological Approach to Cancer,” at Temple Emanuel of Great Neck on March 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Diaz is a leading authority in oncology, having pioneered several genomic diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for cancer.
He is an attending physician at the Johns Hopkins Hospital where he specializes in the treatment of pancreatic and colorectal cancers.
He is currently a member of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics and Therapeutics where he directs translational medicine and is the Director of the Swim Across America Lab.
Diaz has undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Michigan, and completed residency training at the Osler Medical Service at Johns Hopkins and medical oncology training at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.
Diaz is involved in near-patient translational studies with the goal of bringing diagnostic and therapeutic genomic strategies to patients with cancer.
Most recently, his work has involved the clinical development of tumor-derived DNA as a biomarker for cancer screening, early detection, monitoring and measurement of early residual disease.
The basis of this work is the well-accepted premise that cancer is defined by a discrete set of genetic alterations.
This approach combines a next-generation genomic sequencing with novel digital techniques to count tumor-derived DNA fragments in complex mixtures of DNA.
This work was highlighted in the New York Times, NPR, CNN and the NBC nightly news.
Admission is free. Call 516-482-5701 for further information.
Temple Emanuel of Great Neck is located at 150 Hicks Lane in Great Neck.
