January 30, 2018
The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy is pleased to present Susan E. Bates, M.D., on February 22, 2018 at 11:30 a.m. in 170 DHLRI. Bates’ talk, “Developing Epigenetic Agents for Cancer Therapy,” is part of the College of Pharmacy’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
Bates is a professor of medicine in Columbia University Medical Center’s Hematology/Oncology Division, Director of Translational Cancer Medicine and Co-Director of the J.J. Peters VAMC Cancer Center at Columbia University.
Bates' research interests include laboratory and translational studies on drug resistance in T-cell lymphomas and advanced solid tumors including breast, pancreatic, neuroendocrine, renal and lung cancers. Her work is dedicated to new drug development, and finding antineoplastic agents that, alone or in combination with other anticancer agents, improve the options available for difficult to treat cancers. Emanating from the clinical and translational development of romidepsin, a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, a current focus is on epigenetic therapies, and the development of combination therapies to use with HDAC inhibitors in refractory advanced cancers, including solid tumors. She also has a special interest in drug delivery and drug distribution and the role of the blood brain barrier in creating a sanctuary site for cancers that metastasize to the brain.
Clinically, Bates’ goal has always been to translate ideas from the laboratory to clinical trials. She seeks to develop combination therapies with histone deacetylase inhibitors for the therapy of solid tumors; and to develop therapies to treat central nervous system metastases, a complication of cancer that is becoming a greater problem as patients live longer with cancer.
Bates received her M.D. degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. She completed her clinical training in internal medicine at Georgetown University, and in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Bates was a Lead Clinical Investigator and Head of the Molecular Therapeutics Section in the Developmental Therapeutics Branch of the Center for Cancer Research before moving to Columbia University in 2015.