Conference

Thea D. Tlsty, Ph.D. 

Founders Lecture

Dr. Tlsty, Ph.D., is a molecular pathologist and founding Director of the Program in Cell Cycling and Signaling in the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco, CA. She received her Ph.D. from Washington University and trained at Stanford University before she was recruited to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and ultimately to UCSF, where she is currently the Director of the Center for Translational Research in the Molecular Genetics of Cancer. She also serves as an Avon Scholar and Komen Scholar, studying breast cancer research. As a recipient of an Outstanding Investigator Award and Program Leader of a CRUK Grand Challenge Team, her studies include multiple metaplastic cancers such as esophageal adenocarcinoma, squamous lung cancer among others to understand stromal controls of cell plasticity and the role of cell state changes in the evolution of cancer. Dr. Tlsty studies genetic, epigenetic, and functional changes involved in the earliest steps of cancer that provide novel insights into how early molecular events fuel cancer, tumor heterogeneity, and evolution. Her group seeks to explore the role of tissue microenvironment in creating a pro-tumorigenic niche and how multiple factors integrate to control tumor initiation and progression. Dr. Tlsty’s work was the first to characterize and identify carcinoma-associated fibroblasts as a critical and dominant player in stromal controls of multiple epithelial cancers. Her goal is to use these insights for early detection, disease stratification, and novel approaches for prevention and treatment of cancer.