Target Therapy against Bone Metastasis

Patricia Juárez, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education (CICESE)

Despite the improvement in breast and prostate cancer treatment, 80 percent of the patients with advanced disease will develop bone metastases. The consequences of bone metastases are often devastating, and once tumors metastasize to bone, they are incurable and cause severe pain, fractures, spinal nerve compression and paralysis. More efficient therapies that target multiple molecular mechanisms are needed for the treatment of incurable bone metastases. In this talk Dr. Juárez will discuss different therapeutic strategies against bone metastases and bone loss using an in vitro/ex vivo approach and animal models.

Patricia Juárez is an associate professor at the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education (CICESE) in Ensenada in Baja California, México. She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She did her postdoctoral training at the University of Virginia, and Indiana University. Her research focuses on translational research for the study and treatment of cancer metastases to the bone and bone-related diseases like osteoporosis. Her group has a broad knowledge of animal models of cancer and bone diseases and they use an array of molecular, cellular biology and nanotechnology techniques to achieve their goals. She is part of the Cancer and Bone Society board, Membership Engagement and Education Committee at the ASBMR and a member of HuBLE editorial board. Her research has been recognized with several awards:

• 2016 Rising star Award por la American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. US.
• 2013 Sun Valley Young investigator Award. Sun Valley Workshop: Musculoskeletal Biology. Sun Valley, Idaho.
• 2012 Young investigator award IBMS. 12th International conference on Cancer Induce Bone Disease. Lyon, Fr.
• 2011 John Haddad Young Investigator Award AIMM/ASBMR. Snowmass, CO.
• 2010 New Investigator award. 10th International Conference. Cancer & Bone society. Cancer- Induced Bone Disease. Sheffield, UK.
• 2008 Young investigator award Endocrine Fellows Foundation. Third annual fellow forum in metabolic bone diseases. Montreal, Canada.