Renowned Cancer Researcher to Speak at Chestnut Hill College

The following is a press release.

M. Celeste Simon, Ph.D., scientific director and investigator for the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute (AFCRI), investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of Pennsylvania will present the lecture, “Hypoxia, Hypoxia Inducible Factors and Tumor Progression” at the 20^th Anniversary Biomedical Lecture Series on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 4 p.m. in the East Parlor of St. Joseph Hall.

Dr. Simon’s research expertise includes the angiogenesis of solid tumors, cellular growth control in response to hypoxia and hematopoiesis. Her current research interests include understanding the molecular basis of how hypoxia and hypoxia-inducible factors regulate cardiovascular differentiation and stem cell function. She has also conducted research investigating cellular responses to changes in oxygen availability using mouse models of development and tumor progression, combined with cell biological and embryological approaches.

She has received numerous awards for her research, including the Cancer Research Foundation Young Investigator Award and the Stanley Cohen Biomedical Research Award, and has published more than 150 papers in journals including Cell, Science, Nature, Genes and Development, Nature Genetics, and Cancer Cell.

Dr. Simon earned her undergraduate degree at Miami University in Ohio and a Master of Science in microbiology at Ohio State University. In 1985, she obtained a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rockefeller University in New York, where she also began her postdoctoral work on hematopoietic development.

Now entering its 20^th year, the Biomedical Lecture Series was created by Lakshmi Atchison, Ph.D., professor of biology, to educate the Chestnut Hill College community on the advances in biomedical research and to introduce students and faculty to prominent scientific and medical professionals. The series has also helped to develop meaningful interactions and collaborations among the College’s neighboring institutions. Since 1994, the College has hosted an array of distinguished speakers including Randall Culp, M.D., of Thomas Jefferson University, hand surgeon to the Philadelphia Phillies, Dr. Dean W. Richardson, VMD, Ph.D., surgeon to Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, and Michael Seiden, M.D., Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of the Fox Chase Cancer Center.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Dr. Lakshmi Atchison at latchiso@chc.edu or call 215.248.7159.

About Chestnut Hill College

Chestnut Hill College, a four-year coed Catholic college in the Ignatian tradition, offers a traditional liberal arts undergraduate program as well as accelerated undergraduate degrees, master’s and doctoral programs. The College has been rated by US News & World Report as among the best master’s universities in the North, as among the best Northeastern colleges by The Princeton Review, and has been classified as selective by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Since its inception, the College has offered a rigorous curriculum that provides students with a broad background in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. The goal of Chestnut Hill College has been to prepare students for life’s challenges by helping them to grow intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and socially.