The Englander Institute for Precision Medicine is thrilled to announce our first annual Precision Health Equity Symposium on October 27-28, 2022, to welcome celebrated leaders in the health disparities and health equity fields to a 2-day event designed to foster new collaborations, spawn new dialog, untangle longstanding debates, and nurture new ideas, all with the goal of increasing our action to overcome systemic equity issues.
Hosted by the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, the Meyer Cancer Center, and the Dalio Center for Health Justice, the agenda featured keynote and panel presentations, closing with interactive sessions for small-group break-out challenges and call-to-action discussions.
This year’s symposium focussed on Cancer Disparities and brought key leaders to our campus for formative engagement with WCM’s distinguished faculty. Among our notable speakers for the event, we will welcome Dr. John Carpten, Chair of the National Cancer Advisory Panel for the Biden Administration and chair of Translational Genomics at University of Southern California.
EIPM’s new Precision Health Program
Dr. Melissa B. Davis
Most significantly, this event will mark the launch of the EIPM’s new Precision Health Equity Program, and led by our Director of Health Equity Dr. Melissa B. Davis.
Weill Cornell Medicine has several initiatives underway that converge on cancer health disparities, including the Polyethnic-1000 project, sponsored by the New York Genome Center. Several of our faculty are pioneering leaders in cancer disparities, focusing on both social and biological determinants of disparities across the entire cancer continuum.
This Englander Institute for Precision Medicine’s Health Equity program will aim to reach beyond the scope of cancer, to include any disease area that has a disparate component, which precision medicine may ameliorate. During the program, there will be opportunities to indicate your interest in joining our efforts. After the Symposium, we will begin organizing working groups and committees of both clinicians and basic scientists who are interested and begin a new push to advance Precision Health Equity Research at Weill Cornell Medicine.
# # #
Learn More:
- The AACR News website interviewed Dr. Davis on April 12, 2021 for the article “Genomic sequencing in diverse populations.” Over the past decade, genomic advancements have afforded tremendous opportunities in cancer research, said Melissa B. Davis, Ph.D. But despite these advances, disparities in cancer outcomes persist as does a paucity in data to understand the breadth of diversity in tumor traits across populations.
- Dr. Davis Earns Diversity Week Award. On Monday, April 22, 2019, Dr. Davis was awarded a Dean’s Diversity and Disparities in Health Care faculty award from Weill Cornell Medicine Dean Augustine M.K. Choi, M.D.
- Gene Variant and Breast Cancer in Black Women. A set of gene variants that originated in Sub-Saharan West African populations may help explain why black women, compared to white women, have worse breast cancer outcomes, according to a new study from a team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian led by senior author Dr. Melissa B. Davis.
- Collaborating to Save Women’s Lives in Ghana. We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Melissa B. Davis to the EIPM! Dr. Davis is a molecular geneticist, and her research interests include genomics and systems biology. We hope you enjoy this conversation with Dr. Davis!
Publications:
- “African Ancestry Associated Gene Expression Profiles in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Underlie Altered Tumor Biology and Clinical Outcome in Women of African Descent,” Cancer Discovery article by Drs. Melissa B. Davis, Lisa A. Newman and colleagues, October 07, 2022.
- “Unmet Needs in Oncology Clinical Research and Treatment in Africa: Focus on Ghana,” The Oncologist article by Drs. Melissa B. Davis, Lisa A. Newman and colleagues, September 2022.
- “Enhancing the Trajectories of Cancer Health Disparities Research: Improving Clinical Applications of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility,” Cancer Discovery article by Drs. Melissa B. Davis, Lisa A. Newman and Rachel Martini, June 1st, 2022.
- “Protein expression of the gp78 E3 ligase predicts poor breast cancer outcome based on race,” JCI Insight article by Dr. Melissa B. Davis and colleagues, May 31, 2022.
- “Outcome of African-American compared to White-American patients with early-stage breast cancer, stratified by phenotype,” The Breast Journal article by Drs. Melissa B. Davis and Lisa A. Newman and colleagues, March 18, 2021.
- “Whole-exome Sequencing of Nigerian Prostate Tumors from the Prostate Cancer Transatlantic Consortium (CaPTC) Reveals DNA Repair Genes Associated with African Ancestry,” Cancer Research Communications article by Precision Health Equity Symposium speaker Dr. Clayton Yates and colleagues, September 16, 2022.