WIN Symposium announces awards for young researchers in personalized cancer care

The WIN Consortium, supported by its media partner Nature Publishing Group (NPG), is encouraging the participation of young researchers at this year’s WIN Symposium by offering awards for the best poster and oral presentations. The second annual WIN Symposium – to be held in the Palais des Congrès, Paris, on the 7th to 9th of July 2010 – is an open and interactive forum designed to promote rapid translation of ground­breaking personalized cancer medicine discoveries to clinical practice. This innovative approach aims to promote closer collaboration between academia and industry, and has already received the support of several major oncology organizations, including ASCO, ESMO and OECI.

As part of this year’s agenda, young researchers are invited to submit abstracts for poster presentations relating to personalized cancer medicine by the 5th of June, with prizes for the top entries supplied by media sponsor NPG, plus free attendance to the Symposium for the best fifteen submissions. The three winning young researchers will also be invited to give oral presentations, giving future leaders in oncology research an unprecedented opportunity to showcase their work alongside key opinion leaders in the field, including:

José Baselga
Julio Celis
Soo Khee Chee
Stephen Friend
Richard Goldberg
Giuseppe Giaconne
Samir Hanash
Leroy Hood
Waun Ki Hong
Olli Kallioniemi
Guido Kroemer
Edison Liu
Lisa McShane
John Mendelsohn
Anil Potti
Lajos Pusztai
Richard Schilsky
George Simon
Jean-Charles Soria

“We are very pleased to offer these prizes recognizing the efforts of young researchers in the field of personalized cancer care,” said Dr Vladimir Lazar, Co-ordinator of the WIN Consortium and Head of Functional Genomics at the Institut Gustave Roussy. “Closer collaboration between academic institutes, biotechnology companies and the pharmaceutical industry is the only way to provide more comprehensive care and improve the quality of life for patients, and encouraging the next generation of cancer researchers to follow this approach is vital to achieving our goals.”

“The challenges now facing oncologists are early diagnosis, the optimum ways to deliver individualized, tailored treatments and how to translate the latest research breakthroughs to the clinic. These awards will highlight the innovation now being shown in achieving these goals, helping to create the cancer research leaders of tomorrow.” said Dr Lisa Hutchinson, Editor of Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology.

To register for the WIN Symposium, or for more information, visit www.winconsortium.org