DMMC Course: TECHNIQUES & STRATEGIES IN MOLECULAR MEDICINE

1645-1730 Tuesday 5 December 2006. UCD Conway Institute Lecture Theatre, UCD

Molecular therapies - false hope or the future of medicine?
Prof Mark Lawler (St James's Hospital & Institute of Molecular Medicine, TCD)

Molecular medicine has allowed the identification of new targets and new approaches to treat human disease. The lecture will focus on some of these strategies, including targeting signal transduction pathways, use of monoclonal antibody based approaches and the numerous gene therapy strategies that are currently being evaluated. An overview of the different methodologiess will be presented and the current situation on the clinical application of these approaches will be considered. Focussing particularly on cancer therapies as a model system, the advances and challenges of the different approaches will be presented and discussed.