CSB Seminar: David Bilder, PhD – UC Berkeley

When

October 24, 2025    
11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Event Type

CSB Departmental Seminar

Friday, October 24th @ 11:00 am

SPEAKER: David Bilder, PhD – UC Berkeley

TITLE: Invertebrate oncology: tumor-host interactions in the Drosophila model

ABSTRACT: 

There is a large gap between the deep understanding of mechanisms driving oncogenic transformation and the reasons why patients ultimately succumb to cancer. We now appreciate that interactions between the tumor and surrounding non-tumor (‘host’) cells play critical roles in mortality as well as tumor progression, but many mechanisms remain unknown. Drosophila’s high conservation of biology and genetics with humans has powered its long track record of high-impact discoveries; the reductionist fly system is particularly well-suited to probe mysteries of tumor–host interactions. I will discuss our use of Drosophila cancer models to study ‘paraneoplasias’ such as cachexia, coagulopathy, and fluid dysregulation, and will present unpublished work on anti-tumor immunity and immune evasion in this experimentally tractable invertebrate.

HOST: Ulli Tepass

LOCATION: Cell and Systems Biology, 25 Harbord Street, Suite 432

LIVESTREAM LINK: https://csb.utoronto.ca/live-stream/