DCTD’s Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine Bioelectricity and Cancer Conference

Background

Bioelectricity refers to the electrical properties and signaling within living cells and tissues. It plays a crucial role in various biological processes, including embryonic development, wound healing, tissue regeneration, and cancer. 

Bioelectricity is relevant to cancer research in the following ways:

• Alterations in the cellular voltage membrane potential (Vmem) disrupt cellular signaling pathways during cancer initiation, promotion, and progression.
• Ion channels (e.g., voltage-gated cation channels, mechanosensitive channels) responsible for Vmem are often abnormal in malignant cells and can activate aberrant signaling pathways.
• Detection of altered Vmem in tissues may be useful in assessing malignant potential. Modifications of Vmem in malignant cells have been shown in preclinical studies to induce functional changes back toward the non-malignant phenotype.

Conference Recordings and Agenda

Access the conference recordings.

More than 650 scientists attended the conference and participated in discussions on the following topics:

Bioelectricity in Normal Physiology
Mechanisms of Bioelectricity
Bioelectricity and Cancer
Bioelectricity Cancer Clinical Potential
Moving Cancer Bioelectricity Research Forward

Conference Agenda 

Welcome: Jeffrey D. White, NCI/Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM), Director 

Keynote: Michael Levin, Tufts University; The Bioelectric basis of morphogenetic intelligence: a roadmap for cancer

Session 1: Bioelectricity in Normal Physiology

Co-Chair: Eric Johnson Chavarria, NCI Cancer Biology
Chair: Michael Pycraft Hughes, Khalifa University; The cellular zeta potential: cell electrophysiology beyond the membrane
Emily Anne Bates, University of Colorado; Mechanisms underlying influence of bioelectricity in development
Robert Gatenby, Moffitt Cancer Center; Modeling non-genetic information dynamics in cells using reservoir computing

Session 2: Mechanisms of Bioelectricity

Co-Chair: Sean E. Hanlon, NCI Center for Strategic Scientific Initiatives 
Chair: Marco Rolandi, University of California at Santa Cruz; Directing homeostasis in cells to control cell cycle and fate
Joao Carvalho, University of Coimbra; A computational model of organism development and carcinogenesis resulting from cells' bioelectric properties
Xi Huang, University of Toronto; Targeting fluidic force-sensing mechanism to treat brain tumor metastasis

Session 3: Bioelectricity and cancer

Co-Chair: Miguel R. Ossandon, NCI Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis 
Chair: Mustafa Djamgoz, Imperial College London; Electrical signaling in cancer
Madeleine J. Oudin, Tufts University; Potassium channel-driven bioelectric signaling regulates metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer
Michael R. King, Vanderbilt University; Ion channels in cancer mechanotransduction

Session 4: Bioelectricity potential clinical and translational research

Co-Chair: Linda Zane, NCI SBIR 
Chair: Norbert Perrimon, Harvard Medical School; Bioelectric-dependent intestinal regeneration
Donglu Shi, University of Cincinnati; Bio-Electrical Manifestation of the Warburg Effect: Glycolytically-Regulated Cancer Cell Surface Charge
Dany Spencer Adams, Tufts University; Cell membrane voltage imaging to identify cancer in biopsies and surgical specimens
Rosalia Moreddu, lnstituto Italiano di Tecnologia; Nanotechnology and cancer bioelectricity: bridging the gap between biology and translational medicine

Panel Discussion: Moving cancer bioelectricity research forward

Linda Zane, NCI SBIR; Funding and commercialization resources for the development and commercialization of cancer technologies
Vish Subramaniam, EMBioSys Inc.; Industry perspective, "Technologies for treatment of Metastatic Solid Tumors"
Eric M Johnson, NCI DCB; Technology funding opportunities
Kelly Crotty, NCI CSSI; IMAT funding opportunities

Concluding Remarks
Jeffrey White, OCCAM

Conference Organizers

Miguel Ossandon, Sophie King, Avi Rasooly, Jeffrey White, OCCAM

Contact

Dr. Avi Rasooly