PRiME Connaught Global Speaker Series
Red Room, Terrence Donnelly Centre, 160 College St, Toronto
Dr. Sanjay Kumar — E. H. and Mary E. Pardee Professor at UC Berkeley and Director of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3-Berkeley) — presents "Biomaterial Models of Brain Tumors: Wrong but Useful."
The lecture examines glioblastoma invasion mechanisms using hyaluronic-acid hydrogel systems, covering metabolic adaptations in invasive tumour cells, how matrix viscoelasticity affects collective invasion, and the role of factors secreted by GBM-associated macrophages in driving tumour infiltration.
Dr. Kumar received his MD and PhD from Johns Hopkins University and has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications. His honours include the PECASE, the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, and the Beckman Young Investigator Award; he is a Fellow of AAAS, AIMBE, and BMES.