Get SMMART: Challenges, opportunities, and new directions
November 19, 2019
At the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, researchers have built a first-of-its-kind platform designed to find combinations of drugs that can stop tumors before they adapt and become drug-resistant. In-depth tracking of each patient’s cancer over time makes it possible to adjust targeted drug combinations to stay ahead of cancer’s ability to evolve. The platform is called SMMART™ (Serial Measurements of Molecular and Architectural Responses to Therapy). Join us as we explore what makes this approach unique, how it’s working, and what’s next.
“No place, I mean none in the world, is doing the degree of in-depth analysis of patients and their tumors that is happening here.”
Speakers:
Brett Johnson, Ph.D.
Scientific program manager
Johnson coordinates the research efforts of the SMMART Program to identify new therapeutic opportunities and mechanisms of resistance in patients on the SMMART clinical trials. He helps to design the analytical approach for each trial, evaluates new technologies for adoption, and provides scientific oversight of sample collection and analysis.
Rochelle Williams-Belizaire
Assistant director of research collaborations for the precision oncology program
Williams-Belizaire develops and executes strategies driven by advances in targeted therapy. She creates and directs large programs and strategic alliances with organizational leaders and industry executives to maintain new partnership opportunities. She has executed over 500 industry, investigator-initiated, and federally backed multi-phase clinical trials in treatment interventions and disease prevention.