Prof. Mark Rubin is a leader in the fields of prostate cancer biology and precision medicine as it applies to all cancers. Rubin’s laboratory led a series of landmark studies defining distinct molecular features of prostate cancer, revealing pathways that are perturbed and drive different types of this cancer. Prof. Rubin has translated many of his genomic discoveries into clinical tests that are currently patented and standardly used in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. In May 2017, Prof. Rubin joined the University of Bern as Professor and Director of the Department for Biomedical Research and also as Project Leader for Precision Medicine at the University Hospital of Bern.

Mark Rubin is going to talk about "Insights into mechanisms of prostate cancer resistance" in the first Oncobell Symposium. We have interviewed him:

In which research programs are you participating?

Prostate cancer and precision medicine. I am not sure that I understand what is meant by programs.

Which are the goals of your research?

We are focused on identify the earliest molecular alterations that are responsible for aggressive prostate cancer. We hope that by developing early treatment approaches we can change the corse of this disease.

We are also developing precision medicine approaches to systematically align patients with the correct treatment. We are participating in a Swiss-wide program to implement important changes in the countries approach to health care.

Which are the next steps you are going to follow in a short term basis?

We building model systems in prostate cancer to help test and refine our concepts on drug resistance.

What are you going to talk about in the Oncobell symposium?

I am going to talk about new work on how epigenetic alterations play a role in drug resistance in prostate cancer.

Why you consider that is important to talk about this subject?

Understanding resistance provides important insights into how we can better and more effectively treat patients.

Give us an advice as an oncology specialist.

I am a pathologist by training. I work in the filed on precision oncology. I would be most happy to comment in these areas.