BUFFALO, NY – Mina J. Bissell, PhD, Distinguished Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, will present the Sixth Annual Leonard L. Weiss Memorial Lecture, Wednesday, June 7, at 8 am, in the Hilleboe Auditorium, Research Studies Center, Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), Elm & Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY. The lecture is open to the public.

Dr. Bissell will discuss “Tissue Architecture and Polarity Are the Ultimate Regulators of Function and Dysfunction in Normal and Malignant Breast.” The lecture will focus on how the phenotype arising from the interaction of an individual’s genes and the environment is dominant over the genotype.  She will offer insights into how restoring cell function to overtly malignant breast cells in three-dimensional environments could restore a normal phenotype and reduce tumorigenicity.    

This lecture was established by the Institute to honor the late Leonard L. Weiss, MD, PhD, ScD, an internationally renowned cancer research scientist who led the Department of Experimental Pathology at RPCI from 1964 until his retirement in 1993. During his career at RPCI, Dr. Weiss authored two definitive texts on cancer metastasis; was editor of numerous scientific journals and books; and published more than 300 articles in national and international medical and scientific journals.

            Roswell Park Cancer Institute, founded in 1898, is the nation’s first cancer research, treatment and education center and is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New York. RPCI is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers. For more information, visit RPCI’s website at www.roswellpark.org, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or e-mail askrpci@roswellpark.org.