Leading cancer researcher to present lecture Feb. 4

The Lewes Public Library’s Science and Society lecture series will welcome Dr. Donald Lawrence for an online presentation, “The Beginning of the Beginning of Personalized Cancer Medicine,” at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 4, online via Zoom.

Lawrence is a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and clinical director for the Center for Melanoma at Massachusetts General Hospital. His presentation will highlight the future of individualized cancer treatment made possible through the Human Genome Project. Using a complete catalog of the genetic variants that differentiate normal cells and cancer cells, researchers are beginning to understand why cancer therapies work at the cellular level on some patients and not others. Included in this knowledge is an emerging understanding of the major influence the patient’s own gut microbiome plays in successful cancer treatment.

The Lewes Public Library’s Science and Society - Making Sense of the World Around Us lecture series is co-organized and moderated by Colin Norman, former news editor at Science; Fred Dylla, executive director emeritus of the American Institute of Physics and author of “Scientific Journeys”; and Lynda Dylla, former public information officer at the Jefferson Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy.

To register for the online event, go to tinyurl.com/LPLScienceSpring25 or call the library at 302-645-2733.