The Wanaka branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand is moving to an online platform for its next public talk, ‘Exploring the Dark Matter in Cancer - Towards a New Therapeutic Approach’. 

“Like everyone the activities of the Wanaka branch of the Royal Society have been disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis. So instead of the normal face to face meeting we have decided to try and present the next talk over the web using Zoom,” a branch representative said. 

Talks are normally held at the Presbyterian Church on Tenby Street, Wanaka, but Friday’s talk (April 24) will be moved to the conferencing application Zoom and held as an online webinar.

In the talk, Dr Sarah Diermeier from the department of biochemistry at the University of Otago will discuss efforts being made to find new approaches to treating cancer. 

The past decades have seen striking progress in cancer diagnostics and treatment, Sarah said. Due to early detection and targeted treatments, cancer survival rates have increased significantly. However, the most aggressive types of cancer remain hard to tackle. 

While until recently, most anti-cancer drug development has focused on a small percentage of the faulty genes that drive cancer, new technology now allows scientists to study the remaining 80 per cent of genes that thus far have remained hidden, known as the “dark matter” of the human genome, or non-coding RNAs.

Sarah will discuss what these non-coding RNAs are, what research so far has indicated about them, and the role these molecules play in metastatic breast and colorectal cancer, two major health concerns in New Zealand.

The talk will include a Q&A session and it is free to attend. It will take place on Friday (April 24) at 6pm.

Members of the Wanaka branch of the Royal Society will get an email with a link to the Zoom page where the talk will be given, and people who are not members but would like to participate should email [email protected] to gain access.

PHOTO: Supplied