The 5th International Electronic Conference on Cancers

Department of Anatomic Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX，USA;
Dr. Jinsong Liu received his PhD in Biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University and completed postdoctoral training at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Michigan, followed by a pathology residency and surgical pathology fellowship at New York University. He joined MD Anderson Cancer Center in 1999. Over the past 26 years, Dr. Liu has been an active member of MD Anderson's world-renowned gynecologic diagnostic pathology team. He has authored more than 300 scientific publications in high-impact journals. Dr. Liu's laboratory made the unexpected discovery that polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCCs) — historically considered non-dividing or senescent — can dedifferentiate into blastomere-like pluripotent stem cell-like states, recapitulating early embryonic programs to generate drug-resistant and metastatic progeny. He chaired the inaugural International Conference on Polyploid Giant Cancer Cells in 2024, marking the formal establishment of this emerging field. His work provides a new conceptual framework for understanding cancer origin, therapeutic resistance, and their connections to fundamental developmental processes.

Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI，USA;
Henry H.Q. Heng, PhD Professor of Molecular Medicine and Genetics and of Pathology Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI Dr. Heng received his PhD in Medical Genetics from the University of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, mentored by Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui, and completed postdoctoral training in chromosomal biology under Dr. Peter Moens at York University before joining Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1999. Over more than two decades of watching cancer evolution in action — tracing karyotype dynamics, transcriptomes, and phenotypes longitudinally through phase transitions — Dr. Heng developed the Genome Architecture Theory (GAT), a new information- and genome-based conceptual framework that fundamentally challenges the gene-centric paradigm of cancer research and evolutionary biology. Key contributions include the discovery of genome chaos, fuzzy inheritance, and two-phased cancer evolution — comprising a punctuated macroevolutionary phase dominated by genome chaos and a gradual microevolutionary phase dominated by gene mutation — a pattern commonly detected across all key transitions of cancer evolution, including transformation, metastasis, and drug resistance. Central to GAT is the concept of karyotype coding: the order of genes and genetic elements on chromosomes within the 3D genome constitutes a new layer of key genomic information, and system inheritance — defined by genome topology — represents the true blueprint of biological systems that organizes gene interaction networks. Dr. Heng's books, Genome Chaos: Rethinking Genetics, Evolution, and Molecular Medicine (Academic Press, 2019; 2nd ed. 2025) and Debating Cancer: The Paradox in Cancer Research, have attracted wide attention across the fields of cancer biology and evolutionary theory. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and serves on the editorial boards of seven international journals.