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PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer TeamLab

Emerging therapies for lung cancer offer significant benefits, especially for patients with ALK-positive tumors. However, resistance to these treatments is almost inevitable. By focusing on residual disease, which is often overlooked by translational research, the PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer TeamLab aims to prevent resistance and develop strategies that can be applied to other lung cancer subtypes.

Emerging therapies for lung cancer offer significant benefits, especially for patients with ALK-positive tumors. However, resistance to these treatments is almost inevitable. By focusing on residual disease, which is often overlooked by translational research, the PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer TeamLab aims to prevent resistance and develop strategies that can be applied to other lung cancer subtypes.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Hologram of inflamed lungs. The concept of lung disease, pneumonia, covid-19 pandemic, coronavirus. 3D rendering, 3D illustration

Project Summary

The PoweRD 2 Cure ALK + Lung Cancer TeamLab project is supported in partnership with ALK Positive Inc., a foundation funded by patients with ALK-positive lung cancer and their families. Learn more about ALK Positive Inc. here.

  • ALK-positive lung cancer is a specific type of non-small cell lung cancer that tends to occur in never-smokers and in younger patients.
  • It is defined by a distinctive, measurable genetic change in lung cells leading to continuous activation of the ALK protein. Despite advances with ALK-inhibiting drugs, these therapies are rarely curative.
  • Residual disease occurs when a small number of malignant cells escape the initial treatment. These cells fuel the cancer’s recurrence and spread, which is a key challenge not only in ALK-positive cancer, but across many types of lung cancer.
  • The PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer TeamLab will work to identify and exploit the vulnerabilities of residual cancer cells and collaborate with industry partners to test novel therapies that target those weak points
  • The ultimate goal is to develop treatment strategies that leave no cancer cells alive, thereby transforming advanced lung cancer into a curable disease.

MEET THE TEAM

AllBoston Children’s HospitalDana-Farber Cancer InstituteMIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer ResearchThe Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns HopkinsMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterMassachusetts General HospitalThe University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer CenterUniversity of Colorado Anschutz Medical CampusVanderbilt University Medical Center

Aaron Hata, MD, PhD

Alexandre Reuben, PhD

Bo Zhu, PhD

Charles Rudin, MD, PhD

Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD

Erin Schenk, MD, PhD

Jennifer A. Marks, MD

Jessica J. Lin, MD

Jia Wu, PhD

Kyle Concannon, MD

Roberto Chiarle, MD

Simon Heeke, PhD

Vincent Lam, MD

Zach Rogers, PhD

Aaron Hata, MD, PhD

Massachusetts General Hospital
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Dr. Aaron Hata is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Principal Investigator of a translational and basic research laboratory in the MGH Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research. His research focuses on understanding mechanisms of clinical acquired drug resistance in oncogene-driven lung cancers the developing novel therapeutic approaches to overcome them. Work from his group has also yielded important insights into the fundamental mechanisms that drive tumor persistence and evolution during therapy. Dr. Hata is also an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, an Investigator in the Ludwig Center of Harvard, and a member of the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center Lung Cancer SPORE.

Alexandre Reuben, PhD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Alexandre Reuben, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head & Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson, and Co-Director of the Immunology Program at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Reuben obtained his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Montreal, Canada, where he focused on the role of the MHC Ib protein HFE and its impact on MHC I antigen presentation and CD8 T cell responses. Dr. Reuben then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at MD Anderson where he investigated biomarkers and mechanisms of response and resistance to therapy in melanoma, as well as genomic and immune intra- and inter-tumor heterogeneity in melanoma and lung cancer. Since 2018, Dr. Reuben has directed a research lab focused on cellular therapy of lung cancer. Dr. Reuben’s lab primarily specializes in the discovery and validation of T cell receptors (TCR) for TCR engineering of lung cancer and other solid tumors as well as on the development of novel methodologies to improve clinical responses to cell therapy.

Bo Zhu, PhD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Bo Zhu, PhD, is an Instructor in Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC). He earned his bachelor’s degree from Jilin University and a PhD from Fudan University, China, followed by postdoctoral training under Dr. Jianjun Zhang at MDACC. Dr. Zhu’s research focuses on early-stage lung cancer, employing advanced techniques such as single-cell RNA sequencing, Imaging Mass Cytometry, and spatial transcriptomics (including Visium HD and Xenium) to analyze specimens from human and mouse models. His ultimate goal is to unravel the mechanisms of cancer initiation and identify novel targets for lung cancer prevention.

Charles Rudin, MD, PhD

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Charles Rudin, MD, PhD, is the Deputy Director of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, leads the Druckenmiller Center for Lung Cancer Research, and holds the Sylvia Hassenfeld Chair in Lung Cancer Research. His current research program spans basic discovery science, preclinical modeling, therapeutic target identification, first-in-human clinical testing, and leadership of definitive national and international phase 3 studies. Recognition includes the NCI Director’s Service Award, the NCI Outstanding Investigator Award, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Lifetime Achievement Award, and election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.

Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD, is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine with tenure at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. Her laboratory research is directed at understanding and developing improved therapeutic strategies for specific clinically relevant molecular subsets of lung cancer. Dr. Lovly is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (class of 2017) and a member of the Editorial Board for Cancer Discovery and JCO Precision Oncology. She serves on the Scientific Leadership Boards for the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer Research (where she also serves as Scientific Leadership Board Director), the LUNGevity Foundation, and the Lung Cancer Research Foundation. Dr. Lovly serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines panel for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and is co-chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Thoracic Translational Science Center Lung Biology Committee. She plays several roles within AACR, including being an invited member of the Science Policy and Government Affairs committee, co-chair of the AACR Tobacco Products and Cancer Subcommittee, and invited member of the AACR Lung Cancer Task Force. In April 2023, Dr. Lovly was elected to serve a three-year term on the AACR Board of Directors. Dr. Lovly has received grants from the Damon Runyon Foundation, the V Foundation, LUNGevity, Lung Cancer Research Foundation, AACR, ASCO, and NIH/NCI. In 2021, Dr. Lovly was awarded the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group Young Investigator Award. In 2022, she was awarded the GO2 Foundation Asclepios Award honoring research pioneers in the fight to end lung cancer.

Erin Schenk, MD, PhD

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Jennifer A. Marks, MD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Jennifer A. Marks is a Thoracic Medical Oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA, and her Medical Oncology fellowship at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. Her professional interests lie in precision medicine and biomarker identification. Her research collaborations with Caris Life Sciences have explored the molecular landscape within MET Exon 14 Skipping Mutations in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer as well as SEZ6 expression in neuroendocrine tumors. She received an Early Career Education Award at the 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Vienna, Austria, and a Conquer Cancer Merit Award at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology Conference in Chicago, IL for this work. She was selected to develop a clinical protocol at the ASCO/AACR Methods in Clinical Research workshop studying sacituzumab govitecan in advanced thymoma and thymic carcinoma. She is committed to advancing personalized medicine in thoracic oncology and finding innovative solutions to scientific challenges. She remains dedicated to being a catalyst for change, improving the lives of patients worldwide through the pursuit of excellence and a patient-centered approach to oncology research and practice.

Jessica J. Lin, MD

Massachusetts General Hospital
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Jessica J. Lin, MD, is a medical oncologist and clinical and translational investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lin received her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Harvard College, and her MD from Harvard Medical School. After completing her residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital with chief residency at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital and fellowship in medical oncology at the Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare program, she joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. She has an active practice caring for patients in the Thoracic Oncology Program and the Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies. The primary focus of Dr Lin’s research is to develop novel therapeutic and biomarker strategies for patients with advanced lung cancers. As a clinical investigator, she is deeply involved in the design and conduct of clinical trials evaluating novel therapeutic agents. Her translational research efforts are dedicated to the study of resistance mechanisms and exceptional responses to targeted therapies in molecularly defined subsets of lung cancer, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for patients living with lung cancer. Dr. Lin is an active member of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, American Association for Cancer Research, European Society for Medical Oncology, and American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Jia Wu, PhD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Dr. Jia Wu is an Associate Professor at MD Anderson and an NIH-funded principal investigator with extensive training as a computational scientist. He earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania, and later served as an instructor at Stanford University. Dr. Wu’s lab specializes in developing and applying cutting-edge, multi-modal machine learning techniques to enhance cancer diagnosis, treatment, early detection, and prevention. His research has garnered significant support, including the prestigious Pathway to Independence Award, R01 grants from the National Cancer Institute, and funding from CPRIT.

Kyle Concannon, MD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Kyle Concannon, MD, is an instructor in the laboratory of Dr. John Heymach and a faculty member of the MD Anderson Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology Department. Dr. Concannon received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont Honors College and then spent two years working in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Haber at Massachusetts General Hospital. He then received his Medical Doctorate from the University of Vermont before training in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington where he studied small cell lung cancer in the laboratory of Dr. David MacPherson. In 2024, he graduated from the MD Anderson Medical Oncology physician-scientist training program as a recipient of the NIH T32 institutional training grant. Dr. Concannon’s work has led to many achievements and awards including the ASCO Young Investigator Award and MD Anderson’s Wuan Ki Hong Excellence in Basic Science award. He is now mentored primarily under Dr. Heymach studying therapeutic resistance in lung cancer.

Roberto Chiarle, MD

Boston Children’s Hospital
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Dr. Chiarle received his MD degree from the University of Torino, Italy, and is currently Professor of Pathology at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He also has appointments as Professor of Pathology at the University of Torino Medical School and as Director of the Hematopathology unit at the European Research Institute (IEO) in Milan, Italy. He has won several national and international awards, including awards from the Italian National Academy of Science, two European Research Council (ERC) grants, an AICR-UK award, several NIH grants and grants from the LUNGevity foundation, V Foundation, the Ellison Foundation, the Bridge Project and others.

One major research interest has been to study the mechanisms and pathways of tumor formation activated by the ALK oncogene, as well as the development of innovative therapies for AK-positive cancers, such as an ALK-specific cancer immunotherapy. Recently, the group has developed an ALK vaccine that instructs the immune system to recognize and eliminate ALK-positive lymphoma and lung cancer cells as well as CAR-T and TCR-T cells to target ALK+ tumors including lung cancer, lymphoma and neuroblastoma.

Simon Heeke, PhD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Dr. Heeke is the head of the Liquid Biopsy Translational Working Group and Assistant Professor in the Department of Thoracic Head & Neck Medical Oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He received his BSc and MSc degree (with distinction) in Molecular Medicine from the Medical University in Innsbruck, Austria, followed by a PhD in Cell Biology from the University Côte d’Azur in Nice, France. His research focuses on oncogene-driven lung cancer (such as with ALK, RET or EGFR alterations), lung cancer interception, small cell lung cancer subtypes and adenoid cystic carcinoma, and the development of associated tissue and liquid biopsy-based biomarkers through the integration of multimodal data and the use of machine learning methods for clinically applicable predictive models. He has contributed to >60 peer reviewed publications published in various high impact journals, including CA:A Cancer Journal, Nature, Cancer Cell, Annals of Oncology, JCO and JTO. Furthermore, he serves as co-chair of the NIH Liquid Biopsy Scientific Interest Group and co-leads the module on Novel Technological Development of the European Master’s in Molecular Pathology.

Vincent Lam, MD

The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Vincent K. Lam, MD, is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Thoracic Oncology Clinical Research Program at Johns Hopkins. His ongoing research efforts include the development of the clinical utility of liquid biopsies in cancer, biomarkers for risk stratification and therapeutic optimization, and novel immunotherapies such as T-cell therapy and vaccines.

Zach Rogers, PhD

MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Zachary is an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow in the Love laboratory at MIT. He completed his PhD in chemical engineering at Northeastern University in 2023. His PhD research was focused on tumor hypoxia, including the development of oxygen-generating therapies to combat tumor immunosuppression and novel methods to recapitulate hypoxia in vitro. His postdoctoral work is focused on understanding cancer therapy resistance. In ALK+ lung cancer, he is applying single-cell sequencing methods to understand the biological mechanisms that lead to the emergence of drug-tolerant persister cells.

MEET THE TEAM

See Team
AllBoston Children’s HospitalDana-Farber Cancer InstituteMIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer ResearchThe Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns HopkinsMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterMassachusetts General HospitalThe University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer CenterUniversity of Colorado Anschutz Medical CampusVanderbilt University Medical Center

Aaron Hata, MD, PhD

Alexandre Reuben, PhD

Bo Zhu, PhD

Charles Rudin, MD, PhD

Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD

Erin Schenk, MD, PhD

Jennifer A. Marks, MD

Jessica J. Lin, MD

Jia Wu, PhD

Kyle Concannon, MD

Roberto Chiarle, MD

Simon Heeke, PhD

Vincent Lam, MD

Zach Rogers, PhD

Aaron Hata, MD, PhD

Massachusetts General Hospital
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Dr. Aaron Hata is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Principal Investigator of a translational and basic research laboratory in the MGH Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research. His research focuses on understanding mechanisms of clinical acquired drug resistance in oncogene-driven lung cancers the developing novel therapeutic approaches to overcome them. Work from his group has also yielded important insights into the fundamental mechanisms that drive tumor persistence and evolution during therapy. Dr. Hata is also an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, an Investigator in the Ludwig Center of Harvard, and a member of the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center Lung Cancer SPORE.

Alexandre Reuben, PhD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Alexandre Reuben, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head & Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson, and Co-Director of the Immunology Program at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Reuben obtained his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Montreal, Canada, where he focused on the role of the MHC Ib protein HFE and its impact on MHC I antigen presentation and CD8 T cell responses. Dr. Reuben then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at MD Anderson where he investigated biomarkers and mechanisms of response and resistance to therapy in melanoma, as well as genomic and immune intra- and inter-tumor heterogeneity in melanoma and lung cancer. Since 2018, Dr. Reuben has directed a research lab focused on cellular therapy of lung cancer. Dr. Reuben’s lab primarily specializes in the discovery and validation of T cell receptors (TCR) for TCR engineering of lung cancer and other solid tumors as well as on the development of novel methodologies to improve clinical responses to cell therapy.

Bo Zhu, PhD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Bo Zhu, PhD, is an Instructor in Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC). He earned his bachelor’s degree from Jilin University and a PhD from Fudan University, China, followed by postdoctoral training under Dr. Jianjun Zhang at MDACC. Dr. Zhu’s research focuses on early-stage lung cancer, employing advanced techniques such as single-cell RNA sequencing, Imaging Mass Cytometry, and spatial transcriptomics (including Visium HD and Xenium) to analyze specimens from human and mouse models. His ultimate goal is to unravel the mechanisms of cancer initiation and identify novel targets for lung cancer prevention.

Charles Rudin, MD, PhD

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Charles Rudin, MD, PhD, is the Deputy Director of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, leads the Druckenmiller Center for Lung Cancer Research, and holds the Sylvia Hassenfeld Chair in Lung Cancer Research. His current research program spans basic discovery science, preclinical modeling, therapeutic target identification, first-in-human clinical testing, and leadership of definitive national and international phase 3 studies. Recognition includes the NCI Director’s Service Award, the NCI Outstanding Investigator Award, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Lifetime Achievement Award, and election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.

Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD, is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine with tenure at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. Her laboratory research is directed at understanding and developing improved therapeutic strategies for specific clinically relevant molecular subsets of lung cancer. Dr. Lovly is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (class of 2017) and a member of the Editorial Board for Cancer Discovery and JCO Precision Oncology. She serves on the Scientific Leadership Boards for the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer Research (where she also serves as Scientific Leadership Board Director), the LUNGevity Foundation, and the Lung Cancer Research Foundation. Dr. Lovly serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines panel for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and is co-chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Thoracic Translational Science Center Lung Biology Committee. She plays several roles within AACR, including being an invited member of the Science Policy and Government Affairs committee, co-chair of the AACR Tobacco Products and Cancer Subcommittee, and invited member of the AACR Lung Cancer Task Force. In April 2023, Dr. Lovly was elected to serve a three-year term on the AACR Board of Directors. Dr. Lovly has received grants from the Damon Runyon Foundation, the V Foundation, LUNGevity, Lung Cancer Research Foundation, AACR, ASCO, and NIH/NCI. In 2021, Dr. Lovly was awarded the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group Young Investigator Award. In 2022, she was awarded the GO2 Foundation Asclepios Award honoring research pioneers in the fight to end lung cancer.

Erin Schenk, MD, PhD

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Jennifer A. Marks, MD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Jennifer A. Marks is a Thoracic Medical Oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA, and her Medical Oncology fellowship at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. Her professional interests lie in precision medicine and biomarker identification. Her research collaborations with Caris Life Sciences have explored the molecular landscape within MET Exon 14 Skipping Mutations in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer as well as SEZ6 expression in neuroendocrine tumors. She received an Early Career Education Award at the 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Vienna, Austria, and a Conquer Cancer Merit Award at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology Conference in Chicago, IL for this work. She was selected to develop a clinical protocol at the ASCO/AACR Methods in Clinical Research workshop studying sacituzumab govitecan in advanced thymoma and thymic carcinoma. She is committed to advancing personalized medicine in thoracic oncology and finding innovative solutions to scientific challenges. She remains dedicated to being a catalyst for change, improving the lives of patients worldwide through the pursuit of excellence and a patient-centered approach to oncology research and practice.

Jessica J. Lin, MD

Massachusetts General Hospital
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Jessica J. Lin, MD, is a medical oncologist and clinical and translational investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lin received her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Harvard College, and her MD from Harvard Medical School. After completing her residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital with chief residency at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital and fellowship in medical oncology at the Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare program, she joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. She has an active practice caring for patients in the Thoracic Oncology Program and the Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies. The primary focus of Dr Lin’s research is to develop novel therapeutic and biomarker strategies for patients with advanced lung cancers. As a clinical investigator, she is deeply involved in the design and conduct of clinical trials evaluating novel therapeutic agents. Her translational research efforts are dedicated to the study of resistance mechanisms and exceptional responses to targeted therapies in molecularly defined subsets of lung cancer, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for patients living with lung cancer. Dr. Lin is an active member of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, American Association for Cancer Research, European Society for Medical Oncology, and American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Jia Wu, PhD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Dr. Jia Wu is an Associate Professor at MD Anderson and an NIH-funded principal investigator with extensive training as a computational scientist. He earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania, and later served as an instructor at Stanford University. Dr. Wu’s lab specializes in developing and applying cutting-edge, multi-modal machine learning techniques to enhance cancer diagnosis, treatment, early detection, and prevention. His research has garnered significant support, including the prestigious Pathway to Independence Award, R01 grants from the National Cancer Institute, and funding from CPRIT.

Kyle Concannon, MD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Kyle Concannon, MD, is an instructor in the laboratory of Dr. John Heymach and a faculty member of the MD Anderson Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology Department. Dr. Concannon received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont Honors College and then spent two years working in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Haber at Massachusetts General Hospital. He then received his Medical Doctorate from the University of Vermont before training in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington where he studied small cell lung cancer in the laboratory of Dr. David MacPherson. In 2024, he graduated from the MD Anderson Medical Oncology physician-scientist training program as a recipient of the NIH T32 institutional training grant. Dr. Concannon’s work has led to many achievements and awards including the ASCO Young Investigator Award and MD Anderson’s Wuan Ki Hong Excellence in Basic Science award. He is now mentored primarily under Dr. Heymach studying therapeutic resistance in lung cancer.

Roberto Chiarle, MD

Boston Children’s Hospital
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Dr. Chiarle received his MD degree from the University of Torino, Italy, and is currently Professor of Pathology at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He also has appointments as Professor of Pathology at the University of Torino Medical School and as Director of the Hematopathology unit at the European Research Institute (IEO) in Milan, Italy. He has won several national and international awards, including awards from the Italian National Academy of Science, two European Research Council (ERC) grants, an AICR-UK award, several NIH grants and grants from the LUNGevity foundation, V Foundation, the Ellison Foundation, the Bridge Project and others.

One major research interest has been to study the mechanisms and pathways of tumor formation activated by the ALK oncogene, as well as the development of innovative therapies for AK-positive cancers, such as an ALK-specific cancer immunotherapy. Recently, the group has developed an ALK vaccine that instructs the immune system to recognize and eliminate ALK-positive lymphoma and lung cancer cells as well as CAR-T and TCR-T cells to target ALK+ tumors including lung cancer, lymphoma and neuroblastoma.

Simon Heeke, PhD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Dr. Heeke is the head of the Liquid Biopsy Translational Working Group and Assistant Professor in the Department of Thoracic Head & Neck Medical Oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He received his BSc and MSc degree (with distinction) in Molecular Medicine from the Medical University in Innsbruck, Austria, followed by a PhD in Cell Biology from the University Côte d’Azur in Nice, France. His research focuses on oncogene-driven lung cancer (such as with ALK, RET or EGFR alterations), lung cancer interception, small cell lung cancer subtypes and adenoid cystic carcinoma, and the development of associated tissue and liquid biopsy-based biomarkers through the integration of multimodal data and the use of machine learning methods for clinically applicable predictive models. He has contributed to >60 peer reviewed publications published in various high impact journals, including CA:A Cancer Journal, Nature, Cancer Cell, Annals of Oncology, JCO and JTO. Furthermore, he serves as co-chair of the NIH Liquid Biopsy Scientific Interest Group and co-leads the module on Novel Technological Development of the European Master’s in Molecular Pathology.

Vincent Lam, MD

The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Vincent K. Lam, MD, is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Thoracic Oncology Clinical Research Program at Johns Hopkins. His ongoing research efforts include the development of the clinical utility of liquid biopsies in cancer, biomarkers for risk stratification and therapeutic optimization, and novel immunotherapies such as T-cell therapy and vaccines.

Zach Rogers, PhD

MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer

Zachary is an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow in the Love laboratory at MIT. He completed his PhD in chemical engineering at Northeastern University in 2023. His PhD research was focused on tumor hypoxia, including the development of oxygen-generating therapies to combat tumor immunosuppression and novel methods to recapitulate hypoxia in vitro. His postdoctoral work is focused on understanding cancer therapy resistance. In ALK+ lung cancer, he is applying single-cell sequencing methods to understand the biological mechanisms that lead to the emergence of drug-tolerant persister cells.

PROJECT SUMMARY

Like all cancers, lung cancer is caused by alterations in genes that collectively drive cells to divide and grow in the absence of the normal controls. In the case of ALK-positive lung cancer, which frequently strikes younger patients who have never smoked, the key driver of disease development is the rearrangement and fusion of two genes: ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinase) and another gene, most commonly EML4. This gene fusion produces an abnormal ALK protein that causes cancer cells to grow and spread.

ALK inhibitors were developed to specifically target ALK to kill cancer cells. These drugs, typically pills taken once or twice per day, have been shown to slow or stop the progression of the cancer. However, most of them stop working because the cancer develops resistance.

Resistance occurs when a small number of malignant cells escape the ALK-targeting therapy. This residual disease (RD) state fuels the cancer’s recurrence and spread. The goal of this project is to transform the care of lung cancer by developing a deeper understanding of the RD state and identifying novel ways to target these persistent cancer cells, ultimately aiming to prevent relapse and improve patient outcomes.

Toward that goal, the PoweRD 2 Cure ALK+ Lung Cancer TeamLab is pursuing three specific research aims.

Recognizing the critical bottleneck in accessing and analyzing clinically relevant samples and data to advance RD science and interventions, the first aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of acquiring and analyzing residual disease plasma and tissue samples from ALK-positive patients and initiating pilot radiomic analyses to quantify the RD state. Patient samples will first be collected at participating institutions before establishing a framework to enable nationwide patient sample donation. This will enable the team to expand their understanding of ALK-positive tumor biology as it evolves during treatment with ALK inhibitors; develop metrics for quantifying RD and identifying ALK-positive patients at higher risk of progressive disease; and define new clinical trial endpoints.

The second aim is to identify which preclinical models of RD best represent features of patient RD states. The team plans to do this by systematically interrogating a defined set of in vivo and in vitro models of ALK-positive RD to establish the biological features shared with patient-derived samples of RD, such as cancer cell and immune cell states. Establishing these models will provide a crucial foundation for future efforts to better assess interventions during preclinical and trial studies, improving the ability to predict treatment responses in patients with RD.

The third aim is to initiate the development of a multi-center clinical trial framework to accelerate clinical evaluation of novel therapies aimed at eradicating RD. This involves initiating development of a master protocol clinical trial for biospecimen collection and assessment, designed to overcome the lack of available RD tissue for study. The team will initially analyze samples from patients receiving localized consolidation therapy (LCT), a treatment that focuses on controlling cancer in specific areas after initial therapies. They expect to then add additional interventional treatment arms including cancer vaccines. By studying samples at the start of and during each treatment, the team aims to learn more about RD and guide the development of new treatments targeting this hard-to-treat state.

Through these collaborative studies, this project aims to leverage biospecimen collection, advanced laboratory techniques, and biopharma partnerships to change the face of treatment for patients with RD, ultimately improving the quality and duration of life for those diagnosed with lung cancer.

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