OUR PEOPLE
Our scientists, physicians, Board of Directors, and Scientific Advisory Board are some of the greatest minds in cancer research. Collectively we have an opportunity to change how we prevent, detect, and cure the deadliest cancers. Meet the team behind Break Through Cancer.
BREAK THROUGH CANCER STAFF
Tyler Jacks, PhD
Jesse Boehm, PhD
Leny Gocheva, PhD
Bill Hulme
Kari McHugh
Meredith Sandiford
Lisa Schwarz
Elizabeth Sumner
President
Tyler Jacks, PhD
Dr. Tyler Jacks, the President of Break Through Cancer, has dedicated his life to cancer research. He is the Founding Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the David H. Koch Professor of Biology and Co-director of the Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology. From 2001 – 2007, he served as director of the Koch Institute’s predecessor, the MIT Center for Cancer Research, and was a long-standing Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1994-2021). Dr. Jacks received his bachelor’s degree in Biology from Harvard College, and his doctorate from the University of California, San Francisco, where he trained with Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute before joining the MIT faculty in 1992.
The Jacks laboratory at MIT’s Koch Institute studies the genetic events underlying the development of cancer. Dr. Jacks has pioneered the use of gene targeting technology in mice to study cancer-associated genes and to construct mouse models of many human cancer types, including cancers of the lung, pancreas, colon, thyroid, and soft tissue. These powerful, sophisticated models closely recapitulate human disease, and have led to novel insights into tumor development, as well as new strategies for cancer detection and treatment.
In recognition of his contributions to the study of cancer genetics, Dr. Jacks has received numerous awards, including the AACR Outstanding Achievement Award, the Amgen Award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, the Sergio Lombroso Award in Cancer Research, and the AACR Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and served as the organization’s President in 2009.
Dr. Jacks is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was a member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the AACR Academy. In 2015, Dr. Jacks received the Killian Faculty Achievement Award, the highest honor the MIT faculty can bestow upon one of its members. In 2016, Dr. Jacks co-chaired the Blue-Ribbon Panel for (then) Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative. He was also chair of the National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute during the Obama administration.
Dr. Jacks serves on the Board of Directors of Amgen and Thermo Fisher Scientific. He co-founded T2 Biosystems and Dragonfly Therapeutics, where he also serves as chair of the Scientific Advisory Board. He also is a member of the scientific advisory boards of Skyhawk Therapeutics, SQZ Biotech, the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, and the Francis Crick Institute. Dr. Jacks is a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers.
Chief Science Officer
Jesse Boehm, PhD
Jesse Boehm is the Chief Science Officer of Break Through Cancer and maintains a research lab focused on bringing the power of functional genomics to bear on living samples from cancer patients with particular emphasis on rare and underrepresented tumors.
Before joining Break Through Cancer, Jesse spent 14 years in the Broad Institute’s Cancer Program, most recently as an Institute Scientist and Scientific Director of the Cancer Dependency Map project. As the Director of the Broad’s Cancer Model Development Center (part of the National Cancer Institute’s Human Cancer Models Initiative), he led his laboratory in developing a scalable capacity to convert patient tumors into organoids and other cell models. Prior, he was the recipient of a Broad Institute Merkin Fellowship and the Associate Director of the Broad’s Cancer Program. In these leadership roles, he drove the scientific planning and strategic execution of a diverse set of program projects, collaborations, and activities for over a decade.
Propelling the “cancer research ecosystem of the future” to benefit patients as rapidly as possible is his ultimate professional passion and ambition.
Jesse received his BS in biology from MIT and his PhD from Harvard University, Division of Medical Sciences at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Associate Director of Program Management
Leny Gocheva, PhD
Leny Gocheva is the Associate Director of Program Management at Break Through Cancer. Leny spent over a decade at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, most recently serving as Assistant Director of Research. In this role, she led the strategic, operational, and financial directions for Koch Institute’s internal programs and initiatives.
Leny holds a BA in Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology from Connecticut College. She obtained her PhD from Weill Cornell University and conducted her thesis work at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, followed by postdoctoral training in Tyler Jacks’ laboratory at MIT.
Chief Financial Officer
Bill Hulme
Bill Hulme has extensive finance and accounting experience having worked for 25 years for Procter and Gamble in a multitude of roles in both the US and Costa Rica. Most recently he served as a consultant for Deloitte and as a controller for Winter Wyman. Bill has a BS in Accounting from Southern New Hampshire University.
Chief Communications Officer
Kari McHugh
Kari McHugh has spent more than 20 years working in Communications and Strategic Philanthropy. Most recently she held dual roles at Dunkin’ Brands, home of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins. At Dunkin’ Brands, Kari was the Executive Director of the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation and leader of the Consumer and Community Relations Team. Kari brings a unique talent for solving problems and finding innovative solutions to engage key stakeholders in both the corporate and non-profit sectors.
Kari has created more than a dozen public and private charities, including several award-winning corporate philanthropy programs. In addition, Kari is the Board Chair for Rett’s Roost, is on the corporate council for Perkins School for the Blind and is the President of both the Nurses Fund and the Michael C. McHugh Memorial Foundation. Kari graduated with a Joint Honors Masters in Philosophy and International Relations from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Strategic Operations Manager
Meredith Sandiford
Meredith Sandiford has spent much of her career in operations and event planning for various organizations including Golden Seeds, The Capital Network, and MassChallenge. She holds a BS in Animal Science from Texas A&M University and a Master’s of International Business from Northeastern University.
Chief Operating Office and Chief Philanthropy Officer
Lisa Schwarz
Over the last thirty years, Lisa Schwarz has raised philanthropic support for numerous institutions including MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Johns Hopkins University. She holds a BA in art history and communications from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and an MPA from New York University.
Senior Project Manager
Elizabeth Sumner
Elizabeth Sumner has experience in oncology clinical research, early phase trials, and real world research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and McKesson Specialty Health. She most recently served as an operations project lead for the Real World Evidence team at McKesson Specialty Health for oncology clinical data abstraction and strategic initiative projects.
Elizabeth holds a BA in Biology with a Biomathematics Concentration from Smith College and a MS from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
William G. (Bill) Nelson, V, MD, PhD
Lisa M. DeAngelis, MD
Giulio F. Draetta, MD, PhD
Laurie Glimcher, MD
Alice Goodwin
William H. Goodwin, Jr
William C. Hahn, MD, PhD
Susan Hockfield, PhD
Tyler Jacks, PhD
Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, FAACR, FACP
David Jaffray, PhD
David A. Scheinberg, MD, PhD
John Sherman
Matt Vander Heiden, MD, PhD
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
William G. (Bill) Nelson, V, MD, PhD
Chairman of the Board, Break Through Cancer; Marion I. Knott Director
Bill Nelson is the Marion I. Knott Professor of Oncology and Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. He currently holds Professorships in Oncology, Medicine, Pharmacology, Pathology, Radiation Oncology, Urology, and Environmental Health Sciences. His laboratory research work has focused on cancer epigenetics, new cancer drug discovery, and prostate cancer.
Outside of Johns Hopkins, Bill is a recognized leader in cancer research, organizing national and international meetings in cancer health disparities, in cancer prevention, and in prostate cancer; serving on the Board and as Scientific Director of the V Foundation, as a Scientific Co-Chair for Stand Up 2 Cancer, and on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Prostate Cancer Foundation; and working as Executive Editor of Cancer Today, and as a Senior Editor of Cancer Research and of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Owner of eleven issued patents, he is a co-founder of Digital Harmonics and of Brahm Astra Therapeutics, and a Board Member of Armis Biopharma.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Lisa M. DeAngelis, MD
Physician-in-Chief and Chief Medical Officer
Lisa M. DeAngelis, MD, is Physician-in-Chief and Chief Medical Officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). She oversees all clinical services, research, medical education, and multi-center collaborations for MSK, including the 500-bed Memorial Hospital, 13 outpatient facilities in New York City, and seven regional care sites across New York and New Jersey.
Lisa is an internationally recognized expert in brain cancer and the neurological complications of cancer treatment, including cognitive impairment and stroke. During her thirty-year tenure at MSK, she served as chair of the Department of Neurology from 1997 to 2018, and co-founded MSK’s Brain Tumor Center, where experts from across MSK work to bring new discoveries from the lab to patients as quickly as possible.
Lisa’s own research has focused on primary brain tumors and she has led several clinical trials that investigate new tumor therapies. She also helped develop the current regimen to treat primary central nervous system lymphoma.
She is the author of more than 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 130 book chapters and has written or edited eight books. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. She is a fellow of the American Neurological Association (ANA) and former Vice Chair of the Board. She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), which in 2019 awarded her the organization’s highest honor, the Wartenberg lecture.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Giulio F. Draetta, MD, PhD
Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer
Giulio Draetta is senior vice president and chief scientific officer at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a professor of Genomic Medicine and holds the Sewell Family Chair in Genomic Medicine, with a joint appointment as professor of Molecular and Cellular Oncology. He also co-leads MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program®, a bold initiative aimed at rapidly and substantially reducing deaths to several high-mortality cancers. As chief scientific officer, Giulio champions innovation, develops strong partnerships and provides focused leadership on the basic science and clinical translation of research programs across the institution. He leads the regulatory infrastructure related to research finance, research integrity and protocol governance. His research focuses on mechanisms of disease in pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma.
Giulio earned his medical and postgraduate degrees from the University of Naples Medical School, Italy. Before joining MD Anderson in 2011, he was a Dana-Farber Presidential Scholar, and chief research business development officer and deputy director of the Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
He has held appointments at Pharmacia and Merck, as vice president and as worldwide head of oncology drug discovery, respectively. He has served as an investigator at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany; and the European Institute of Oncology. During his time in academia, Giulio spearheaded fundamental research in the biology of the eukaryotic cell division cycle and of DNA damage-induced checkpoints. His research led to discovery of the first mammalian cyclin-dependent kinase and demonstrated that cyclin-dependent kinases and cyclins physically interact and regulate multiple cell cycle transitions in eukaryotes.
He was co-founder and vice president of research for Mitotix, where he established programs in cancer, inflammation and infectious diseases that led to successful partnerships with several pharmaceutical companies. He headed numerous drug discovery and development programs, which led to two drug approvals in recent years. He co-founded Karyopharm Therapeutics, Inc., which focused on the development of selective inhibitors of nuclear export in oncology and other disease indications.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Laurie Glimcher, MD
President and Chief Executive Officer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Director, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
Laurie H. Glimcher, MD is the President and CEO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Director of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Previously, she was the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean and Professor of Medicine of Weill Cornell Medicine and Provost for Medical Affairs of Cornell University.
She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the American Philosophical Society, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the former President of the American Association of Immunologists. She is a member of the Cancer Research Institute, Prix Galien, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Repare Therapeutics, Abpro Therapeutics, Kaleido BioSciences, Inc. Scientific Advisory Boards, the Lasker Award Jury, the American Association for Cancer Research, Association of American Cancer Institutes, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology and served on the Vice President’s Blue Ribbon panel. Laurie previously served on the Board of Directors of Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Corporation and the Waters Corporation. She currently serves on the boards of GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceutical Corporation and Analog Devices, Inc.
Laurie’s research identified key transcriptional regulators of protective immunity and the origin of pathophysiologic immune responses underlying autoimmune, infectious and malignant diseases. Dr. Glimcher speaks nationally and internationally on cancer, immunology, and translational medicine and has contributed more than 350 scholarly articles and papers to the medical literature.
Laurie has been a staunch proponent of improved access to care, health policy, and medical education, while simultaneously serving as a pioneering mentor and role model for cancer research trainees and for all women in science. Notably, she was the first female to be appointed as dean of Weill Cornell Medicine and is the first female President and Chief Executive Officer of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research
Alice Goodwin
Trustee
After attending Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA, Alice T. Goodwin went on to receive a BS in Medical Technology from the Medical College of Virginia. She is a member of the Vestry at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and has served on several community boards including The Virginia Home (past president), the MCV Foundation and the Massey Cancer Center Advisory Board. In her spare time, she enjoys playing tennis and golf. Alice and Bill Goodwin married in 1966. They have five children and thirteen grandchildren.
Over the years, Alice and Bill have together received several awards and recognitions including the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor for Philanthropy and The Distinguished Virginian Award from NCCJ Virginia. They were also chosen as Individual Philanthropists of the Year by the Central Virginia Chapter of the National Society of Fundraising Executives. In addition, Alice is a recipient of the Outstanding Women Award from the YWCA of Richmond and Mary Baldwin University’s Bertie Murphy Deming Distinguished Service Award. She also proudly served as the Christmas Mother of Richmond in 2009.
Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research
William H. Goodwin, Jr
Trustee
Bill Goodwin is the Retired Chairman of CCA Industries, Inc. and The Riverstone Group, LLC. CCA is a diversified holding company, which oversees The Riverstone Group and its business interests, including Kiawah Island Golf Resort (Kiawah Island, SC), Sea Pines Resort (Hilton Head, SC) and The Jefferson Hotel (Richmond, VA). He received a BSME from Virginia Tech in 1962 and an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business at UVA in 1966. In addition to his business endeavors, Bill has held many notable board positions including the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, where he served as Rector from 2015-2017, and the National Cancer Advisory Board. In his spare time, Bill enjoys playing golf and duck hunting.
Bill has been the recipient of numerous honors including the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters Award from both Johns Hopkins University and Virginia Commonwealth University, and Virginia Tech Alumni Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award. Bill was recently inducted into Virginia Tech’s Academy of Engineering Excellence and was chosen as the 2020 Virginian of the Year by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Broad Institute
William C. Hahn, MD, PhD
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Institute Member, Broad Institute
Bill Hahn is the William Rosenberg Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Bill has made numerous discoveries that have informed our current molecular understanding of cancer and have formed the foundation of new translational studies. Bill and his colleagues helped demonstrate that activation of the reverse transcriptase telomerase plays an essential role in malignant transformation. This observation provided the means to create novel experimental model systems to identify and characterize the cooperative genetic interactions that lead to malignant transformation. Together with his colleagues at the Broad Institute, he helped develop genome scale tools and technology to perform somatic cell genetics in human cells. His laboratory has pioneered the use of integrated functional genomic approaches to identify and validate cancer targets. The tools, models and approaches that his laboratory has developed are widely used worldwide to discover and validate molecularly targeted cancer therapies. Bill and his collaborators are now engaged in clinical trials testing whether inhibition both of new oncogenes or synthetic lethal partners identified by these approaches will lead to clinical responses.
He has served as the President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and has been elected to the Association of American Physicians. Bill has been the recipient of many honors and awards including the Wilson S. Stone Award from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for outstanding research in cancer (2000), a Howard Temin Award from the National Cancer Institute (2001), the Ho-Am Prize in Medicine (2010), the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from AACR (2015) and the Claire and Richard Morse Award (2019).
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Susan Hockfield, PhD
President Emerita
Susan Hockfield is President Emerita, Professor of Neuroscience, and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2004 to 2012 she served as the sixteenth President of MIT, the first life scientist and first woman in that role.
As President, Susan strengthened the foundations of MIT’s finances and campus planning while advancing Institute-wide programs in sustainable energy and the convergence of the life, physical and engineering sciences, with impact across the region, the nation and around the world. She helped shape national policy for energy and next-generation manufacturing, appointed by President Obama in 2011 to co-chair the steering committee of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership and by serving as a member of a Congressional Commission evaluating the Department of Energy laboratories in 2015.
As a biologist, she pioneered the use of monoclonal antibody technology in brain research, identifying proteins through which neural activity early in life effect brain development. Before joining MIT as its president, she was the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1998-2002), and Provost (2003-2004) at Yale University. In all her roles, she has advanced opportunities for women and minorities.
She studied at the University of Rochester and Georgetown University and carried out research at the NIH and UCSF before joining the faculty at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and then Yale. She is the past president and chairman of AAAS and currently is a director of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Fidelity Non-Profit Management Foundation, Lasker Foundation, Mass General Brigham, Pfizer, Inc., and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Susan is a life member of the MIT Corporation and a board member of the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Break Through Cancer; Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tyler Jacks, PhD
President, Break Through Cancer; Founding Director, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Tyler Jacks, the President of Break Through Cancer, has dedicated his life to cancer research. He is the Founding Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the David H. Koch Professor of Biology and Co-director of the Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology. From 2001 – 2007, he served as director of the Koch Institute’s predecessor, the MIT Center for Cancer Research, and was a long-standing Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1994-2021). Dr. Jacks received his bachelor’s degree in Biology from Harvard College, and his doctorate from the University of California, San Francisco, where he trained with Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute before joining the MIT faculty in 1992.
The Jacks laboratory at MIT’s Koch Institute studies the genetic events underlying the development of cancer. Dr. Jacks has pioneered the use of gene targeting technology in mice to study cancer-associated genes and to construct mouse models of many human cancer types, including cancers of the lung, pancreas, colon, thyroid, and soft tissue. These powerful, sophisticated models closely recapitulate human disease, and have led to novel insights into tumor development, as well as new strategies for cancer detection and treatment.
In recognition of his contributions to the study of cancer genetics, Dr. Jacks has received numerous awards, including the AACR Outstanding Achievement Award, the Amgen Award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, the Sergio Lombroso Award in Cancer Research, and the AACR Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and served as the organization’s President in 2009.
Dr. Jacks is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was a member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the AACR Academy. In 2015, Dr. Jacks received the Killian Faculty Achievement Award, the highest honor the MIT faculty can bestow upon one of its members. In 2016, Dr. Jacks co-chaired the Blue-Ribbon Panel for (then) Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative. He was also chair of the National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute during the Obama administration.
Dr. Jacks serves on the Board of Directors of Amgen and Thermo Fisher Scientific. He co-founded T2 Biosystems and Dragonfly Therapeutics, where he also serves as chair of the Scientific Advisory Board. He also is a member of the scientific advisory boards of Skyhawk Therapeutics, SQZ Biotech, the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, and the Francis Crick Institute. Dr. Jacks is a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers.
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, FAACR, FACP
Cancer Center Deputy Director and Co-Director, Gastrointestinal Cancers Program
Liz Jaffee is an internationally recognized expert in cancer immunology and pancreatic cancer. She is Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Co-Director of the Skip Viragh Pancreatic Cancer Center and Associate Director of the Bloomberg Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
Her research focus is on developing novel immunotherapies for the treatment and prevention of pancreatic cancer. Liz is a Past President of AACR. She has served on a number of committees at the National Cancer Institute including co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Panel that provided scientific advice to Vice President Biden’s Moonshot Initiative and as Past Chair of the National Cancer Advisory Board.
Liz currently serves as Chief Medical Advisor to the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. She is the inaugural Director of the new Convergence Institute at Johns Hopkins. She was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
David Jaffray, PhD
Senior Vice President, Chief Technology and Digital Officer
David Jaffray is a senior vice president and chief technology and digital officer (CTDO) at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He also is professor of Radiation Physics with a dual appointment as professor of Imaging Physics. Recruited to MD Anderson in May 2019, David is the institution’s inaugural chief technology and digital officer (CTDO), bringing more than two decades of scientific expertise and proven skill as an innovator. In this role, he directs the strategic design, acquisition, management and implementation of an enterprise-wide technology infrastructure at MD Anderson to safeguard the integrity and availability of the institution’s systems and intellectual property assets.
Before joining MD Anderson, David served as executive vice president for Technology and Innovation at the University Health Network (UHN)/Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Ontario. He led UHN’s information technology transformation, and served in several other leadership roles at UHN, including vice chair of Research for the University of Toronto’s Department of Radiation Oncology, founding director of the STTARR Innovation Centre, and founding director of the Techna Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health.
He holds multiple patents and has authored more than 275 peer-reviewed publications in topics related to cancer, including, the development of new radiation treatment machines, exploring the fundamental limits of imaging system performance, and the development of novel nanoparticle formulations for improved detection of cancer. During the course of his career, he has received many honors, including the Sylvia Sorkin-Greenfield Award, the Farrington Daniels Award and the Sylvia Fedoruk Award. In 2018, he received the Gold Medal from the American Society for Radiation Oncology.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
David A. Scheinberg, MD, PhD
Chair, Molecular Pharmacology Program and Director, Experimental Therapeutics Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
David A. Scheinberg, MD, PHD, is the Vincent Astor Chair, and Chairman, Molecular Pharmacology, Sloan Kettering Institute. He also founded and chairs the Center for Experimental Therapeutics, and founded and was chair of the Nanotechnology Center from 2010 to 2014. He is a Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and Co-chair of the Pharmacology graduate program at the Weill-Cornell Medical College and Professor in the Gerstner-Sloan Kettering Graduate School at MSKCC.
He is a founder and director of the Therapeutics Discovery Institute, a non-profit drug discovery corporation formed with Weill Cornell Medical College, Rockefeller University and Sloan Kettering Institute; and founder and advisor to Bridge Medicines, a for-profit drug discovery corporation formed with the same three institutions. From 1992 – 2003, he was Chief of the Leukemia Service at Memorial Hospital. He has been elected into the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Physicians, and the Interurban Club. Other awards include the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Science Professorship, the Lucille P. Markey Scholarship, The Emil J. Freireich Award, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Translational Investigator Awards, and CapCure Awards.
In 2013, Nature Biotech recognized him as one of the top 20 Translational Scientists in the world. David is a physician-scientist, specializing in the care of patients with leukemia and also investigating new therapeutic approaches to cancer, both in the hospital and in the laboratory. The focus of his research is on the discovery and development of novel, specific immuno-therapeutic agents. This includes monoclonal antibodies that target cell surface or intracellular proteins of cancers, targeted radiopharmaceuticals that deliver radioactive particles including alpha particles or alpha particle nanogenerators, and therapeutic vaccines targeting the oncogene products that cause the cancers. Eight different therapeutic agents developed by the Scheinberg lab have reached human clinical trials, which include the first humanized antibodies to treat acute leukemia, the first targeted alpha particle therapies and alpha generators, the first tumor specific fusion oncogene product vaccines, and antibodies to intracellular proteins. He has published more than 300 papers, chapters, or books and has more than 35 US patents.
Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research
John Sherman
Trustee
John Sherman served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of publicly traded Scott & Stringfellow Financial Inc., from January 1996 to August 28, 2002, and was involved in merging the firm in 1999 with BB&T Corporation, now Truist. From 2002-2005 He served as vice chairman of BBT Scott Stringfellow. He served as a Director of Albemarle Corporation from 2003-2017. He also served as a director of Anthem from 2000-2004.
John received his BA degree in British Literature from Princeton University and his MBA from The Darden School, University of Virginia. He served as a Communication Officer on a destroyer homeported in Yokosuka, Japan during the Vietnam War. Currently he serves as a director for the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research.
John and his wife, Martha Rasberry Sherman, have two children and four grandchildren.
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
Matt Vander Heiden, MD, PhD
Trustee, Director, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Lester Wolfe (1919), Professor of Molecular Biology Professor of Biology
Matt Vander Heiden is the Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research,, and is the Lester Wolfe (1919) Professor of Molecular Biology at MIT. He is also a practicing medical oncologist and an Instructor of Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago, prior to completing clinical training and a post-doc at Harvard Medical School. His laboratory is interested in understand how metabolism influences cancer.
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Cory Abate-Shen, PhD
John D. Carpten, PhD
Timothy Cloughesy, MD
Benjamin Haibe-Kains, PhD
Patricia LoRusso, DO
Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, DSc (Hon)
Miriam Merad, MD, PhD
Dinah Singer, PhD
Louis M. Staudt, MD, PhD
Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, MD
E. John Wherry, PhD
Columbia University
Cory Abate-Shen, PhD
Chair, Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Cory Abate-Shen, PhD, joined the faculty of Columbia University Medical Center and the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2007. A leader in the field of urological oncology, Dr. Abate-Shen is the Michael and Stella Chernow Professor of Urologic Sciences, director of research in the Department of Urology, and an associate director of HICCC and leader of its Prostate Program.
Dr. Abate-Shen’s research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of cancer development. She has a longstanding commitment to the generation of mouse models of cancer and their effective use for translational research. Her major research interests are in the area of genitourological cancer. Most notably, her laboratory has developed novel models of prostate and bladder cancer, which have been utilized for investigating the molecular basis of the disease as well as preclinical models for evaluating new therapies.
Dr. Abate-Shen obtained her PhD at Cornell University Medical College, and pursued her postdoctoral training with Tom Curran at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology. In 1991, she joined the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as an assistant professor. She rose to the rank of professor by 2001, and was appointed chief of a new Division in the Department of Medicine in 2002. Dr. Abate-Shen also created the Prostate Program for the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and served as its co-leader from 1999 to 2007.
Among her various honors and awards, she has recently been selected as an American Cancer Society Research Professor, the first ever at Columbia University Medical School.
University of Southern California
John D. Carpten, PhD
Chair, Translational Genomics; Director, Institute of Translational Genomics, Keck School of Medicine
John D. Carpten, PhD is Co-leader of the Translational and Clinical Sciences Program (TACS) at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also Professor and Chair for the Department of Translational Genomics at the Keck School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the USC Institute for Translational Genomics. Previously he was Professor and Deputy Director of Basic Sciences, Translational Genomics Research Institute, Phoenix, AZ. He earned his PhD in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology within the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Ohio State University. He then went on for postdoctoral training in genome sciences at the National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD with Dr. Jeffrey M. Trent and co-mentor Dr. Francis F. Collins. He was later promoted to the tenure track at NHGRI where he began his early career development.
Dr. Carpten’s research spans a very broad range of topics including work in germ-line genetics, tumor genome analysis, cancer cell biology, and health disparities. His research program centers around the development and application of cutting edge genomic technologies and bioinformatics analysis in search of germ-line and somatic alterations that are associated with cancer risk and tumor biology, respectively. His work spans many of the known cancer types including but not limited to prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, brain cancer, multiple myeloma, and pediatric cancers.
Dr. Carpten has an intense focus on understanding the role of biology in disparate cancer incidence and mortality rates among underrepresented populations. Through his leadership, the African American Hereditary Prostate Cancer Study (AAHPC) Network was conceived. This study has become a model for genetic studies in underrepresented populations and led to the first genome wide scan for prostate cancer susceptibility genes in African Americans. Dr. Carpten also has a very active program in sporadic tumor research. His laboratory participated in and led several high impact studies including the identification of NF-kb pathway mutations in Multiple Myeloma, which was published in Cancer Cell. He also led a landmark study, which culminated in the discovery of the AKT1(E17K) activating mutation in human cancers, published in Nature. He also has research published in Science, Nature Genetics, Genome Research, and New England Journal of Medicine.
To improve the discovery of important alterations associated with cancer, Dr. Carpten was an early adopter in the implementation, development, and application of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies for cancer genomics. These technologies offer the opportunity to comprehensively interrogate cancer genomes to uncover the lexicon of somatic events within tumors. He has worked with numerous clinical partners to establish Precision Medicine trials using whole genome and transcriptome sequencing to identify therapeutically actionable events. One such study reported results of genome sequencing of 14 metastatic triple negative breast cancers to identify therapeutically actionable events that were used for treatment recommendations. The resulting paper was the most cited article in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics in 2014. He coordinated the development of a CLIA-certified genomic testing laboratory, which was commercialized as Ashion Analytics, LLC.
University of California, Los Angeles
Timothy Cloughesy, MD
Director, Neuro-Oncology Program; Director, Henry Singleton Brain Cancer Research Program
Dr. Timothy Cloughesy is a Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He received his BA degree with Honors in Chemistry in 1983 at University of California, Santa Barbara, and his MD degree in 1987 at Tulane University. He completed his Neurology Residency at University of California, Los Angeles and fellowships in Clinical Neurophysiology (UCLA 1991- 1992) and Neuro-Oncology (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center 1992). Dr. Cloughesy is board certified in Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology. He joined the faculty of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 1992 with the Department of Neurology.
He is the director of the Neuro-Oncology Program at UCLA and the Director of the Henry Singleton Brain Cancer Research Program. He is a member of the Brain Research Institute and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA. Dr. Cloughesy’s research has focused on clinical trials in brain cancer using targeted molecular therapies with novel clinical trial design and biomarkers in brain cancer. He provided principal leadership for the approval of bevacizumab for recurrent glioblastoma. This was the first drug approved for recurrent glioblastoma in over 30 years.
He is recognized as a world expert in the brain cancer research and has been asked to lead several first-in-human studies to treat glioblastoma. He has developed a brain cancer bioinformatics database which combines clinical outcomes, imaging, and molecular analysis to enhance translational research and has the goal of using biomarkers to provide individualized care for brain cancer patients. He has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles on brain cancer.
University of Toronto
Benjamin Haibe-Kains, PhD
Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network; Associate Professor, Department of Medical Biophysics
Trained as a computer scientist, Dr. Benjamin Haibe-Kains earned his PhD in Bioinformatics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). He was a postdoc in the Quackenbush group at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School of Public Health (USA). Dr. Haibe-Kains started his own laboratory at the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (Canada) and he is now Principal Investigator at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. His research focuses on the integration of high-throughput data from various sources to simultaneously analyze multiple facets of diseases, with a particular emphasis on cancer. Dr. Haibe-Kains and his team are using publicly available genomic datasets and data generated through his collaborations to better understand the biology underlying carcinogenesis and to develop new predictive models in order to significantly improve disease management. Dr. Haibe-Kains’ main scientific contributions include several prognostic gene signatures in breast cancer, subtype classification models for ovarian and breast cancers, as well as genomic predictors of drug response in cancer cell lines.
Yale Cancer Center
Patricia LoRusso, DO
Associate Cancer Center Director, Experimental Therapeutics
Pat LoRusso brings more than 25 years of expertise in medical oncology, drug development, and early phase clinical trials. Prior to her Yale appointment, she served in numerous leadership roles at Wayne State University’s Barbara Karmanos Cancer Institute, most recently as director of the Phase I Clinical Trials Program and of the Eisenberg Center for Experimental Therapeutics.
University of California, San Francisco
Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, DSc (Hon)
Professor, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center; Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology
Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, is Professor of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to joining the UCSF faculty, Dr. McCormick pursued cancer-related work with several Bay Area biotechnology firms and held positions with Cetus Corporation (Director of Molecular Biology, 1981-1990; Vice President of Research, 1990-1991) and Chiron Corporation, where he was Vice President of Research from 1991 to 1992. In 1992 he founded Onyx Pharmaceuticals, a company dedicated to developing new cancer therapies, and served as its Chief Scientific Officer until 1996. At Onyx Pharmaceuticals, he initiated and led drug discovery efforts that led to the approval of Sorafenib in 2005 for treatment of renal cell cancer, and for liver cancer in 2007, and the approval of ONYX-015 in 2006 in China for treatment of nasopharyngeal cancer. Sorafenib is being tested in multiple indications worldwide. In addition, Dr. McCormick’s group led to the identification of a CDK4 kinase inhibitor. Dr. McCormick’s current research interests center on the fundamental differences between normal and cancer cells that can allow the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies.
Dr. McCormick holds the David A. Wood Chair of Tumor Biology and Cancer Research at UCSF. Dr. McCormick is the author of over 285 scientific publications and holds 20 issued patents. He also served as President, 2012-2013 for the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). More recently, he has taken a leadership role at the Frederick National Lab for Cancer Research, overseeing an NCI supported national effort to develop therapies against Ras-driven cancers. These cancers include most pancreatic cancers, and many colorectal and lung cancers, and are amongst the most difficult cancers to treat.
Mount Sinai
Miriam Merad, MD, PhD
Director, Precision Immunology Institute; Director, Mount Sinai Human Immune Monitoring Center, Icahn School of Medicine
Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, is the Mount Sinai Endowed professor in Cancer Immunology and the Director of the Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Dr. Merad also co-leads the Cancer Immunology program at The Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Institute and is the Director of the Mount Sinai Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC). Dr. Merad obtained her MD at the University of Algiers, Algeria. She did her residency in Hematology and Oncology in Paris, France and obtained her PhD in Immunology in collaboration between Stanford University and University of Paris VII. She was recruited to Mount Sinai in 2004 and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with Tenure in 2007 and to Full Professor in 2010 and obtained an Endowed Chair in Cancer Immunology in 2014.
Dr. Merad’s laboratory made seminal discoveries to our understanding of the mechanisms that control the development and functional identity of tissue resident dendritic cells and macrophages during homeostasis, and examining how these regulations are changed in cancer and inflammatory diseases.
The overarching goal of her laboratory is to identify dysregulated pathways in macrophages and dendritic cells that can be harnessed to treat Cancer using both genetically engineered mouse models and human lesions to address these questions. To expand the understanding of immune cells contribution to human lesions, she founded in 2009, the human immune monitoring center at Mount Sinaito implement technology platforms to maximize information obtained from limited biological samples. In 2016, she took the leadership of the Precision Immunology Institute at the icahn School of Medicine (PrIISM) to continue to lead initiatives to enhance human immunology science. PrIISM integrates immunological research programs across 42 laboratories with synergistic expertise in biology, medicine, technology, physics, mathematics and computational biology which come together to frame novel questions to understand the contribution of immune cells to disease initiation, progression and response to treatment, to implement cutting edge technologies andto develop novel immunotherapy strategies for the treatment of human diseases.
Dr. Merad has authored more than 170 primary papers and reviews in high profile journals. She receives generous funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her research on innate immunity and their contribution to human disease, and belongs to several NIH consortia. In 2018, Dr. Merad received the prestigious William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Tumor Immunology.
Bethesda, MD
Dinah Singer, PhD
Bethesda, MD
Dr. Singer’s research program is focused on interrogating the regulatory networks governing gene expression to generate an integrated understanding of the interplay between chromatin structure, transcription and translation to establish appropriate regulation of gene expression across diverse cellular and tissue environments. Her most recent studies have identified 1) the cancer therapeutic target BRD4 as a novel histone acetyl transferase that evicts nucleosomes and as a kinase that regulates transcription, linking chromatin structure and transcription and 2) the transcription factor, TAF7, as a checkpoint regulator of early transcription that binds nuclear mRNA and escorts it to polysomes, linking transcription and translation.
Bethesda, MD
Louis M. Staudt, MD, PhD
Bethesda, MD
University of California, San Francisco
Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, MD
Director, Molecular Oncology Initiative, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Dr. Alejando Sweet-Cordero is a pediatric oncologist. He specializes in treating patients with sarcomas and in treating advanced cancers through precision medicine. In research, Sweet-Cordero has two areas of focus. First, he studies ways to use gene sequencing data from tumors to inform treatment decisions. Specifically, he directs the UCSF Molecular Oncology Initiative, which uses such data in determining the best treatments for relapsed, growing or other difficult-to-treat cases. Second, he runs a research lab dedicated to finding new therapies for sarcomas, particularly osteosarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma.
Sweet-Cordero earned his medical degree at UCSF, where he also completed a residency in pediatrics. He completed a fellowship in pediatric oncology at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.
The goal of the Sweet-Cordero Lab is to identify novel therapeutic approaches for cancer that target the genetic mutations and altered signaling networks that are specific to cancer cells. Dr. Sweet-Cordero’s team uses functional genomics applied to mouse and human systems (genetically engineered models, patient derived xenografts) to understand the transcriptional networks that regulate the outcome of specific oncogenic mutations and to identify new approaches for cancer therapy. The lab has two primary disease interests: lung cancer and pediatric sarcomas.
In their lung cancer work, the lab is heavily focused on using functional genomic approaches to study how KRAS functions as an oncogene. For example, Dr. Swee-Cordero carried out one of the first mouse and human combined screens to identify Wt1 as a synthetic vulnerability for KRAS in NSCLC (Vicent et al, 2010, JCI). More recently, he described a key role of oncogenic Ras in regulation of the response to nutrient stress (Gwinn et al 2018, Cancer Cell). The lab is funded by the NCI Ras initiative as part of a multi-PI effort to identify novel synthetic lethal genes in the Ras pathway (collaboration with the Bassik and Jackson labs, both at Stanford University). Dr. Sweet-Cordero is also interested in identifying and characterizing the role of tumor-propagating cells (also called cancer stem cells) in NSCLC. Using a combination of mouse and human systems, he identified a key role for Notch3 as a self-renewal pathway in mouse and human NSCLC (Zheng et al, 2013, Cancer Cell). Ongoing projects are seeking to identify other KRAS specific vulnerabilities using 2D and 3D systems in both mouse and human. The lab is also exploring the use of single cell genomics to further evaluate intra-tumor heterogeneity.
In his sarcoma work, Dr. Sweet-Cordero is interested in mechanisms driving Osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma progression. These diseases provide an interesting contrast as clinically they are similar but from a genomic standpoint they are quite distinct. He recently identified EWSAT1 as the first lncRNA involved in the pathogenesis of Ewing sarcoma (Howarth et al, JCI, 2014). Ongoing work is focused on understanding how lncRNAs regulate the oncogenic capacity of the EWS/FLI1 fusion. In osteosarcoma, Dr. Sweet-Cordero is carrying out translational studies to evaluate the use of targeted therapies for this disease. His sarcoma work is facilitated by access to a large (n>30) collection of patient-derived xenograft models. He is using these models to explore the genomic evolution of sarcomas and define novel therapeutics that are informed by the alterations present in individual tumors.
University of Pennsylvania
E. John Wherry, PhD
Chair, Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics; Director, Institute for Immunology, Perelman School of Medicine
Dr. E. John Wherry is currently the Chair, Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor and Director, Institute for Immunology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Wherry received his BS from Pennsylvania State University in 1993, and his PhD in Immunology from Thomas Jefferson University in 2000.
Dr. Wherry’s expertise focuses pioneering work to define the cellular and molecular nature of Immune Exhaustion – or failure of normal immune system function – in chronic infection and cancer. His lab studies T cell exhaustion in chronic infections and cancer and on the mechanisms by which immunoregulatory “checkpoint” pathways such as PD-1 control T cell exhaustion. Dr. Wherry’s work has defined the molecular mechanisms of T cell exhaustion, including defining the role of inhibitory receptor biology, transcriptional control and regulation of T cell differentiation. This work has helped define key principles about inhibitory receptor blockade and co-blockade to reverse T cell exhaustion (e.g. coblockade of PD-1 and LAG3, etc). Work on combination treatment to reverse exhaustion is now being extended to include other complementary approaches such as radiation and other “orthogonal” treatments. Moreover, Dr. Wherry’s work has defined central transcriptional pathways including those controlled by Blimp-1, T-bet and Eomes in the biology of exhausted T cells. Major efforts continue in transcriptional profiling, genomics and computational biology and multiparameter flow cytometry to understand the nature and reversibility of T cell exhaustion in preclinical and clinical settings.
OUTSTANDING RESEARCHERS AND PHYSICIANS
Dmitriy Zamarin, MD, PhD
Linghua Wang, MD, PhD
Kara Long Roche, MD, MSc
Shannon N. Westin, MD, MPH
Sangeeta Goswami, MD, PhD
Tyler Hillman, MD, PhD
Anirban Maitra, MBBS
Ie-Ming Shih, MD, PhD
E. Antonio (‘Nino”) Chiocca, MD, PhD
Michael J. Cima, PhD
Rachel N. Grisham, MD
Wen Jiang, MD, PhD
Adrienne Boire, MD, PhD
Betty Kim, MD, PhD
Jian Hu, PhD
Christopher Douville, PhD
Chetan Bettegowda, MD, PhD
Keith L. Ligon, MD, PhD
Rameen Beroukhim, MD, PhD
Sohrab Shah, PhD
Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD
Tobiloba Oni, PhD
Andrew Aguirre, MD, PhD
Forest White, PhD
Alex K. Shalek, PhD
Nathalie Y.R. Agar, PhD
Kadir Akdemir, PhD
Salil Garg, MD, PhD
Larissa Meyer, MD, MPH
Kenny Yu, MBBS, PhD, FRCS
Carol Aghajanian, MD
Thomas R. Pisanic II, PhD
Rebecca Stone, MD
Tuomas Tammela, MD, PhD
Paula T. Hammond, PhD
Douglas Lauffenburger, PhD
Stefani Spranger, PhD
Amir A. Jazaeri, MD
Ronald A. DePinho, MD
Alan D’Andrea, MD
Joseph D. Mancias, MD, PhD
Scott W. Lowe, PhD
Matt Vander Heiden, MD, PhD
Nilofer Azad, MD
Shubham Pant, MD
Eileen M. O’Reilly, MD
Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD
Neal Rosen, MD, PhD
Stéphanie Gaillard, MD, PhD
Tian-Li Wang, PhD
Kripa K. Varanasi, PhD
Stephanie L. Wethington, MD, MSc
Britta Weigelt, PhD
Paola A. Guerrero, PhD
Karen Lu, MD
Angela Belcher, PhD
Neelkanth (Neel) Bardhan, PhD
Sanghoon Lee, PhD
Yang Chen, PhD
Maxime Meylan, PhD
Bert Vandereydt, MS
Wungki Park, MD
Fiona Chatterjee, BA
Ryuhjin Ahn, PhD
Julien Dilly, MS
Kimal Rajapakshe, PhD
Kevin Kapner, MS
Ziyue Li, PhD
David A. Reardon, MD
Keith Ligon, MD, PhD
Jared Woods, MD, PhD
Riccardo Mezzadra, PhD
Franziska Michor, PhD
Elias-Ramzey Karnoub, BA
Viviane Tabar, MD
Anupriya Singhal, MD-PhD student
Duaa Al-Rawi, MD, PhD
Nickolas Papadopoulos, PhD
Pamela Constantinou Papadopoulos, PhD
Mae Pryor, BA
Thomas Bauer, MBA, RT(R)
Michael Worley Jr., MD
Alexandra Bird, BS
Panos Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD
Kathleen H. Burns, MD, PhD
Shengnan Huang, PhD
Dipanjan Chowdhury, PhD
Caroline McCue, PhD candidate
David Kolin, MD, PhD
No Results Found
Dmitriy Zamarin, MD, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dmitriy Zamarin, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist and Translational Research Director in the Gynecologic Medical Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Zamarin obtained his MD and PhD degrees from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, where he studied mechanisms of influenza virus pathogenesis. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, studying the mechanisms of response and resistance to immunomodulatory antibody therapy and oncolytic virus-based therapeutics. Dr. Zamarin is a principal investigator and a translational chair on several institutional and cooperative group clinical trials exploring novel immunotherapy combinations in gynecologic cancers and other solid tumors. He serves as the translational research co-chair on the NRG Oncology Cervical Cancer committee. His clinical and laboratory research are focused on characterization of biomarkers in patients undergoing immunotherapy and on development of novel immunotherapeutic strategies using immunomodulatory antibodies and genetically-engineered oncolytic viruses.
Linghua Wang, MD, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLabs: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer and Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Wang is currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Genomic Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Wang received her MD in Medicine and her PhD in Cancer Genomics and completed her postdoctoral training at Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, at Baylor College of Medicine. She was recruited to MD Anderson in 2017 and set up the Computational Biology Laboratory. Dr. Wang has significant expertise in computational biology, cancer immunogenomics, single-cell and spatial multiomics. Over the past few years, she has built a leading research program in cancer immunogenomics at MD Anderson and developed a collaborative, team-based approach to tackle cancer research. Her group has a vast experience in unraveling the heterogeneity and evolution of the complex tumor-immune ecosystems using the cutting-edge single-cell and spatial sequencing technologies, coupled with the state-of-the-art computation and modeling. Dr. Wang is the principal investigator of the CPRIT Individual Investigator Research Award and she serves as a co-Investigator for several peer-reviewed grants from NIH/NCI and U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Wang is also the recipient of the Sabin Fellow Award, two SPORE Career Enhancement Program Awards and three Institutional Research Grant Awards. She serves as the Bioinformatics Lead and project co-Leader for two MD Anderson Cancer Moon Shot Projects and she also leads/co-leads several additional single-cell studies. When she was at Baylor, Dr. Wang also contributed significantly to the NHGRI rare cancer projects, the NCI Exceptional Responder Initiative, TCGA and pan-cancer projects. Dr. Wang is a productive investigator and she has published 32 first- or senior-authored papers over the past few years. Among them, 23 were published in the top-tier or other high-impact journals. As site Lead of Data Science for the pancreatic and ovarian cancer programs funded by Break Through Cancer, Dr. Wang is extremely enthusiastic to collaborate with world-renowned leaders, talented data scientists, and the multidisciplinary research teams across five participating institutions to develop effective data science strategies to better understand, detect, and treat the most lethal cancers.
Kara Long Roche, MD, MSc
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Kara Long Roche is an Associate Attending and member of the Section for Ovarian Cancer Surgery on the Gynecology Service in the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and her M.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York University Medical Center and a fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she was the recipient of the Dr Michael E. Burt award for clinical excellence upon graduation in 2013. During fellowship, she received a Master in Science degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research from Weill Cornell. On completion of her clinical training, Dr. Long Roche joined the Kelly Gynecology Oncology Service at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, but soon after was recruited back to join the Gynecology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2015.
As a member of the Section for Ovarian Cancer Surgery, Dr. Long Roche has established herself as a busy clinician, clinical and translational researcher, and educator. She has presented nationally and internationally on hereditary ovarian cancer, risk reducing strategies, and the surgical management of advanced ovarian cancer. She has published numerous peer reviewed articles, chapters, and reviews on ovarian cancer prevention and optimizing outcomes during ovarian cancer debulking surgery. Dr Long Roche is an active member of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology and the International Gynecologic Cancer Society. She is the Associate Director of the Fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at Sloan Kettering and takes pride in training the next generation of Gynecologic Oncologists.
Shannon N. Westin, MD, MPH
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLabs: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer and Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Westin is an associate professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She focuses on developmental therapeutics and the use of biomarkers to predict response and recurrence in gynecologic malignancies. She currently serves as the Director of Early Drug Development and Phase I trials in her department and is a Co-Director of the institutional Ovarian Cancer Moonshot. Dr. Westin is currently the PI or co-PI for greater than 30 novel treatment trials in gynecologic malignancies. In addition to previously serving on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Uterine Task Force and Gynecologic Cancer Steering Committee (GCSC), she currently serves as a co-chair of the GCSC Ovarian Cancer Task Force and the NCI Ovarian Cancer Clinical Trials Planning Meeting.
Sangeeta Goswami, MD, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Sangeeta Goswami is an Assistant Professor at MD, PhD Anderson Cancer Center with a background in medical oncology and immunology. She is involved in patient care, conducting clinical trials, as well as in translational and discovery science research. Her laboratory focuses on understanding the epigenetic regulation of immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment to develop rational combinatorial strategies of immunotherapies and epigenetic modulators in a tumor-specific manner.
Tyler Hillman, MD, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Hillman is an assistant professor at MD Anderson in the departments of Gynecologic Oncology and Genomic Medicine. His lab uses experimental and computational approaches to study basic mechanisms of ovarian cancer formation and evolution.
Anirban Maitra, MBBS
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
I am a Professor of Translational Molecular Pathology and Scientific Director of the Sheikh Ahmed Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The arc of my career over the past two decades has been defined by studying the genetics and biology of pancreatic cancer and its precursor lesions, with a particular focus on early detection and cancer interception. I am deeply committed to improving the lives of patients afflicted with this devastating disease. I am a strong believer in the power team science and mentoring. Dr. Maitra is a Professor of Translational Molecular Pathology and Scientific Director of the Sheikh Ahmed Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The arc of his career over the past two decades has been defined by studying the genetics and biology of pancreatic cancer and its precursor lesions, with a particular focus on early detection and cancer interception.He is deeply committed to improving the lives of patients afflicted with this devastating disease. He is a strong believer in the power team science and mentoring.
Ie-Ming Shih, MD, PhD
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Shih is the Richard W. TeLinde Distinguished Professor in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. He directs inter-departmental gynecologic disease research program and co-directs the Women’s Malignancy Program at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. He is a gynecologic pathologist who has completed his residency and fellowship training at Johns Hopkins. His research focuses on exploring molecular landscapes and pathogenesis in different types of ovarian cancers, most notably their precursor lesions. He is one of leading scholars in proposing and validating the “tubal paradigm” of ovarian cancer origin, positing that ovarian cancer is not derived from ovary but from fallopian tube. His discoveries bode well for the success of a highly promising early detection test and serve as the biological rationale for clinically adopting “opportunistic salpingectomy” for ovarian cancer prevention. He is the recipient of the Rosalind Franklin Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research Prize.
E. Antonio (‘Nino”) Chiocca, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Chiocca is the Harvey Cushing Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School and is the Chairman of Neurosurgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was previously Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at The Ohio State University Medical Center. He has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1996. He has more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, some in journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, Molecular Cell, and PNAS. He has elucidated how viruses with specific gene mutations will replicate selectively in tumors with a specific defect in a tumor suppressor pathway. He has also shown how modulation of innate immunity will improve replication of these tumor-selective viruses. More recently, he has elucidated how specific microRNAs (mir128 and mir451) regulate cellular target transcripts to permit tumor cell self-renewal and invasion into brain. He has been PI of three multi-institutional clinical trials of gene and viral therapies for malignant gliomas. He has been a permanent member of NIH study sections (NCI DT and NCI P01-D clinical studies), and a member of the federal recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC/OBA) and of the NINDS Scientific Advisory Council. In 2013, he was elected Vice President of the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO). He was President of SNO from 2015-2017 and President of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery (2018-2019). He is currently the Secretary of the American Association of Neurological Surgery. He also serves on the scientific advisory board of several foundations (Sontag and American Brain Tumor Association). He received The Grass Award in 2007, the Farber Award in 2008, the Bittner Award in 2013, and the Gerlas Award in 2016. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2005), is an AAAS fellow (2005) and was also elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) in 2014. In 2018, he received the Charles B. Wilson Career Achievement Award from the CNS/AANS Section on Tumors and the Victor Levin Award for Achievement in neuro-oncology from SNO. He also has served on multiple editorial boards and is the current Tumor Section Editor for Neurosurgery and Associate Editor for Neuro-oncology. He was on the editorial board of Journal of Neurosurgery from 2005 until 2012.
Michael J. Cima, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Michael J. Cima, PhD is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has an appointment at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. He earned a BsS in chemistry in 1982 (Phi Beta Kappa) and a PhD in chemical engineering in 1986, both from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Cima joined the MIT faculty in 1986 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to full Professor in 1995. Professor Cima was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 and to the National Academy of Inventors in 2016. He now holds the David H. Koch Professor of Engineering at MIT. Professor Cima is author or co-author of over three hundred peer-reviewed scientific publications, fifty US patents, and is a recognized expert in the field of medical devices and materials processing. Professor Cima is actively involved in materials and engineered systems for improvement in human health, such as treatments for cancer, metabolic diseases, trauma, and urological disorders. His research concerns advanced forming technology such as for complex macro and micro devices, colloid science, MEMS, and other micro components for medical devices that are used for drug delivery and diagnostics, high-throughput development methods for formulations of materials and, pharmaceutical formulations.
Rachel N. Grisham, MD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Rachel Grisham is an Associate Attending within the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is the Section Head of Ovarian Cancer Treatment and the Director of Gynecologic Medical Oncology at MSKCC Westchester. She is board certified in Medical Oncology and received her Medical Degree at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Grisham performed her Internal Medicine Internship and Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. She then came to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she served as the Chief Fellow of the Hematology and Oncology Fellowship Program. Dr. Grisham subsequently joined the Gynecologic Medical Oncology Service in 2012. Her research focuses on determining the molecular drivers of ovarian cancer and the development of targeted treatment strategies for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. She has served as the principal investigator for over 25 clinical trials and serves on multiple committees within ASCO, NRG, and SGO. She is a graduate of the ASCO leadership development program, and has served on the GOG Partners Investigators Council, NRG Rare Tumor Committee, NCCN Ovarian Cancer Guidelines Committee, and the ASCO Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee.
Wen Jiang, MD, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Wen Jiang, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto and MD from Stanford School of Medicine. He completed his residency training in Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer in 2018 and was recruited to UT Southwestern as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology and a CPRIT Scholar. He returned to MD Anderson in 2021, where he treats patients with primary and metastatic CNS tumors. As a physician scientist, Dr. Jiang’s laboratory research aims to identify ways to promote innate immunity as a new strategy to eliminate brain cancer. Dr. Jiang’s research is supported by multiple grant funding from the NCI, NINDS, DOD, CPRIT, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Adrienne Boire, MD, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Adrienne Boire, MD, PhD is the Geoffrey Beene Junior Faculty Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. As a neuro-oncologist, she cares for patients with metastasis to the central nervous system (CNS), with particular focus on leptomeningeal metastasis. As a scientist, she runs a laboratory-based research program focused on the biology of the leptomeningeal space. Her team employs multi-omic analysis of human samples to identify cell adaptations to the challenging microenvironment of the leptomeninges. Leveraging mouse models, the team uncovers the mechanistic implications of these discoveries to establish novel therapies for CNS malignancies.
Betty Kim, MD, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Betty Kim, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at MD Anderson. Dr. Kim’s clinical interests include brain surgery for primary and secondary tumors. Her research focuses on the design of novel immune nanomedicine and immunotherapy strategies to engage innate immune cells. Her lab has also developed advanced bioimaging platforms that enable the tracking and characterization of specific immune interactions within the brain, in vivo. Her research has resulted in multiple patents. Her work has been published in numerous high-impact journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Nanotechnology, and Nature Biomedical Engineering. Her research is supported by the NIH and the Department of Defense.
Jian Hu, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Hu received his PhD from UNC Chapel Hill. He did his postdoctoral training with Dr. Ronald DePinho at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Cancer Biology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Christopher Douville, PhD
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLabs: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Christopher Douville, PhD finished his doctoral work under the direction of Dr. Rachel Karchin in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins. His graduate work focused on developing machine learning methods to interpret inherited and somatic genetic variation. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Ludwig Center at Johns Hopkins under the guidance of Drs Bert Vogelstein and Ken Kinzler where his research focused on designing novel molecular diagnostics for the earlier detection of cancer. Currently, his group combines machine learning and next generation sequencing to develop improved computational algorithms and molecular diagnostics. They have successfully applied their techniques for various earlier detection applications including multi-cancer early detection in blood, early detection of CNS cancers in cerebral spinal fluid, progression of Barrett’s esophagus, and progression of extraovarian lesions to ovarian cancer.
Chetan Bettegowda, MD, PhD
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Chetan Bettegowda is the Jennison and Novak Families Professor of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Vice Chair for Research for the Department of Neurosurgery. He is a surgeon scientist whose research is focused on understanding the genetic underpinnings of central nervous system (CNS) cancers. His clinical practice is dedicated to caring for individuals with brain tumors. He and his group have discovered several of the key driver genes involved in the pathogenesis of myriad of CNS cancers. Dr. Bettegowda has also been focused on translating these genetic discoveries for translational benefit by applying them for the earlier detection of cancers. He and his group have published several of the seminal papers in liquid biopsies including a landmark study demonstrating the wide applicability of circulating tumor DNA for the detection and monitoring of cancers throughout the body. He has also published extensively on non-plasma- based diagnostics for cancer detection.
Keith L. Ligon, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Keith L. Ligon is Chief of Neuropathology at Dana-Farber-Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Director of the Dana-Farber Center for Patient Derived Models, and Associate Professor of Pathology at the Harvard Medical School. His laboratory is focused on studying the biology of gliomas and innovative pre-clinical and clinical trials research.
Rameen Beroukhim, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLabs: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer, Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer, and Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Beroukhim is a practicing neuro-oncologist whose research focus is to understand tumor evolution, with emphases on brain tumors and alterations in chromosome structure. This work spans computational methods development, genomic studies of human cancers, and experiments in model systems. In early work describing integrated genomic profiling of glioblastomas, he developed the Genomic Identification of Significant Targets In Cancer (GISTIC) method that is now widely used to analyze copy-number changes across a range of cancers. He has also contributed to the development of several other genomic analysis methods and has led integrated genomic profiling efforts in multiple cancer types, including pan-cancer analyses across thousands of tumors. This work has identified novel mechanisms by which cancers develop and progress, and novel cancer dependencies that have spurred the development of new cancer therapeutics.
Sohrab Shah, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLabs: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer and Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Shah is the Chief of Computational Oncology in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and holds the Nicholls-Biondi Endowed Chair in Computational Oncology. He oversees a program of seven tenure-track principal investigators at MSKCC all dedicated to advancing computational biology applied to cancer research. Dr. Shah holds a PhD in computer science and his laboratory focuses on studying cancer evolution through combining advanced genomics with computational modeling. His work in this area has made fundamental advances in understanding how ovarian cancers evolve, how ovarian cancer cells interact with their immune microenvironments, and how cancer cells achieve drug resistance. His work has been published in leading scientific journals such as Nature, Cell, Nature Genetics, and Nature Methods amongst others.
Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Sharma is a nationally and internationally renowned physician scientist whose research work is focused on investigating mechanisms and pathways within the immune system that facilitate tumor rejection or elicit resistance to immune checkpoint therapy. She is a Professor in the departments of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology, and the T.C. and Jeanette D. Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is also the inaugural Scientific Director for the Immunotherapy Platform and the Co-director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). She received the Emil Frei III Award for Excellence in Translational Research in 2016, the Coley Award for Distinguished Research for Tumor Immunology in 2018, the Women in Science with Excellence (WISE) award in 2020, the Heath Memorial Award in 2021, and the Randall Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research in 2021. In 2006, Dr. Sharma designed and conducted the first neoadjuvant (pre-surgical) trial, also known as a window-of-opportunity trial, with immune checkpoint therapy (anti-CTLA-4, ipilimumab), which allowed her to establish safety of the neoadjuvant approach for immune checkpoint therapy as well as provide tumor tissues for translational research studies. She identified the ICOS/ICOSL pathway as a novel target for cancer immunotherapy strategies. The neoadjuvant clinical trial in 2006 was also the first trial with immune checkpoint therapy in patients with bladder cancer. The clinical data indicated that 25% of patients had significant anti-tumor responses with pathologic complete responses. These data led Dr. Sharma to conduct additional clinical trials with immune checkpoint therapy (anti-PD-1, nivolumab) for patients with bladder cancer, which enabled FDA-approval of nivolumab as treatment for patients with metastatic bladder cancer. Dr. Sharma also led the clinical trials with immune checkpoint therapy (nivolumab and nivolumab plus ipilimumab) in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC), which led to FDA-approval of these agents as treatment for patients with RCC. Dr. Sharma is the Principal Investigator for multiple immunotherapy clinical trials. Her studies have identified novel resistance mechanisms, including loss of interferon (IFN) signaling, VISTA+ immunosuppressive cells, increased EZH2 expression in T cells, TGFb signaling in bone metastases, and CD73+ myeloid cells in GBM. Her work continues to drive the development of immunotherapy strategies for the treatment of cancer patients.
Tobiloba Oni, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Oni joined the Whitehead Institute as a Whitehead Fellow in 2021 and is an extramural member of the Koch Institute. The Oni lab focuses on delineating and targeting the critical interface between pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells and their microenvironment to improve patient outcomes. Dr. Oni seeks to inspire and mentor the next generation of scientists from diverse backgrounds, and build collaborative networks across disciplines to solve some of the most challenging biological questions.
Andrew Aguirre, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Andrew Aguirre, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Member at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Dr. Aguirre leads a basic and translational cancer research laboratory that studies pancreatic cancer biology and RAS signaling with the goal of developing new therapeutic strategies for patients.
Forest White, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Forest White, PhD is the Ned C. and Janet Bemis Rice Professor of Biological Engineering in the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After receiving his PhD from Florida State University in 1997 and completing a post-doc at the University of Virginia from 1997-1999, he joined MDS Proteomics as a Senior Research Scientist and developed phosphoproteomics capabilities for the company. In July 2003 he joined the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. Research in the White lab is focused on understanding how protein phosphorylation-mediated signaling networks regulate normal and pathophysiological cell biology. Specific applications include novel drug target discovery in glioblastoma and melanoma, analysis of mechanisms underlying therapeutic resistance and metastasis in cancer, and mechanisms underlying development of neurodegenerative diseases, as well as Type II diabetes. In addition to his appointment in the Department of Biological Engineering, Forest is a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.
Alex K. Shalek, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Alex K. Shalek, PhD, is a Core Member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), an Associate Professor of Chemistry, and an Extramural Member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. He is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute, a Member of the Ragon Institute, an Assistant in Immunology at MGH, and an Instructor in Health Sciences and Technology at HMS. Dr. Shalek received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Columbia University and his PhD from Harvard University in chemical physics under the guidance of Hongkun Park, and performed postdoctoral training under Hongkun Park and Aviv Regev (Broad/MIT). His lab’s research is directed towards the development and application of new approaches to elucidate cellular and molecular features that inform tissue-level function and dysfunction across the spectrum of human health and disease. Dr. Shalek and his work have received numerous honors including a NIH New Innovator Award, a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Searle Scholar Award, a Pew-Stewart Scholar Award, the Avant-Garde (DP1 Pioneer) Award from the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry, as well as the 2019-2020 Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award at MIT and the 2020 HMS Young Mentor Award.
Nathalie Y.R. Agar, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Nathalie Y.R. Agar, PhD is the Daniel E. Ponton Distinguished Chair in Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Agar’s multidisciplinary training includes a BSc in Biochemistry, PhD in Chemistry, a postdoctoral fellowship in Neurology and Neurosurgery from McGill University, and further postdoctoral training in Neurosurgery at BWH/HMS. From this unique background, she has developed distinct skills to address unmet analytical needs in the clinical environment. Her research focuses on the development and implementation of integrated biomolecular and drug imaging of tissue specimens. Her laboratory focuses on the mass spectrometry imaging of drugs and metabolism from pre-clinical animal models and clinical trial specimens to study therapeutics for brain tumors. She is also developing and validating real time mass spectrometry approaches to support surgical decision making. Her overall goals are to enable surgeons and oncologists to tailor treatment from the time of surgery, support the development of new therapeutics, and allow precision cancer care using molecular imaging with mass spectrometry approaches.
Kadir Akdemir, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Akdemir is a computational biologist in the departments of Neurosurgery and Genomic Medicine at The University fo Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. His research focuses on investigating the chromatin organization and genomic instability in human cancer types.
Salil Garg, MD, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute For Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLabs: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer and Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Salil Garg is the Charles W. (1955) and Jennifer C. Johnson Clinical Investigator at the MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Salil trained through the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD program and practices part-time as a molecular pathologist. In his laboratory, Salil combines approaches from computational biology, systems biology, and RNA biology to understand how developmental processes undergird treatment failure in cancer. Specifically, the Garg lab tries to understand how genes are arranged in networks as a consequence of programs evolved for normal development in the embryo. The Garg lab’s hypothesis is that developmental programs are awakened inappropriately in tumors, and that this is a driver of tumor heterogeneity and treatment failure. Salil is interested in understanding the connections between developmental biology and cancer biology, both at the level of gene regulation and through systematic data science approaches.
Larissa Meyer, MD, MPH
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Meyer is an Associate Professor of Gynecologic Oncology. She cares for women with gynecologic malignancies in a compassionate and coordinated fashion by providing surgical care as well as chemotherapy. Her research interests include health services research, patient reported outcomes, shared medical decision making, cancer prevention, and quality improvement. Dr. Meyer’s work focuses on innovation and implementation of practices aimed to prevent cancer and improve the quality of life of women living with gynecologic cancers.
Kenny Yu, MBBS, PhD, FRCS
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Kenny Yu is a neurosurgeon-scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He did his residency training in the United Kingdom and obtained a PhD from the University of Manchester in glioma associated macrophages, and was awarded a National Institute of Health Research (UK) clinical lectureship and starter grant by the Academy of Medical Sciences. He was subsequently awarded the Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Travelling Tellowship to pursue post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Peter Dirks at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. After obtaining his UK board certification, he went on to complete a research and clinical subspecialty fellowship in neurosurgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center before joining the faculty in 2021. As a promising young investigator, he will be closely involved with the planning and execution of clinical and scientific GBM TeamLab projects for Break Through Cancer.
Carol Aghajanian, MD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Carol Aghajanian, MD, a medical oncologist and authority on gynecologic cancers, is the Chief of the Gynecologic Medical Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She serves as Chair of the Gynecologic Cancer Committee of NRG Oncology. She is the Principal Investigator for the MSK National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN), Lead Academic Participating Site (LAPS) grant. Her research focuses on developmental therapeutics as applied to gynecologic cancers. She has earned several awards in recognition of her work including the MSK Louise and Allston Boyer Award for Distinguished Achievement in Biomedical Research (2003), the Visionary Medical Research Honoree by the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance (2012), the Michaele C. Christian Oncology Development Award, National Cancer Institute (2014), the Harry Long Multidisciplinary Award, Society of Gynecologic Oncology (2017), and the MSK Willet F. Whitmore Award for Clinical Excellence (2020). Another major contribution has been the commitment she has made to serving as a teacher and mentor for an emerging generation of medical and gynecologic oncologists at MSK and NRG Oncology. She oversees a faculty of 21 physicians at MSK and has made a tremendous effort to identify and cultivate young investigators in NRG Oncology who will develop into clinical and translational leaders. Indicative of these efforts is the fact that since 2010, she been awarded four Teaching Excellence or Master Teacher awards from medical institutions.
Thomas R. Pisanic II, PhD
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Thomas (Tom) Pisanic is a faculty research scientist at Johns Hopkins University whose research aims to develop molecular diagnostic strategies for early, noninvasive detection of cancer. He has 20 years of experience working in both the academic and industrial sectors, providing a uniquely broad background for the development of a diverse array of translational clinical diagnostic approaches. Over his career, he has made significant contributions in the fields of cancer epigenetics, diagnostic assay development, microfluidics and nanotechnology, and has co-authored 30 publications in these various fields. Dr. Pisanic’s current research is primarily focused on characterizing DNA methylation alterations associated with early-stage carcinogenesis and leveraging novel epigenetic analysis strategies for early and companion diagnostic applications for noninvasive detection of lung, colon, and ovarian cancers from various sample types including blood, stool, sputum, and Pap specimens. His long term research goals are aimed at developing and employing innovative multi-analyte molecular analysis techniques with advanced biostatistical and bioinformatic analyses to achieve inexpensive, clinically-practical diagnostics for the early detection of disease.
Rebecca Stone, MD
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Rebecca Stone is associate professor and division chief of gynecologic oncology for Johns Hopkins. She holds a joint appointment in the Armstrong Institute for her system wide leadership in quality and safety in surgery and clinical pathways. Rebecca also serves as the surgery lead for high value care transformation and as co-director of the Fertility Preservation Innovation Center for Hopkins. Her research portfolio spans clinical, quality improvement, and basic science investigation.
Tuomas Tammela, MD, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Tammela earned his MD and PhD from the University of Helsinki, Finland, where he worked in the laboratory of Professor Kari Alitalo, studying molecular mechanisms that control blood and lymphatic vessels growth. Dr. Tammela then moved to MIT for postdoctoral training with Professor Tyler Jacks. During this time, he became interested in cellular heterogeneity in cancer and identified cancer-derived niches as drivers of stem-like cells in lung cancer . Dr. Tammela joined the Sloan Kettering Institute as an Assistant Member in the Cancer Biology & Genetics Program in 2017. The Tammela Lab studies phenotypic heterogeneity of cancer cells within pancreas and lung tumors using genetically engineered mouse models, single cell approaches, tracing and ablation of distinct tumor cell lineages, CRISPR-mediated gene regulation, and advanced imaging techniques. The overarching goal of these efforts is to discover pathways that drive distinct cellular phenotypes and to develop new therapeutic concepts aimed at reducing cellular heterogeneity in tumors. Dr. Tammela holds scholarships from the American Cancer Society, the Josie Robertson Foundation, the Rita Allen Foundation and the V Foundation. He is a recipient of a Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Award, an NIH-NCI R37 MERIT Award, and an AACR Next Generation Transformative Research Award.
Paula T. Hammond, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Paula T. Hammond is the Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Her research in nanomedicine encompasses the development of new biomaterials to enable drug delivery from surfaces with spatio-temporal control. She investigates novel responsive polymer architectures for targeted nanoparticle drug and gene delivery. She is known for her work on nanoparticles to target cancer, and thin film coatings to release factors that regenerate bone and assist in wound healing. More recently, she has worked on nanomaterials systems to treat osteoarthritis and staged release systems for the delivery of vaccines. Professor Hammond was elected into the National Academy of Science in 2019, the National Academy of Engineering in 2017, the National Academy of Medicine in 2016, and the 2013 Class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has also recently received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Margaret H. Rousseau Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement by a Woman Chemical Engineer in 2019, and gave the Materials Research Society (MRS) David Turnbull Lectureship also in 2019. Professor Hammond has published over 330 papers, and over 20 patent applications. She is the co-founder and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of LayerBio, Inc., a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Moderna Therapeutics, and a member of the Board of Alector, Inc.
Douglas Lauffenburger, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Douglas Lauffenburger is a Ford Professor of Bioengineering in the Departments of Biological Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Biology at MIT. He was the founding Head of the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT, and served in that capacity 1998-2019. The Lauffenburger research program centers on systems biology approaches to cell-cell communication and cell signaling in pathophysiology, emphasizing translational application to therapeutics discovery and development in cancer, pathogen infection, and inflammatory disease. Lauffenburger has co-authored the monograph Receptors: Models for Binding, Trafficking & Signaling (Oxford Press, 1993) and co-edited the book Systems Biomedicine: Concepts and Perspectives (Elsevier Press, 2010). More than 130 doctoral students and postdoctoral associates have undertaken research education under his supervision. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science and the American Scientific Affiliation. Lauffenburger has served as President of the Biomedical Engineering Society, Chair of the College of Fellows of American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering, on the Advisory Council for the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and as a co-author of the 2009 National Research Council report A New Biology for the 21st Century.
Stefani Spranger, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Spranger, PhD pursued her scientific training at Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, Germany, first as an undergraduate in biology and then completing a PhD in immunology. She then joined the University of Chicago as a postdoctoral fellow, supported by the German Research Foundation and the Cancer Research Institute, later moving to her current position as assistant professor at the MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. She has been awarded the Howard S. (1953) and Linda B. Stern Career Development Professorship and is a Pew-Stewart Scholar. Her work seeks to elucidate the mechanisms and pathways underlying the interaction between the immune system and cancer using mouse models that recapitulate the co-evolution of tumor progression and the anti-tumor immune response. One major emphasis of her work is on dendritic cell and T cell interactions both during T cell activation in the lymph node and also in the tumor microenvironment.
Amir A. Jazaeri, MD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Jazaeri is a Professor and the Vice Chair for Clinical Research in the department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. As the Director for the Gynecologic Cancer Immunotherapy program, he has helped to establish a broad based immune-oncology program for gynecologic cancers that includes adoptive cell therapies, intraperitoneal immunotherapies, and translational immunobiology. His other areas of research interest include understanding the basis for minimal residual disease in ovarian cancer and innovative clinical trial designs.
Ronald A. DePinho, MD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Ronald A. DePinho, MD is past president and distinguished university professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. His research program has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of cancer, aging and degenerative disorders, leading to clinical advances. In particular, Dr. DePinho’s research on pancreatic cancer has spanned two decades and resulted in 50 peer-reviewed papers describing his contributions to this field. Dr. DePinho is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Science, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association of the Advancement of Science, and the American Association of Cancer Research.
Alan D’Andrea, MD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLabs: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer and Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. D’Andrea received his Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School in 1983. He completed his residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and a fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital. He also completed a research fellowship at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he cloned the receptor for erythropoietin, the major hormone for blood production. Dr. D’Andrea joined the Dana-Farber faculty in 1990. He is currently the Fuller-American Cancer Society Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School, the Director of the Center for DNA Damage and Repair, and the Director of the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. D’Andrea is internationally known for his research in the area of DNA damage and DNA repair. His laboratory also investigates the pathogenesis of Fanconi Anemia, a human genetic disease characterized by a DNA repair defect, bone marrow failure, and cancer predisposition.
A recipient of numerous academic awards, Dr. D’Andrea is a former Stohlman Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a Distinguished Clinical Investigator of the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, a recipient of the E. Mead Johnson Award from the Society for Pediatric Research, a recipient of the G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Joseph D. Mancias, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Mancias is a Radiation Oncology physician-scientist who runs a laboratory studying critical aspects of pancreatic cancer biology and maintains a focused clinical practice caring for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Dr. Mancias graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Princeton University in 2000 where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Hecht on protein folding. As part of the Tri-Institutional Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering M.D.-Ph.D. Program, he earned a Ph.D. degree from the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in 2007 and his M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College in 2008. His graduate work in the laboratory of Jonathan Goldberg at the Sloan-Kettering Institute identified molecular mechanisms of cargo export from the endoplasmic reticulum using x-ray crystallography. His internship in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital was followed by a residency in Radiation Oncology in the combined Harvard Radiation Oncology Program completed in 2013. His postdoctoral research in the laboratories of Dr. Wade Harper in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School and Dr. Alec Kimmelman in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute from 2011-2016 focused on the role of autophagy in pancreatic cancer biology. In 2016, Dr. Mancias began his independent research and clinical program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Brigham and Women’s Hospital and as an investigator within the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research. His research program studies the role of autophagy and therapeutic resistance in pancreatic cancer using a combination of genetic, quantitative proteomic, cell biological, and mouse modeling approaches. In particular, Dr. Mancias has developed an integrated quantitative temporal proteomics and metabolomics platform for discovery of therapeutic resistance and is using it to identify mechanisms of resistance to novel oncogenic KRAS inhibitors.
Scott W. Lowe, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Scott W. Lowe is Chair of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program in the Sloan-Kettering Institute at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and an Investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Lowe received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He initiated his independent research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where his group made important contributions to the understanding of tumor suppressor gene action and the consequences of their mutation. At MSKCC, his laboratory applies mouse models, genetics, and genomics in a coordinated effort to identify cancer drivers and dependencies, with a recent emphasis on understanding how the tumor ecosystem influences tumor progression and therapy response. These efforts have revealed fundamental insights into cancer mechanisms and identified new therapeutic strategies. Dr. Lowe’s work has been recognized by several awards, including a Sidney Kimmel Scholar Award, a Rita Allen Scholar Award, the American Association for Cancer Research, the G.H.A. Clowes Award, the Paul Marks Prize, the Alfred G. Knudsen Award, and recently was named a Fellow in the American Association for Cancer Research Academy. He has also been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine.
Matt Vander Heiden, MD, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab:Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Matt Vander Heiden is the Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and is the Lester Wolfe (1919) Professor of Molecular Biology at MIT. He is also a practicing medical oncologist and an Instructor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago, prior to completing clinical training and a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. His laboratory is interested in understand how metabolism influences cancer.
Nilofer Azad, MD
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Azad is a Professor of Oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins (SKCCC), where she serves as Co-director of the Developmental Therapeutics Clinical Research Program and the Cancer Genetic and Epigenetic Core Research Program. After completing her fellowship in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute, she joined the SKCCC faculty and has led multiple national and international clinical trials of novel drugs for cancer patients. Dr. Azad is dedicated to translational research in drug development that will form the foundation of future clinical trials. Her work is focused on combining targeted and epigenetic therapies with other classes of agents. These preclinical studies are designed to move directly into early phase clinical trials, with strong laboratory correlates that will be used to further hone the therapeutic regimens, as a quintessential example of bench-to-bedside medicine.
Shubham Pant, MD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Shubham Pant, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology with a joint appointment in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at the The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Pant is a key opinion leader in the fields of Phase 1 (Early drug development) and pancreatic cancer. He has an expertise in targeted therapy and immunotherapy, and has co-authored numerous peer-review articles and is a Section Editor for the Handbook of Targeted Therapy and Immunotherapy. In addition, he has presented or has been coauthor on more than 100 abstracts in national and international meetings including ASCO, AACR. ESMO, ESMO GI, ASCO GI, and the NCI-EORTC-AACR (triple meeting). He is a collaborator on numerous grants including R01 grant from the National Institute of Health and serves as the Clinical Co-leader on NCI Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE). He also serves as a member of the National Cancer Institute Pancreas Task Force and helped draft the ASCO Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer Guidelines that provide evidence-based recommendations to serve as a guide for physicians. Dr. Pant has been the recipient of ASCO/AACR Workshop Methods in Clinical Cancer Research and was selected for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Leadership Development Program. He currently serves as a member on the ASCO Annual Meeting Educational Committee (GI-Non Colorectal Track).
Eileen M. O’Reilly, MD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Eileen M. O’Reilly holds the Winthrop Rockefeller Endowed Chair in Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She serves as the Section Head for Hepatopancreaticobiliary/Neuroendocrine Cancers, Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Co-director for Medical Initiatives at the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer, and is an Attending Physician and Member at MSKCC and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Research directions include integration of molecular and genetic-based therapies and novel therapies for pancreas cancer along with development of adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapies and identification of biomarkers for therapy selection.
Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
The Wucherpfennig lab develops novel approaches for cancer immunotherapy by discovering resistance pathways against immune attack. They integrate studies in cancer patients with mechanistic studies to dissect the complex interplay between cancer cells and the immune system. Dr. Wucherpfennig is Chair of the Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School.
Neal Rosen, MD, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Rosen trained as a physician-scientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in the laboratory of Dr. Ora Rosen, where he began his lifelong interest in intracellular signaling and the perturbation of the normal signaling network by oncoproteins. He has been studying this subject for the past 30 years where and has played a role in understanding the consequences of mutations that activated the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK and PI3K/AKT/MTOR pathway and developing inhibitors thereof, several of which (RAF, MEK, PI3K, mTOR) are now approved for treatment of specific metastatic tumors.
Stéphanie Gaillard, MD, PhD
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Stéphanie Gaillard, MD, PhD, is Director of Gynecologic Cancer Trials and Co-director of the Developmental Therapeutics and Phase I Clinical Trials Program for The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, she was a faculty member at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Gaillard earned her medical degree and doctorate of philosophy in cancer biology from Duke University. She then completed her residency training in internal medicine and fellowship training in medical oncology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Gaillard specializes in the treatment of gynecologic malignancies, including ovarian, endometrial, and cervical cancers. Her work focuses on developing clinical trials that aim to improve outcomes using promising new biologic, targeted, and immune therapies in addition to standard treatment regimens. Her translational research program focuses on understanding mechanisms of resistance to therapy and the immune environment associated with gynecologic cancers. Dr. Gaillard has been honored with several awards including the Liz Tilberis Early Career Award from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund and a Young Investigator Award from the Conquer Cancer Foundation. She was a scholar for the NIH Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) and is a recipient of the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) Foundation Scholar Investigator Award. Dr. Gaillard serves as Co-chair of the NRG Oncology Phase I subcommittee and as the SPORE representative to the NCI Gynecologic Cancer Steering Comittee. She is the primary author or co-author of numerous publications and book chapters, and has presented her research both domestically and abroad.
Tian-Li Wang, PhD
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer and Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Tian-Li Wang is a Professor of Pathology at The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine. She serves as the Director of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory of Female Reproductive Cancer at JHU. She has been a leader or co-leader of government-funded program projects. Among them are two multi-institutional Consortium grants funded by DoD-CDMRP, focusing on ovarian cancer early diagnosis and disease prevention.
Dr. Wang received her PhD in Physiology at JHU, pursued a post-doctoral fellowship in Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, and took additional training in Cancer Genetics at the Howard Hughes Medical Institutions. She is interested in contributing her diverse training experiences and background to Break Through Cancer’s research and educational endeavors.
Kripa K. Varanasi, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Kripa K. Varanasi is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He received his B.Tech from IIT Madras, India and his SM (ME and EECS) and PhD from MIT. Prior to joining MIT as a faculty member, Profesor Varanasi was a lead researcher and project leader at the GE Global Research Center. At GE he received many awards for his work including Best Patent, Best Technology Project and Leadership Award. At MIT, the focus of his work is in understanding the physico-chemical phenomena at interfaces and developing novel materials, devices, and products that can dramatically enhance performance in energy, water, agriculture, transportation, medical, and consumer devices. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and translating technologies from lab to market. He has co-founded multiple companies including LiquiGlide, Dropwise, Infinite Cooling and Everon24. Time and Forbes Magazines have named LiquiGlide to their “Best Inventions of the Year”. His Infinite Cooling project has won first prize at DOE’s National Cleantech University Prize, first prize Rice Business Plan Competition, first prize Harvard Business School Energy & Environment Start-up, first prize at MIT-100K, first prize at MassChallenge. Professor Varanasi has received numerous awards for his work NSF Career Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award, SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Heat Transfer Award, Boston Business Journal’s 40 under 40. ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award for outstanding achievements in mechanical engineering, APS Milton van Dyke award, and MIT Graduate Student Council’s Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising.
Stephanie L. Wethington, MD, MSc
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Stephanie L. Wethington, MD, MSc is a board-certified Gynecologic Oncologist and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Oncology, and Gynecology and Obstetrics at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Director of Clinical Operations for the Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service. Dr. Wethington earned a Master of Science from the University of Oxford and her Medical Degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Her residency training was completed at Columbia University Medical Center and fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Wethington maintains a clinical and research focus on improving the quality of care for women with gynecologic cancers in a manner that is patient-centric and sustainable through personalized approaches to treatment of the individual, while simultaneously maintaining high value care processes. Her health outcomes-based research has focused on high impact areas—integrating screening for social needs into routine clinical care and optimizing the resource referral process, improving access to and utilization of palliative care, and decreasing postoperative venous thromboembolism and opioid use. In addition to health outcomes-based research, she has conducted high impact research on the management of poly-ADP ribose polymerase inhibitor resistance in ovarian cancer, which received funding through the National Institutes of Health Specialized Programs of Research Excellence. She serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guideline Committee for cervical, gestational trophoblastic disease, vulvar and endometrial cancers, and is a Core Member of the NRG Oncology Ovarian Subcommittee. Dr. Wethington has been recognized for her clinical care, research, teaching, and leadership with numerous awards, peer reviewed publications, national and international speaking engagements, and media interviews.
Britta Weigelt, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLabs: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer and Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Britta Weigelt is an Associate Attending Molecular Geneticist and the Director of the Gynecology Disease Management Team (DMT) Research Laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Her research interests include the identification of biologically-relevant subclasses of gynecologic cancers and their driving molecular alterations. Her researchs brings together traditional pathology tissue-based techniques with genomics and functional studies, and the determination of strategies for disease-monitoring in gynecologic cancers using liquid biopsy techniques. Dr. Weigelt has made key contributions to the refinement of the molecular classification of breast cancers, and her studies have led to the identification of pathognomonic genetic alterations, including the discovery and functional characterization of a novel FHL2-GLI2 fusion gene as a driver of sclerosing stromal tumors of the ovary, and of two novel tumor suppressor genes, ATP6AP1 and ATP6AP2, which established a direct genetic link between pH regulation and tumorigenesis. Her laboratory has co-developed the first single cell DNA sequencing approach that could be applied to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue samples and developed a novel assay and bioinformatics pipeline for the identification of BRCA1 and BRCA2 reversion mutations in cfDNA of breast and ovarian cancer. She is an author of over 240 papers and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the journals of Pathology and Modern Pathology. Dr. Weigelt’s laboratory works together with other GYN DMT members on many fronts and facilitates translational research efforts, including tissue procurement and single cell processing.
Paola A. Guerrero, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Guerrero is Research Group Leader at the Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She leads a liquid biopsy research/genomics group under the guidance of Dr. Anirban Maitra. She has a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Texas A&M University and postdoctoral training from Baylor College of Medicine and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her lab conducts innovative translational research on patient-derived models and biospecimens to study cell intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms of PDAC tumorigenesis. Some of her current work focuses on using limited biopsies from human primary and metastatic PDAC paired to scRNAseq. Her lab demonstrated that these specimens were able to capture all previously reported repertoire of cell types in surgical resections, including the tumor-stromal heterogeneity inherent to this disease, and revealed putative mechanisms for immune evasion within the tumor microenvironment. Her lab is also evaluating the prognostic and predictive role of cargo coding-RNA from extracellular vesicles in patients with colorectal cancer, with the idea of expanding these studies to other cancer types such as PDAC.
Karen Lu, MD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLabs: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer and Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Lu is a Professor in and Chair of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, and holds the J. Taylor Wharton Distinguished Chair in Gynecologic Oncology. Her main clinical interests include the surgical and medical treatment of women with ovarian and endometrial cancers, as well as the management of women at genetically high risk for these cancers.
She serves as Co-director for the MD Anderson Clinical Cancer Genetics Program and Director of the High Risk Ovarian Cancer Screening Clinic. She is a national leader in the cancer genetics field and has published seminal articles on hereditary gynecologic cancers. In addition, she serves as Director of the Uterine Cancer Research Program (UCRP) and Principal Investigator of the NCI-sponsored Uterine Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE).
She leads a research team that aims to apply laboratory-based findings to improving the care of gynecologic cancer patients. She receives support for her research from the National Cancer Institute, Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C), Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the American Gynecologic and Obstetric Society, and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. She has published numerous articles and book chapters, and has served as a visiting professor at many academic institutions. She serves on the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Cancer Prevention Committee, the NCI PDQ Editorial Board for Cancer Genetics, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee on Gynecologic Practice Bulletins. In addition, she takes pride in having mentored many clinical fellows and trainees, and has been awarded an MD Anderson Outstanding Educator Award. She has consistently been featured as one of America’s Top Doctors.
Angela Belcher, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLabs: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dr, Angela Belcher, PhD is the James Mason Crafts Professor and Head of the Department of Biological Engineering. Dr. Belcher attended the University of California – Santa Barbara for her undergraduate and graduate degrees. She obtained her BS in Creative Studies in 1991 and her PhD in Chemistry in 1997, unraveling the ways in which proteins can direct the material properties of minerals. Belcher joined the MIT faculty in 2001 as Professor in the Departments of Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.
Neelkanth (Neel) Bardhan, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab:Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Neelkanth Bardhan, (Neel), is a senior Postdoctoral Fellow affiliated with the laboratory of Prof. Angela Belcher. From the perspective of BTC, Neel’s work focuses on designing an optical imaging system for highly sensitive detection of early precursor lesions in ovarian cancer.
Hailing from India, Neel did his undergraduate from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, India, and holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science from MIT. For his doctoral work, Neel was awarded the MRS Graduate Student Gold Award, conferred by the Materials Research Society in San Francisco, 2015. During his Postdoctoral research, Neel has been a recipient of the Misrock Postdoctoral Fellowship, the RLE Translational Fellowship, and the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine’s Convergence Scholar fellowship. At the Koch Institute, Neel has worked on a Bridge Project grant, with the lab of Dr. Michael Birrer at Massachusetts General Hospital, to develop a real-time near-infrared fluorescence imaging system for guided surgery in ovarian cancer. One of his recent papers has been featured in the “Top 100 in Cancer” most downloaded papers in Scientific Reports. More recently, Neel was one of the winners of the MIT PDA Postdoctoral Symposium in 2021, and Neel’s work has been featured on various media including MIT News, 360Dx and Practical Patient Care, to name a few. Neel’s work has resulted in a strong portfolio of intellectual property, with 3 U.S. patents issued, and numerous other patent applications pending. Neel is actively involved in the scientific publication community, serving as a board member for the ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering Early Career Editorial Advisory Board, contributed invited book chapters and journal articles, served as an Editor for a Special Issue and as a Peer Reviewer for over 50 manuscripts.
Outside the lab, Neel is highly involved in issues concerning Science Policy, Diversity and Inclusiveness and Outreach. Working with the MIT Science Policy Initiative, Neel has engaged with legislators and their representatives on Capitol Hill during the Congressional Visit Days, and actively engages in outreach activities with AAAS. Neel cares deeply about creating a welcoming environment for people of all backgrounds, and is the host of the “Let’s Get to Know… Celebrating Diversity” podcast series, where he invites guests from a cross-section of the diverse community. As hobbies, Neel enjoys reading non-fiction, running along the Charles River, and performing Indian Classical music.
Sanghoon Lee, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Sanghoon Lee is an Associate Professor of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. Over 20 years, Dr. Lee has applied his translational research expertise toward improving and influencing care for patients, especially those with gynecologic malignancies at MD Anderson. He leads and oversees all aspects of translational study in gynecologic cancers, and further develops the translational research portfolio ensuring the acquisition of more comprehensive information from each patient in our clinical trial and non-clinical trial settings.
His main research interests focus on the investigation of the function and mechanisms of oncogenic and/or tumor-suppressive genes in immunochemotherapy sensitivity and resistance in ovarian cancer using preclinical in vitro and in vivo models. He is also interested in discovering novel small-molecule therapeutic targeting agents and explaining the mechanisms of drug resistance to immunochemotherapy in gynecologic cancers. Dr. Lee’s research also focuses on applying genome editing approaches to develop in vitro and in vivo models for use in gene therapy, cell therapy, and immunotherapy in gynecologic cancers.
Dr. Lee earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Animal Molecular Genetics from Chungnam National University in South Korea. He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in Gene-Environmental Biology with the International Agency for Research on Cancer at the World Health Organization in Lyon, France, and in Neurology and Hematology & Oncology at Harvard Medical School. In 2008, Dr. Lee began his career as a Senior Research Scientist with the Cancer Science Institute at the National University of Singapore. He joined the faculty of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, as an Assistant Professor in both the Department of Pediatrics, Cell Biology and Anatomy in 2011. Dr. Lee joined the faculty of MD Anderson as an Assistant Professor in 2016.
Yang Chen, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Yang Chen is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Dr. Raghu Kalluri laboratory at MD Anderson Cancer Center, working on the tumor microenvironment through the integration of single-cell genomics and novel transgenic mouse models.
Maxime Meylan, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Bert Vandereydt, MS
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Bert is a PhD student in the Varanasi group at MIT. He is an expert on interfacial engineering on the micro and nano scale for living systems. Through Break Through Cancer he is currently working on developing new methods for capturing STIC lesions from freshly-collected fallopian tubes in a manner that is non-destructive and also compatible with the SEE-FIM protocol by leaving both the captured cells and tubal tissue undamaged. This can open up a range of popular techniques such as scRNA-seq and organoid culture for studying early-stage ovarian carcinogenesis.
Wungki Park, MD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Park is a medical oncologist and physician-scientist who specializes in caring for people with cancers of the pancreas and bile system. At clinic, he works as a team member of clinical experts including surgeons, radiation oncologists, gastroenterologists, interventional radiologists, pathologists, radiologists, and nurses. In the lab at David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research, he partners with cancer biologists, immunologists, and bioinformaticians to identify and develop better treatments for his patients through clinical trials. His research focuses on the resistance mechanisms to immunotherapy, tumor microenvironment, DNA damage repair, and KRAS.
Fiona Chatterjee, BA
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Fiona Chatterjee is currently a graduate student in Stefani Spranger’s lab at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, where she is studying the role of type I interferon in inducing productive immune responses against ovarian cancer. She holds a BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley.
Ryuhjin Ahn, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Using phosphoproteomics, systems and molecular biology approaches, Ryuhjin seeks to understand the balance between pro- and anti-tumorigenic immune responses that are regulated by the interplay of microglia and brain cancer.
Julien Dilly, MS
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Julien is a research technician in the Aguirre lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Starting in the summer, Julien will be starting his PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard University. His research is focused on leveraging multi-omics approaches as well as patient specimens to predict biomarkers of response and resistance to KRAS targeted therapies in pancreatic cancer.
Kimal Rajapakshe, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab:Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Kimal Rajapakshe is a Computational Scientist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with a decade of experience in analyzing and integration of multi-omics data from both solid tumor and liquid biopsy. He specialized in analyzing RNA-Seq(bulk and single cell), ATAC-Seq(bulk and single cell), genomic sequencing(WES & targeted), ChIP-Seq, Methylation array, proteomics and metabolomics data.
Kevin Kapner, MS
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab:Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Kevin studied Biochemistry and Mathematics at Tufts University, where he also earned his master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. In the Aguirre Lab, he is involved with the creation and development of analysis strategies for bulk and single cell RNA-sequencing data, CRISPR screen data, chemical compound testing, and genomic data. He also helps organize and develop in-lab computational methods and software tools to complement experimental efforts. In the future, he hopes to pursue a PhD in biostatistics or computational biology.
Ziyue Li, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab:Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Ziyue Li, PhD is a postdoctoral research fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She received her PhD degree in 2017 at Sichuan University, China. She did postdoctoral fellowships at Babraham Institute, UK, and Boston Children’s Hospital prior to joining Andrew Aguirre’s lab at DFCI. She is interested in translational studies which can benefit human health, particularly utilizing high-throughput screen and genome editing to identify druggable targets, and to improve treatments for cancer patients. Outside of the lab, Ziyue enjoys traveling and spending time with her family.
David A. Reardon, MD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
David Reardon, MD is the Clinical Director of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Center for Neuro-Oncology. His research efforts focus on preclinical drug development and early clinical trials including first-in-man, as well as phase I and II studies. Dr. Reardon is particularly interested in evaluating promising agents for patients with newly diagnosed as well as recurrent primary and metastatic tumors of the central nervous system. His lab has concentrated on a broad spectrum of therapeutics, including molecular inhibitors against key mediators of cell signaling pathways regulating proliferation, survival, invasion, and angiogenesis of CNS tumors, cytotoxic agents, and immunotherapeutics. Dr. Reardon’s current preclinical and clinical trial efforts focus on a range of immunotherapy reagents including novel vaccine approaches and immune checkpoint inhibitors for neuro-oncology.
Keith Ligon, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Ligon, MD, PhD is a principal investigator and neuropathologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. His laboratory is focused on understanding the biology of glioma treatment resistance and discovery of novel diagnostic approaches in cancer. His lab has specific expertise in analysis of patient tissue samples, patient derived models, and translational science of clinical trials.
Jared Woods, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Jared Woods, MD, PhD is a neuropathologist and post-doc in the laboratory of Keith Ligon at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He developed an interest in neurosciences early in college, but more specifically in brain cancer during residency and neuropathology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Now as a post-doc he is researching the effects of therapy on glioblastoma using various techniques including digital pathology and spatial transcriptomics.
Riccardo Mezzadra, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Riccardo Mezzadra performed his graduate work in the laboratory of Ton Schumacher in the Netherlands where he employed genetic screens to dissect some aspects of the molecular interplay between T cells and cancer cells. For his postdoctoral training he joined the laboratory of Scott Lowe, where he is currently affiliated, in order to study the interplay between cancer-cell intrinsic and cancer-cell extrinsic tumor suppression. He is involved in the project “Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer” for studying how inhibition of RAS signaling can favor an antitumoral immune response.
:https://twitter.com/r_mezzadra
Franziska Michor, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Dr. Michor is a Professor of Computational Biology in the Department of Data Science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. Dr. Michor obtained her undergraduate training in mathematics and molecular biology from the University of Vienna, Austria, and her PhD from the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Afterwards, she was awarded a fellowship from the Harvard Society of Fellows. From 2007 until 2010, she was an Assistant Professor in the Computational Biology Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Michor is the director of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Evolution. She has been the recipient of the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the Alice Hamilton Award, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, the 36th Annual AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research, and others. Dr. Michor’s laboratory investigates the evolutionary dynamics of cancer initiation, progression, response to therapy, and emergence of resistance.
Elias-Ramzey Karnoub, BA
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab:Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Elias-Ramzey Karnoub joined the Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue Lab and Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering in May 2021 after graduating from Rutgers University-New Brunswick where he majored in Biomathematics and Statistics. During his time as an undergraduate, he spent time working both in wet and dry labs to understand cancer hotspots and regulatory networks. Since joining MSKCC, he has been working with multiple types of sequencing technologies and their applications in pancreatic cancer. In particular, he contributes to various trials and research projects through processing and analyzing patient samples for single cell RNA sequencing as well as single cell DNA sequencing.
Viviane Tabar, MD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies
Viviane Tabar, MD is the Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery and the Theresa C Feng Professor in Neurosurgical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She is a neurosurgeon with expertise in brain tumors, and a scientist with a focus on stem cell biology.
Dr. Tabar’s surgical practice is focused on primary brain tumors and tumors of the skull base. Her research includes the development of cell-based therapies for neurological disorders, using human pluripotent stem cells. This portfolio includes strategies for repairing radiation and chemotherapy induced brain injury and the development of human pluripotent stem cell-derived dopamine neurons for Parkinson’s disease, currently in a Phase I clinical trial. Her lab has also studies glioma biology and has pioneered the use of human embryonic stem cell-based models of brain tumors, with a focus on histone-mutant high grade glioma in the pediatric and young adult patients. She has received several honors and awards from the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the New York Academy of Medicine and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and was elected to the membership of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Society of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Tabar is also member of the National Academy of Medicine. She serves on the advisory board of Cell Stem Cell.
Anupriya Singhal, MD-PhD student
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Anu Singhal is a second year clinical fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and is a post-doc in the lab of Tuomas Tammela. She is studying how KRAS inhibition alters the composition of pancreatic cancer cell states within GEMM models. Her goal to is to understand mechanisms of adaptive resistance to KRAS inhibition and how targeting of pre-treatment cell states can prevent resistance from forming.
Duaa Al-Rawi, MD, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Duaa Al-Rawi completed her PhD in the laboratory of Michael Yaffe at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer research where she studied the biochemical function of BRCT domains. Her experience at the Koch Institute crystallized her desire to care for cancer patients and she transitioned to medical school at Stanford University after completing her PhD. She remained at Stanford for her Internal Medicine Residency and started Medical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2020. Her clinical focus is gynecologic malignancies where she is mentored by Dr. Carol Aghajanian. Her research is focused on modeling and detecting early invasive ovarian cancer; she is jointly mentored by Dr. Sohrab Shah and Dr. Samuel Bakhoum.
Nickolas Papadopoulos, PhD
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Nick Papadopoulos is the co‐discoverer of the genetic basis of the predisposition to hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC). He was part of the interdisciplinary team that was first to sequence all of the protein coding genes of four common human tumor types. Later identified novel mutations in chromatin remodeling genes in human cancers. Currently, he is focused in the development of clinical applications in early detection, and monitoring of cancer. He has developed sensitive methods for the detection of multiple type of cancers in liquid biopsy, including CancerSEEK. He has co-founded companies that develop diagnostics for cancer.
Pamela Constantinou Papadopoulos, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Pamela Papadopoulos is an Associate Director, Research Planning and Development in the Sheikh Ahmed Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research and the Moon Shots Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Papadopoulos received her B.A. in Chemistry from Vassar College and Ph.D. in Chemistry from New York University. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Bioengineering and was an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of BioSciences at Rice University. At MD Anderson, Dr. Papadopoulos is involved in several large, programmatic grants and initiatives. She applies her scientific background to provide scientific and administrative oversight to multi-PI and multidisciplinary programs.
Mae Pryor, BA
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Mae Pryor is a PhD student in Paula Hammond’s lab at MIT. She is investigating the design of layer-by-layer nanoparticles for targeting minimal residual disease in ovarian cancer. Mae graduated with a BA in Chemistry from Smith College.
Thomas Bauer, MBA, RT(R)
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Mr. Bauer is the Senior Director of Patient Education and Engagement at Johns Hopkins Medicine. He was selected by the Institute of Medicine as an exemplar in the deployment of health literacy tactics addressing the 10 attributes of a health literate organization. He presented at the NASEM Roundtable discussion on “ Making the Case for Health Literacy” He has been featured in two AHRQ case studies, two VHA Blueprints and served as an advisor to the AHA Opioid Collaborative and PFAC collaboratives. He received the Eagle Award recognizing his commitment to improving health outcomes in North Carolina.
Michael Worley Jr., MD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLabs: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer, Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Michael Worley Jr. is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. He is the Director of Ovarian Cancer Surgery within the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His clinical, research and teaching efforts are heavily focused on improving the quality of care for patients with ovarian cancer.
Alexandra Bird, BS
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer
Alexandra Bird received her Bachelor of Science in Biology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She began her career at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2019 within the gastrointestinal cancer center trials team. As a clinical research manager, she handles the development, submission, conduct and close-out of investigator lead clinical trials at outside hospitals to ensure compliance with federal and local regulations and policies.
Panos Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Panagiotis (Panos) A Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD is Director of Translational Research and attending oncologist in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His translational research career focuses on ovarian cancer and other gynecologic malignancies with an important niche in the areas of DNA Damage and Repair and Immunotherapy. His work has focused on unraveling mechanisms of resistance to chemotherapy and targeted agents, developing the rationale and preclinical data for novel drug combinations in ovarian cancer, and on identification of novel diagnostic and predictive biomarkers of therapeutic response in gynecologic cancers as well investigating their mechanistic implication in carcinogenesis. His research efforts in this area have been supported by several Harvard-wide, industry and national sources including the Department of Defense (DOD), Ovarian Cancer Research Program (OCRP) and the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). As a clinical researcher, he is also involved as a principal investigator (PI) and co-investigator in several gynecologic cancer clinical trials. Dr Konstantinopoulos has served as a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Clinical Oncology, is co-chair of the Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center (DFHCC) Audit Committee and a member of the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) Experimental Medicine Committee.After receiving his MD and PhD from University of Patras in Greece, Dr Konstantinopoulos completed internship and residency at State University of New York at Syracuse, followed by a medical oncology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. He also received a Master’s degree in Clinical Investigation from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Department of Health Sciences and Technology.
Kathleen H. Burns, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLabs: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer and Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Kathleen Burns received her MD and PhD in Molecular and Human Genetics from Baylor College of Medicine. She completed pathology residency and a hematopathology fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and served as chief resident. Thereafter, Dr. Burns joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins and progressed through the academic ranks to Professor. She served as Vice Chair for Research and Programs in the Pathology Department and Director of the school-wide Physician Scientist Training Program. She was recruited to Dana-Farber as Chair of the Department of Pathology in 2020. Her honors and invited lectures include a Career Award for Medical Scientists from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Scriver Family Visiting Professorship in Genetics from McGill University, and the Daria Haust Lecturer of Pathology at Queen’s University. Her research laboratory focuses on transposable element expression and activity in cancer and on ways to use our understanding of that biology to inform new approaches for diagnosing and treating cancers.
Shengnan Huang, PhD
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLabs: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer, Targeting Minimal Residual Disease in Ovarian Cancer
Shengnan is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Belcher group of at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. She is currently working on cancer detection and vaccination. Her PhD thesis focuses on early detection of ovarian cancer with NIR-II fluorescence.
Dipanjan Chowdhury, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dipanjan Chowdhury, PhD, is the Svanberg Family Professor at Harvard Medical School and serves as the Chief of the Division of Radiation and Genome Stability in the Department of Radiation Oncology. He is also the Founder and Co-Director of the Center for BRCA and Related Genes at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Chowdhury’s research focuses on deciphering cellular response to DNA damage, particularly DNA double strand breaks, with the goals of generating strategies for personalized radio and chemotherapy and countering accidental radiation exposure. His studies were the first to show that microRNAs can functionally impact the efficacy of DNA repair in tumor cells and influence specific DNA repair pathways. His laboratory investigates fundamental questions which have recently led to the discovery of uncharacterized proteins that profoundly impact DNA repair. On the translation research side, the Chowdhury laboratory has developed a platform to use serum microRNAs as non-invasive biomarkers for various pathological conditions including early detection of ovarian cancer.
Caroline McCue, PhD candidate
MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Caroline McCue is a Mechanical Engineering PhD candidate in Kripa Varanasi’s group who is also in the HST-GEMS program at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Her research has focused on protein and cell interactions with surfaces for biomanufacturing applications. She will be working on building the iCollector for the Intercepting Ovarian Cancer project.
David Kolin, MD, PhD
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
TeamLab: Intercepting Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Kolin is an Associate Pathologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Chemistry at McGill University, followed by medical school and a residency in Anatomic Pathology at the University of Toronto. He completed a fellowship in Women’s and Perinatal Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His research interests include the molecular characterization of carcinomas, uterine sarcomas, and SWI/SNF-deficient tumors of the gynecologic tract.
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