Michael Angelo, MD PhD is a board-certified pathologist and assistant professor in the department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Angelo is a leader in high dimensional imaging with expertise in tissue homeostasis, tumor immunology, and infectious disease. His lab has pioneered the construction and development of Multiplexed Ion Beam Imaging by time of flight (MIBI-TOF). MIBI-TOF uses secondary ion mass spectrometry and metal-tagged antibodies to achieve rapid, simultaneous imaging of dozens of proteins at subcellular resolution. In recognition of this achievement, Dr. Angelo received the NIH Director’s Early Independence award in 2014. His lab has since used this novel technology to discover previously unknown rule sets governing the spatial organization and cellular composition of immune, stromal, and tumor cells within the tumor microenvironment in triple negative breast cancer. These findings were found to be predictive of single cell expression of several immunotherapy drug targets and of 10-year overall survival. This effort has led to ongoing work aimed at elucidating structural mechanisms in the TME that promote recruitment of cancer associated fibroblasts, tumor associated macrophages, and extracellular matrix remodeling. Dr. Angelo is the recipient of the 2020 DOD Era of Hope Award and a principal investigator on multiple extramural awards from the National Cancer Institute, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Human Biomolecular Atlas (HuBMAP) initiative.

Tullia C. Bruno, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh and a faculty member in the Tumor Microenvironment Center and the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. She obtained her Ph.D. in Immunology from Johns Hopkins in 2010 and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado in 2015—both with a focus in tumor immunology. While Dr. Bruno’s PhD training focused on inhibitory receptors on intertumoral T cells, she became interested in the role of B cells and tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) in the tumor microenvironment (TME) during her postdoctoral fellowship and has built her independent research program around understanding intertumoral B cell and TLS function in multiple human cancers and physiologically relevant murine models. Because Dr. Bruno’s research lab has an overt focus on studying immunity within cancer patients, her research is highly translational with the potential for future clinical trials targeting B cells and TLS. Finally, given Dr. Bruno's cutting-edge work on analyzing TLS with multispectral imaging and spatial transcriptomics, she is becoming an emerging leader for spatial biology techniques. Dr. Bruno is actively involved in the UPMC Hillman community, and is an advocate for women in science, as is evidenced by her previous role as chair of the UPMC Hillman Women's Initiatives Taskforce and her contributions to the Society of Immunotherapy's Women in Immunotherapy group.

Dr. Pardoll is an Abeloff Professor of Oncology, Medicine, Pathology and Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine. He is the founding Director of the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and Director of the Cancer Immunology Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Pardoll attended Johns Hopkins University, where he earned his M.D., Ph.D., in 1982 and completed his Medical Residency and Oncology Fellowship in 1985. He then worked for three years at the National Institutes of Health as a Medical Staff Fellow. Dr. Pardoll has published more than 450 papers, collectively cited over 170,000 times, as well as over 20 book chapters on the subject of T cell immunology and cancer immunotherapy. He is a member of the National Academy of Inventors, and the National Academy of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Cancer Research and the Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and Cancer Cell, and has served as a member of scientific advisory boards for the Cancer Research Institute, the American Association of Clinical Oncology, the American Association of Cancer Research, the University of Pennsylvania Human Gene Therapy Gene Institute, Biologic Resources Branch of the National Cancer Institute, Harvard-Dana Farber Cancer Center, as well as 12 biotechnology companies, J&J and Amgen. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Clasp Therapeutics and Dracen therapeutics. Dr. Pardoll is a founder of 10 companies over the past decade. He holds roughly 80 patents. Dr. Pardoll has made a number of basic advances in Cellular Immunology, including the discovery of gamma - delta T cells, NKT cells and interferon-producing killer dendritic cells. Over the past two decades, Dr. Pardoll has studied molecular aspects of dendritic cell biology and immune regulation, particularly related to mechanisms by which cancer cells evade elimination by the immune system. These include the discovery of PD-L2, one of two ligands for PD-1, and the T cell checkpoints LAG3 and PVRIG leading to ongoing clinical development of blocking antibodies to these molecules. He also identified two key molecules – YAP and ActivinR1c as key inducers of Treg suppression, leading to programs to inhibit these clinically. He also elucidated the role of Stat3 signaling in tumor immune evasion and in Th17 development, leading to the discovery that Stat3-driven Th17 responses promote carcinogenesis. Stat3 antisense drugs are currently in clinical testing. He was one of the leaders of the pioneering clinical trials that established the anti-cancer activity of antibodies blocking the PD-1 pathway; the marketed anti-PD-1/L1/L2 antibodies now collectively generate $45-50B/year. The first anti-LAG3 antibody was FDA approved and is expected to generate $3-4B by 2026.

Frank Winkler studied medicine in Hamburg, Freiburg and London, specialized in neurology at the LMU Munich in Germany, spent a 2 year postdoc at Harvard, and was appointed to Heidelberg in 2010. He is Professor for Neuro-Oncology at Heidelberg University’s Faculty of Medicine and also Managing Senior Physician in the Department of Neurology. His research group Experimental Neurooncology is located in the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. 

The laboratory led by Frank Winkler employed neuroscientific methods to develop a fundamentally new understanding of the most malignant brain tumours in adults, glioblastomas and brain metastases. Key discoveries of this work have helped to establish the new research field of Cancer Neuroscience. Those include malignant multicellular tumor networks that are highly functional and resistant, driven by neurodevelopmental factors including pacemaker-like tumor cells in network hubs, and excitatory synapses between brain neurons and various incurable brain tumor entities that fuel brain tumor growth, invasion and metastasis.

Frank Winkler translates his pioneering work in Cancer Neuroscience into novel, neuroscience-instructed cancer therapies. He has initiated clinical trials that investigate how disconnection of neuro-cancer networks can better control brain tumors in humans.

Dr. Masri’s research interests are aimed at understanding how disruption of circadian rhythms results in tumor initiation and progression. The circadian clock is our biological pacemaker that governs endocrine, metabolic, and behavioral rhythms within a 24-hour period, and disruptions of these biological rhythms results in detrimental diseases including cancer. The Masri lab is defining how genetic and environmental disruption of the circadian clock alters tumorigenesis, a question that is particularly relevant to early-onset cancers, particularly colorectal cancer. We are interested in how the circadian clock regulates intestinal stem cell survival, proliferation, metabolism, and properties that govern the Epithelial to Mesenchymal transition (EMT). These research questions are being addressed using genetically engineered mouse models of colorectal cancer (developed by the Masri lab) and intestinal organoid cultures where we defined how clock disruption regulates Wnt/B-Catenin signaling. Also, the Masri lab has contributed to the understanding of how the circadian clock regulates tumor immunity and immunosuppression through the action of myeloid-derived suppressor cells or MDSCs. The broader impact of this work extends beyond colorectal cancer to define how the circadian clock modulates key signaling pathways that have critical implications in the tumor microenvironment that impinge on metabolism, stemness, and immune regulation. 

 

Jennifer L. McQuade, MD, MS, MA is an Assistant Professor and Physician Scientist in Melanoma Medical Oncology. Dr. McQuade completed her medical training at Baylor College of Medicine, her residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and her fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and then spent two years in MD Anderson's prestigious Advanced Scholar program conducting research and completing a Master's in Science in Clinical and Translational Science before joining the clinical faculty in 2018. Her research focuses on how lifestyle factors influence melanoma biology and the anti-tumor immune response with the goal of developing novel strategies to improve outcomes in melanoma. In addition, Dr. McQuade holds a Master's degree in traditional Chinese medicine, spending time as a Fulbright fellow in China, and conducted studies of integrative therapies for symptom control in cancer.

Ping-Chih Ho grew up in Taiwan and obtained his basic biomedical training, including bachelor degree (Life Science) and master degree (Biochemical Science), at National Taiwan University. He then obtained his PhD in Department of Pharmacology at University of Minnesota and did a postdoctoral training at Yale University. He is a full professor at University of Lausanne and member of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research since 2023.

Matthew Vander Heiden is the Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the Lester Wolfe Chair in Molecular Biology, and a Professor in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. He is also a practicing Medical Oncologist and Instructor of Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Vander Heiden received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago, where he worked in the laboratory of Craig Thompson. He completed clinical training in internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a Hematology-Oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Massachusetts General Hospital program. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Lewis Cantley at Harvard Medical School, where he was supported by a Mel Karmazin Fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. In 2010, Vander Heiden joined the MIT faculty. His laboratory studies how metabolism is regulated to meet the needs of cells in different physiological situations. A major focus of his research is the role of metabolism in cancer, and particularly how metabolic pathways support cancer cell proliferation and survival. Using a combination of biochemistry, molecular biology and mouse models, the aim of the Vander Heiden laboratory is to understand how metabolism influences different stages of tumor biology with a goal to improve cancer treatment in the clinic. His work has been recognized by some awards, including the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Sciences, the AACR Gertrude B. Elion Award, an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award, and election to the ASCI, AAP, and European Academy of Cancer Sciences. He serves on the scientific advisory boards of the Yale Cancer Center, the Salk Institute Cancer Center, and the Wistar Cancer Center. He is a member of the investment advisory board for DROIA Venture Fund and MPM, is also a member of the scientific advisory boards of several companies including Agios Pharmaceuticals, iTeos Therapeutics, Sage Therapeutics, Lime Therapeutics, Pretzel Therapeutics, and Auron Therapeutics, where he is also an academic founder

Dr. Lund received a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York and completed postdoctoral training at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York. Dr. Lund and colleagues established the paradigm that tumor-associated lymphatic vessel remodeling regulates anti-tumor immune surveillance. Her group aims to understand the basic mechanisms that govern lymphatic/immune interactions to identify translational strategies to tune lymphatic transport and reinvigorate anti-tumor immunity.

Mikala Egeblad, Ph.D. is a professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, co-leader of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center Program on Cellular Communication in Cancer, and chair-person of the American Association for Cancer Research Tumor Microenvironment Working Group. She obtained degrees in Medicine (B.S., 1993). Human Biology (M.Sc., 1996), and Cancer Biology (Ph.D., 2000) from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She did her dissertation research under the mentorship of Dr. Marja Jäättelä at The Danish Cancer Society. Her postdoctoral training was performed with Dr. Zena Werb at University of California, San Francisco. There, she began developing intravital spinning disk confocal microscopy to understand how the microenvironment influences tumor progression. Her research group studies how the tumor microenvironment contributes to therapy resistance and metastasis, primarily focusing on the role of neutrophils and macrophages. She has received the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Era of Hope Scholar Award; The Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research; and the Suffrage Science Award. She is member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Vividion, Inc. and of Insmed’s Brensocatib Research Advisory Board.

Dr. Lyden completed his M.D. at Brown University, Ph.D. at the University of Vermont, Residency at Duke University, postdoctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Ceneter; currently, he is the Stavros S. Niarchos Professor of Pediatrics and Cell and Developmental Biology at Weill Cornell Medicine. He defined the concept of the "pre-metastatic niche" (PMN), where tumor-secreted factors recruit bone marrow-derived progenitor cells to distant organ sites to provide a platform for metastasis. Dr. Lyden’s work underscores the systemic nature of cancer. As such, Dr. Lyden demonstrated that tumor-derived extracellular vesicle (EV)-mediated crosstalk initiates the PMN and coordinates metastatic progression. He identified key proteins and nucleic acids, specifically double stranded DNA, in EVs and demonstrated their systemic role in thrombosis, fatty liver metabolic dysfunction, and immune dysregulation. He has defined tumor EV integrins in organotropic metastasis, answering in part Stephen Paget’s “seed and soil” hypothesis on organ-specific metastasis. Moreover, he identified a new particle named exomere, which packages distinct proteins, including metabolic enzymes, lipids, and glycans. He has identified novel EV biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis in patients with cancer.

Dr. Lyden is an elected Member of the Association of American Physicians (2021) and an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2022). Dr. Lyden is the recipient of the 2024 Princess Lilian Award for excellence in research and mentoring by the Belgium Royal Family, as well as the 2024 Paget-Ewing Award, the highest award by the Metastasis Research Society, and the National Institutes of Health R35 Outstanding Investigator Award, that supports his efforts to explore the systemic effects of metastatic cancer.

Miki De Palma obtained his PhD in 2004 at the University of Torino Medical School (Italy), where he studied the role of the bone marrow-derived monocytes in tumor angiogenesis. He then moved to the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan to pursue novel cancer gene therapy strategies based on gene-modified monocytes, which have been clinically tested in patients with brain cancer. In 2018, he has been appointed Associate Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.  His current research focuses on engineered dendritic cells for antigen-agnostic cancer immunotherapy.

Maria Rescigno (h-index 75) is full professor, vice-rector and delegate to research at Humanitas University and Deputy scientific director basic research at Humanitas Research Hospital, Milan. She graduated in Biology in the University of Milan and received her PhD in Pharmacology and toxicology. She served as a group leader at the European Institute of Oncology, a professor at the University of Milan, and a visiting professor at the University of Oslo. She was post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, UK, and earned her PhD from the CNR in Milan. She was elected an EMBO Young Investigator in 2007, became an EMBO member in 2011, and joined the EMBO Council in 2019; EMBO chair from 2023 onwards. She has received three ERC grants and has authored 221 publications. She has also received several awards, including an honorable mention from Belgian Embassy (2022), the Roma Prize (2022), the Fondazione De Sanctis for Social Health Award (2023), and The Pezcoller-Marina Larcher Fogazzaro-EACR Women in Cancer Research Award (2024). Elected member of the Accademia dei Lincei (National Academy of Science) in 2024.
In 2016, she founded the startup Postbiotica, a spin-off of the University of Milan that exploits microbiota-derived metabolites as new pharmaceutical agents.

Marcus Goncalves is a physician scientist at NYU Langone Health in beautiful New York City. His lab is focused on the effects of diet and cancer on the host tissues that regulate systemic nutrient metabolism. As a practicing endocrinologist, he has helped to develop therapeutic and dietary strategies to modulate systemic glucose and insulin levels in patients with obesity, diabetes, and cancer. MG’s clinical practice focuses on the care of patients with metabolic diseases like insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, low testosterone, and complications from cancer and cancer therapy like cachexia.

Marcia C. Haigis, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, a member of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, and the Ludwig Center at Harvard Medical School. Following graduate training in Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Biochemistry, Dr. Haigis studied mitochondrial metabolism during her postdoctoral research at MIT. She has contributed to understanding the role that mitochondrial sirtuins play in metabolism and disease. She has received a number of honors, including the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar Award, the Brookdale Foundation Leadership in Aging Award, and selection for the National Academy of Medicine's Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Program.

The Joshi laboratory uses intricate tumor models and advanced approaches to investigate immune cell interactions with developing tumors. The goal is to determine mechanistically why these interactions do not lead to more potent anti-tumor responses and to identify entry points for modulating these interactions through genetic manipulation and therapeutic intervention. Our studies focus on using established complex mouse models to investigate how subtypes of T cells function in the tumor microenvironment and how their interactions with other immune cell types impacts tumor development. Our laboratory combines advanced genetic modeling of mice and immunologic techniques to address fundamental questions in tumor immunology.

Katy Rezvani, MD, PhD is a professor of medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she serves as the Vice President & Head, Cell Therapy Institute for Discovery and Innovation, Sally Cooper Murray Chair in Cancer Research, and medical director of the GMP Facility. She leads a research lab with a focus on NK cell biology and developing novel NK cell engineering strategies for cancer, with the aim of translating these discoveries to the clinic. Dr. Rezvani completed her medical training at University College London, England and her PhD at Imperial College London. She completed her training in immunology and transplantation biology at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. In addition, she has co-authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications and received multiple prizes and awards, including the American Society of Hematology E. Donnall Thomas award.

Dr. Arabella Young, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Investigator at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. Following graduate training in tumor immunology at the University of Queensland, she performed her postdoctoral studies at the Diabetes Center at the University of California San Francisco.

Dr. Young’s research aims to improve our understanding of the interaction between different immune-mediated diseases, which have the potential to influence treatment outcomes for patients with cancer. Her lab has established syngeneic tumor models in autoimmune-prone mice to improve mechanistic understanding of the relationship between anti-tumor immunity and immunotoxicity in response to cancer immunotherapies. Additionally, she is advancing modeling approaches that incorporate the impact of medication exposure for comorbidities alongside cancer immunotherapy efficacy, in an effort to optimize treatment outcomes for patients.

Dr. Humam Kadara is professor in the Department of Translational Molecular Pathology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.. His laboratory made significant contributions to our understanding of the early pathogenesis of premalignant lesions and cancer. He authored and co-authored over 140 papers including in high impact journals like Nature, Nature Medicine, Cell, Cancer Cell, and Cancer Discovery. His group recently identified alveolar intermediary cells that function as progenitors of lung adenocarcinoma. Dr. Kadara received various awards in cancer research including two Lung Cancer Discovery Awards from the American Lung Association as well as multiple Investigator Research Awards from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. He was also awarded the prestigious Andrew Sabin Family Foundation Fellowship. Dr. Kadara’s laboratory is well-funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study various mechanisms governing cancer development. His group leads a project in the NCI Cancer Systems Biology Consortium (CSBC) to dissect spatiotemporal tumor-immune co-evolution at single-cell resolution and is also part of a Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)-LUNGevity award to define a multi-dimensional atlas of lung premalignancy.

 

After graduating Medical School (2008) Myriam Chalabi did her residency in internal medicine/medical oncology. In 2016 she became staff member at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam as a Gastrointestinal Oncologist and clinician scientist. In 2022 she was named one of the 11 early career researchers to watch by Nature Medicine.

She is the lead investigator (PI) of several neoadjuvant immunotherapy trials in gastrointestinal cancers, including the globally renowned NICHE study, in which patients with colon cancers were found to have impressive responses after a short duration of neoadjuvant immunotherapy. Her research focuses on early innovative combination immunotherapy trials with a strong focus on translational research to better understand the drivers of response in these tumors and find novel immunotherapy combinations. Her main goal is to improve immunotherapy for patients with gastrointestinal cancers.

Li Ding, PhD, is the David English Smith Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Washington University. Dr. Ding's research focuses on integrating cancer proteogenomics (including single cell and spatial omics), patient-derived cancer models, functional genomics, and drug  development to advance cancer biology and precision medicine. This work spans many cancer types, including acute myeloid leukemia, breast cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, glioblastoma, and multiple myeloma, with key findings including the identification and characterization of pathogenic germline variants and somatic cancer drivers, and discovery of age-related clonal hematopoiesis. Her research team has also developed widely-used computational tools, including VarScan, SciClone, BreakDancer, MSIsensor, Pindel-C, HotSpot3D, and MuSiC and she plays significant roles and co-chairs various groups within The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC), the Patient-Derived Xenografts Development and Trial Centers Research Network (PDXNet), Patient Engagement and Cancer Genome Sequencing (PE-CGS), Cellular Senescence Network (SenNet), and Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN). She also serves on the Steering Committees of CPTAC, TCGA, PDXnet, PE-CGS, SenNet, and co-chairs the HTAN Steering Committee. Dr. Ding has been recognized several times among Thomson-Reuters’ surveys of influential researchers, including listing among “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds”, and was a member of a group honored with the American Association of Cancer Research Team Science Award for contributions to TCGA. Her work continues to be inspired by the ultimate goal of making personalized medicine a reality for cancer patients.

Dr. Moran has a long-standing interest in understanding how the T cell microenvironment shapes the immunological response upon T cell activation. She has a broad background in basic immunology with specific training and expertise T cell receptor signal strength and fate decisions, tumor models, and cancer immunotherapy. Her current research seeks to understand the mechanism of action of single agent and combination therapies in models of prostate cancer. These studies parlay from work during her postdoctoral training that uncovered novel mechanisms of synergy between OX40 agonists and PD-L1 blockade in models of sarcoma and adenocarcinomas published in The Journal of Immunology and under review in Cancer Cell. Studies in her independent laboratory focus on understanding how hormone ablation therapies reverse immunesenescence in tumor bearing hosts with a particular interest in prostate cancer. These studies explore the metabolic health and plasticity of tumor-antigen specific T cells in aged hosts and the impact of sex steroid ablation and checkpoint blockade on increasing the bioenergetics potential of these cells. In addition, we explore the impact of restoring thymic function together with PD-1 inhibition in tumor-bearing hosts and the impact this has on the immune repertoire, function, and regulatory T cell differentiation.