The gulf between the needs of patients and families and the types of legislation that well-intentioned policymakers create is enormous. The of bringing the perspective of patients, families, and clinicians into the legislative and rulemaking process became increasingly clear. I have witnessed patients having to fight cancer and our systems of care coverage in order to get access to life saving care. The leap from clinician toward a government affairs leader is hallmark of my belief that we need to continue to create new treatments while engaging with the greater world around us to ensure that ever patient in need can benefit from the profound advanced empowered by the cutting edge research capacities that can only exist in an NCI CCC or academic cancer center.

Dr. Anderson received her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Minnesota, where, working with Dr. David Masopust, she studied T cell responses to lung infection and developed a method that is now widely used in the field to discriminate and isolate intravascular from tissue leukocytes. During her graduate work, she was diagnosed with and underwent treatment for localized breast cancer. Her experience as a patient inspired her to apply her immunology training to the field of cancer biology and translational immunotherapy. She completed her postdoctoral training with Dr. Philip D. Greenberg at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and University of Washington. Her postdoctoral studies demonstrated that adoptive cell therapy with TCR-engineered T cells has efficacy against ovarian cancer, and that rational T cell engineering can overcome immunosuppressive obstacles in the tumor microenvironment to enhance therapeutic efficacy. Her current research focuses on developing molecular engineering strategies to improve T cell killing in ovarian cancer, with the ultimate goal of translating these findings into treatment protocols for patients. She leads a team that uses patient samples to identify immunosuppressive features in the tumor microenvironment, then uses mouse models of cancer that recapitulate these features to evaluate strategies that improve the migration, persistence, and function of genetically engineered anti-tumor T cells.

Dr. Bao’s work bridges methodological advances and biomedical applications with a direct impact on accelerating the knowledge discovery to new clinical trials that could benefit patients. Her lab focuses on the data-driven discovery of resistance mechanisms to cancer immunotherapy, integrating single-cell sequencing, spatial imaging, and deep learning-assisted digital pathology technologies. Her work provides the scientific rationale that has directly led to the opening of new trials that combine targeted therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as ivosidenib plus nivolumab in IDH1 mutant tumors. Her lab has been continuously funded by NIH P50, P30, and R01 grants. Dr. Bao is Leader of Bioinformatics on the Melanoma and Skin Cancer SPORE and Head and Neck SPORE, member of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Big Data and Data Sharing Committee, and serves as the Ad-Hoc member of the Cancer Center Data Science Strategy Committee.

She is currently the Head of Corporate Development and Strategy at Marengo Therapeutics, a Cambridge based clinical stage biotech company focused on precision immunology, where she heads business development, corporate strategy, and competitive intelligence. Prior to joining Marengo, she held several leadership positions at AstraZeneca leading Early Oncology R&D portfolio strategy and the Partner of Choice initiative, building network alliance structure with top global academic centers. She played a critical role in the company’s investment in cell therapy, immune engagers and antibody drug conjugate portfolios. Before entering large pharma, she started her career in various biotech companies including NantKwest and STC Biologics in a variety of roles that covered corporate operations, strategy, business development and project and alliance management.

Shiva completed her undergraduate studies at Boston University in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, her Masters in Biotechnology at Boston University and completed her PhD graduate research at New York University Sackler Program in Oncology and Pharmacology. Throughout her professional career she has been the recipient of several awards including rising leadership and CEO awards and is currently completing her MBA at Babson College.

In his current role as a Sr. Director, Translational Research he frequently interacts with other industry, academic partners and regulatory agencies to accelerate the development of HSV-1 based tumor directed oncolytic immunotherapy.

He studied Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, Medicine at SUNY Stony Brook, Internal Medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital and Medical Oncology and Tumor Immunology at Stanford University. 

The Brody Lab focuses on basic and applied Immuno-oncology, developing innovative immunotherapies for lymphomas, breast cancer, and other tumor types. Research from the Lab has been published in high impact journals such as Nature Medicine, Cancer Discovery, and Blood. The Lab receives funding from the NCI, Cancer Research Institute, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the Lymphoma Research Foundation, the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation, and several Industry Collaborators.

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 intratumoral 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 intratumoral B cell and TLS function in multiple human cancers.  Dr. Bruno’s research lab has an overt focus on studying immunity within cancer patients, which makes her research highly translational with the potential for future clinical trials targeting B cells. Thus, Dr. Bruno’s overall research objective is to develop a B cell-specific immunotherapy in the next five to ten years.  Dr. Bruno is actively involved in the UPMC Hillman community, and is an advocate for women in science, as is evidenced by her current role as chair of the UPMC Hillman Women's Initiatives Taskforce and her contributions to the Society of Immunotherapy's Women in Immunotherapy group.

As a human immunologist, his research interests focus on immune monitoring and immunometabolism. Dr. Connolly previously served as CSO of Tessa Therapeutics, a clinical stage cell therapy company focused on solid tumor immunotherapy, and one of PICI’s strategic partners. He is an associate professor at National University of Singapore and an adjunct associate professor of Immunology at Baylor University, where he served on the Board of Governors for the Institute of Biomedical Sciences.

He is also a senior principal investigator and director for translational immunology at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IMCB) A*Star. Additionally, Dr. Connolly serves as director for the IMPACT Program, a multi-disciplinary national initiative focused building cell therapy manufacturing, clinical and regulatory capability for Singapore.

Dr. Connolly received his PhD in Immunology from Dartmouth Medical School and studied human dendritic cell biology under Dr. Michael Fanger. During this time he was involved in the development of immunotherapeutic preclinical models and clinical trials for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). He moved to the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, a fully translational research institute dedicated to rationally designed vaccines against cancer and infectious disease. Dr. Connolly served as the director of Research Initiatives for the Baylor Research Institute, leading a large integrated translational research resource and multi-institutional programs that involved a number of international sites. During his tenure at Baylor, he was the central core facility director of the NIAID Centers for Translational Research on Human Immunology and Biodefense, an NIH-funded consortium of basic, translational research and clinical trials focused on vaccine design. Dr. Connolly is the past president of the Board of Directors of The American Cancer Society in N. Texas and founding director of the Singapore Immunology Network’s Immunomonitoring Platform.

At AstraZeneca, Dr. Cooper currently drives external collaborations and alliances that extend across the portfolio and the translational strategy for a variety of first time in human trials for immune-oncology including the adenosine pathway (CD73 and CD39) and the first in class ADC targeting B7H4 (AZD8205). Before joining AstraZeneca, Dr. Cooper was an Assistant Professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center with a dual appointment in Surgical Oncology and Genomic Medicine where he led Dr. Jennifer Wargo’s translational melanoma lab exploring the genomic, immunologic and microbial mechanisms of response and resistance to targeted and immune checkpoint therapies.  At MD Anderson, he was also the co-leader of the MD Anderson Melanoma Moonshot Co-Clinical Trial Platform which accelerates the in vivo preclinical evaluation of drugs to position them for success in early-stage clinical trials in specific patient populations. He completed his PhD in Molecular Medicine at University of Maryland as well as postdoctoral fellowships at Brown University and then Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital. Zac has authored over 75 manuscripts including those in Science, Nature, Cell, Lancet Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Cancer Cell, and others.

After growing up in Michigan I obtained my PhD from Johns Hopkins studying the role of nutrient sensing kinases in T cells. I completed postdoctoral training at St Jude Children's Research Hospital, where I studied how regulatory T cell suppress in tumor microenvironments. In 2014 I began my independent research program in Pittsburgh, studying how T cells sense and react to their metabolic environment in cancer. I have coupled a passion for understanding T cell differentiation at a basic level to my excitement for improving immune-based therapies for cancer. In the last 10 years, we've competed well for grants and publications, and have translated many of our basic insights into the clinic or to biotech. I love academic science because it sits at the nexus of medical discovery: I can both explore new frontiers of human biology and try to leverage that insight into new clinical opportunities.

While at OSU, Nick worked in the lab of Dr. Morrie Craig studying how anaerobic bacteria in ruminants might be able to be used for bioremediation.  When Nick arrived at Johns Hopkins University, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Charles Drake which focused on immuno-oncology and T-cell function. During his time Nick focused on an immunological checkpoint molecule LAG-3 and it’s role in regulating T cell proliferation. In addition to research, Nick learned to produce blocking antibodies at scale and generated grams of LAG-3, PD-1, and CTLA-4 antibodies that other researchers used across JHMI. This work led to 1 first author publication on LAG-3 and 7 more across the immuno-oncology field. After graduating from the GPI program, Nick joined MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca, as a Translational Scientist in Oncology. In the 9 years he has been there, Nick has had the opportunity to design and execute translational strategies for multiple types of immune-oncology assets including oncolytic viruses, cell therapy products, T-cell agonists, and checkpoint blockade. This work has led to over 20 abstracts, publications, or oral presentations. Outside of Oncology, Nick was deployed to support COVID-19 T cell work which led to a better understanding of T cell roles in preventing severe effects of SARS-COV2 infection. This work was reported in a NEJM paper and a Science Translational Medicine paper. In 2021 he was promoted to Senior Director and manages a team of 4 translational leads that oversee ~20 oncology pipeline drugs.

She is also the Sandra and Edward Meyer Professor of Cancer Research at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Formenti received her medical degree in Italy from the University of Milan. She is board certified in medical oncology, radiology and radiation oncology.  A recognized leader in radiation oncology and breast cancer research, Dr. Formenti’s groundbreaking work has transformed the paradigm in radiation biology, demonstrating the efficacy of combining radiotherapy with immunotherapy to control cancer cell growth in solid tumors. In combination with immune checkpoint blockade, focal radiotherapy can be used to recruit patients’ immune systems to reject their individual tumor, resulting in a form of personalized immunotherapy, specific for each individual patient. She has translated preclinical work into clinical trials in metastatic solid tumors like breast and lung cancer, and in brain metastases. She is currently leading six investigator-initiated clinical trials of immunotherapy and radiotherapy. A prolific researcher, Dr. Formenti has published more than 300 papers recognized by high-impact journals including Nature Medicine, JAMA, Lancet Oncology and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. She was honored to receive the ASTRO Gold Medal in 2019, SITC Team Science Award in 2021, and the ACR Fellowship in 2022.

Since 2019, serves as the Chief Medical & Scientific Officer of ImCheck Therapeutics where he oversees all research and discovery activities for the pipeline of butyrophilin-targeted mAbs, including the g9d2 T cell activating antibody ICT01 that is in Phase I/II trials in solid and hematologic malignancies. Previously, he served in senior development roles at Bioniz Therapeutics (CMO), Receptos (VP), Profibrix (CMO) and Genentech (Sr MD) where he designed and conducted over 50 Phase I-III clinical trials, with the successful associated regulatory filings (IND, CTA, BLA). Serves as an Independent Director for Accure Therapeutics (Barcelona, SP)  since 2017, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of IAMA Therapeutics (Genoa, IT) that are focused on developing novel neurotherapeutics. He trained in internal medicine after graduating with an MD from Georgetown University, a PhD in Pharmacology from PENN, and a Pharmacy Degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Prior to joining Weill Cornell Medical College (2017), Lorenzo Galluzzi was a Junior Scientist of the Research Team “Apoptosis, Cancer and Immunity” at the Cordeliers Research Center (Paris, France; 2012-2016). Lorenzo Galluzzi did his post-doctoral training at the Gustave Roussy Comprehensive Cancer Center (Villejuif, France; 2009-2011), after receiving his PhD from the University Paris Sud (Le Kremlin-Bicetre, France; 2005-2008). He is also Associate Director of the European Academy for Tumor Immunology (EATI), and Founding Member of the European Research Institute for Integrated Cellular Pathology (ERI-ICP).

Lorenzo Galluzzi is best known for major experimental and conceptual contributions to the fields of cell death, autophagy, tumor metabolism and tumor immunology. In particular, he provided profound insights into the links between adaptive stress responses in cancer cells and the activation of a clinically relevant tumor-targeting immune response in the context of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Lorenzo Galluzzi has published more than 550 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals. According to a survey published by Lab Times, he was the 6th and the youngest of the 30 most-cited European cell biologists (for the period 2007–2013), and he has been nominated Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics (formerly, Thomson Reuter) in 2016 (Biology & Biochemistry), 2018 (Cross-Fields), 2019 (Immunology and Molecular Biology & Genetics), 2020 (Immunology and Molecular Biology & Genetics), 2021 (Immunology, Molecular Biology & Genetics and Pharmacology/Toxicity, with only 22 other scientists worldwide, all disciplines confounded) and 2022 (Immunology, Molecular Biology & Genetics and Pharmacology/Toxicity, with only 31 other scientists worldwide, all disciplines confounded).

Lorenzo Galluzzi currently operates as Editor-in-Chief of four journals: OncoImmunology (which he co-founded in 2011), International Review of Cell and Molecular Biology, Methods in Cell Biology, and Molecular and Cellular Oncology (which he co-founded in 2013). In addition, he currently serves in various Editorial roles for multiple journals including: Cell Death and Disease, iScience, Pharmacological Research, Cell Communication and Signaling, Microbial Cell, Cell Stress and Aging.

The Guerriero laboratory works on unraveling the complexity of TAM biology, ontogeny and metabolic regulation with the goal of developing clinically effective strategies to target TAMs to promote T-cell activation and weaken the immune-suppressive TME to improve immunotherapy response rates. As a faculty member of the Breast Oncology Program at DFCI Dr. Guerriero leads and supports translational research to investigate innovated methods to modulate the immune response in breast cancer as well as to better understand the mechanistic basis for sensitivity and resistance to currently available immunotherapies. Dr. Guerriero received a BS in biochemistry from Northeastern University while on a Division I pole vault scholarship. She received a PhD in molecular and cellular biology and immunology and pathology from Stony Brook University. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and joined the faculty in 2017 as an Instructor, before joining Brigham and Women’s Hospital as an independent investigator in 2020.

Dr. Guerriero currently serves as a Director At-Large for the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and an AACR Cancer Immunology Working Group Steering Committee member. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC). Dr. Guerriero is also co-founder of The Myeloid Network, a monthly international seminar series aimed to connect researchers worldwide to promote communication and advancement in the field of myeloid cell biology.

In addition, she led the 2Seventybio (formerly bluebird)-partnered BCMA CART cell program (Abecma) in multiple myeloma from inception through FDA approval. 

Prior to BMS she held a similar role at Celgene as well as executive roles in biotech at Cell Genesys, Cellerant, and Theraclone. In addition to her work at BMS, Kristen was a Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF where she saw patients with blood cancers weekly.  She also serves on the Board of Directors of Mersana Therapeutics and Graphite Bio and served on the Board of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) for a 3-year term from 2016-2019.

Kristen received her MD at UCSF and internal medicine and hematology/oncology subspecialty training at Harvard and UCSF, respectively. In 2015 she was recognized by Fierce Biotech as one of the top 12 women in Biopharma, in 2019 by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association as a “Luminary”, in 2021 by San Francisco Business Times as one of the most influential women in Bay Area business, and in 2022 by UCSD with the Duane Roth Career Achievement Award for advances in science and medicine. Her career path and long history with CAR T cell development was featured as one of 25 physicians and scientists recognized as part of the 25^th anniversary celebration of Nature Medicine and by Forbes magazine in 2022 as one of “50 women over 50: entrepreneurs” in recognition of her leadership role in the development of Abecma.

Dr. Hege retired from BMS in March 2023 to pursue her decades long dream of thru hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and is using this adventure to raise funds to support early career physician scientists pursuing careers in cellular immunotherapy research. 

He then obtained his PhD in Department of Pharmacology at University of Minnesota. Ping-Chih then did postdoctoral training with Susan Kaech at Yale University, where he demonstrated how cancer cells evade T cell immunosurveillance by depriving infiltrating T cells of glucose, which is consumed in large amounts by malignant cells. In September 2015, he relocated to Switzerland as a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Oncology at the University of Lausanne and act as an adjunct scientist at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Ping-Chih was promoted as a tenured associate professor at the University of Lausanne in August 2019 and promoted to Associate Member at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in January 2020. Since Jan. 2023, Ping-Chih is appointed as a Full Professor at University of Lausanne and a Full member at Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.  Png-Chih's research is also supported by University of Lausanne, the European Research Council, the Cancer Research Institute, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Swiss Cancer League, Harry J. Lloyd Fund, Anna Fuller Fund, the ISREC foundation. His research is also acknowledged by several international awards, including the CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR Award, EMBO Young Investigator Award, MRA-SITC Young Investigator Award, MRA Established Investigator Award, CRI CLIP-investigator Award, and the Swiss Bridge Award.

Currently she serves as President and Founding CEO of Normunity, a Boston-based biotech focused on immune-oncology. Highlights of her career include leading the development of multiple blockbuster cancer therapies:  the CTLA-4 inhibiting immunotherapy Yervoy® (ipilimumab) at BMS, the PD-L1 inhibiting immunotherapy Imfinzi® (durvalumab) at AstraZeneca, and the kinase inhibitor cancer drug Nexavar® (sorafenib) at Bayer. After working at these big pharmaceutical companies, Rachel took her drug development expertise to emerging biotech companies, where she served in the role of Chief Medical Officer at Black Diamond Therapeutics, CytomX Therapeutics and Mirati Therapeutics, respectively. She previously served on the Board of Directors of CytomX Therapeutics and Xilio Therapeutics, respectively, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Pyxis Therapeutics and Sporos Bioventures. Rachel started her career as an oncology fellow and staff physician at the National Cancer Institute. She received her training in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, her MD from Case Western Reserve Medical School, and her BA from Harvard University.

He has a BA in Psychology and an MBA in Finance and prior to retirement had a successful executive career in government, banking, consulting and not-for-profit organizations.

To help others to survive and thrive after a cancer diagnosis, Lee became active with Fight Colorectal Cancer as a research advocate, and became a member of the Georgetown Oncology Institutional Review Board (IRB). Also, he is a research advocate member of the SWOG Survivorship Committee, completed a 3-year term as a patient member of the PCORI Clinical Trials Advisory Panel (CTAP) and a 6 year term on the Board of the Cancer Action Coalition of Virginia (CACV), serves on the Advisory Board of the Ruesch Center (Georgetown University) and the Cancer Policy and Advocacy Team (CPAT) of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, has been a peer research proposal reviewer for ASCO, PCORI and the DOD, and is a member of ASCO, the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable, DIA Global and the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM).

Lee has collaborated on several projects sponsored by The Friends of Cancer Research, including defining tolerability of cancer drugs, reporting adverse events and tightening exclusion criteria, and has been a speaker at Ruesch Center, AAADV, CPAT, FDA and NCCN conferences. He was appointed as a patient representative on the NCI’s Early Phase Emphasis Central IRB, is an advocate member of a Cancer Grand Challenges multi-national team studying the relationship of the human microbiome and colorectal cancer (OPTIMISTICC.org), is a member of the Bayer and Genmab Patient Engagement Councils, and serves as the lead patient advocate on a PCORI study to lower colorectal cancer screening risks for people over age 70.

As a cancer patient, survivor and research advocate, Lee is committed to promoting the patient voice in cancer research, treatments, and medical care, and to improving the health care system in general.

Dr. Joshi runs a research laboratory that uses genetically engineered mouse models to study the fundamentals of the T cell response against tumors.

Dr. Kaech did her postdoctoral work with Dr. Rafi Ahmed at Emory University (1999–2004) and received her PhD in Developmental Biology at Stanford University. She received her BS in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Washington.

Dr. Kaech aims to understand how memory T cells are produced during infection and vaccination, how they function and why in some particular cases, they fail to induce long-term immunity. Her lab has been a leader in using genetic and molecular tools to identify the genes and signaling molecules involved in generating two specific types of memory T cells, CD4 and CD8, from precursor cells during both acute and chronic viral infections. Her lab has made several notable discoveries in elucidating how and when memory T cells form following infection or vaccination.  

Dr. Kaech is also interested in how T cells and macrophages are metabolically regulated, and how their differentiation and function can be altered by nutrient availability during infection and in tumors. In particular, she seeks to learn how T cell behavior is suppressed by tumors, in order to create better therapies for cancer using the body's own immune system—an innovative and rapidly moving field called cancer immunotherapy.

Dr. Kaech has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Damon Runyon–Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fellowship (1999), the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences (2003), the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) (2007) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist (2009) and was elected as an AAAS Fellow in 2020. She was also elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2023 and serves on AAI council, which serves as the largest and most influential organization to advance the knowledge of immunology and medical research in the country.

Dr. Kaech also serves on the advisory boards of the Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research, Cancer Research Institute, MidWinter Immunology Conference, Kern Lipid Conference, Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology at Ohio State University, Gladstone Institute, Vanderbilt Institute for infection, immunology and inflammation (VI4), as well as EvolveImmune Therapeutics, Simcha Therapeutics, Arvinas, Affini-T, Pfizer Emerging Science & Innovation, and is an academic editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Dr. Kaplan conducts research aimed at developing new immune and microenvironment modulating therapies for treatment and prevention of metastatic disease. Her research focuses on microenvironmental changes that regulate metastatic progression. Dr. Kaplan characterized the pre-metastatic niche – the earliest events in distant tissue sites including stromal activation, matrix remodeling and myeloid mediated immune suppression that are essential for cancer metastasis. Her clinical expertise lies in the areas of clinical trials and solid tumor malignancies. Dr. Kaplan received her MD from Dartmouth Medical School, and she completed clinical training in pediatric medicine at Harvard Childrens Hospital and Boston Medical Center. She completed oncology and hematology fellowships at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and at Weill Cornell College of Medicine. She received the Doris Duke Career Development Award and the AACR and ASCO Young Investigator awards. She became an Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medical Center and Assistant Member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center prior to becoming a tenure-track investigator in 2010. She received tenure from NIH in 2022. She was elected into the American Society of Clinical Investigators (2022) and received the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Team Science Award in 2021 for her work on GD2 Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell for Osteosarcoma and Neuroblastoma. In 2021, her work on "Development of Genetically Engineered Myeloid (GEMy) Cell Therapy for Cancer Metastasis” was selected in 2021 for National Cancer Institute Innovation Award.

He received a BA in Economics and MS in Computer Science at Stanford University and was a software engineer and data analyst at Amazon.com before changing careers and going into medicine, receiving his MD and MPH from Johns Hopkins. He did his residency training at Johns Hopkins Hospital, hematology/medical oncology fellowship at DFCI/Harvard CancerCare, and postdoctoral training in Dr. Eliezer Van Allen’s lab. His lab studies tumor evolution and heterogeneity, and Dr. Liu has published and presented on drivers of therapy response and resistance across multiple tumor types and therapies, with a focus on melanoma and immunotherapy.

Dr. Luke specializes in early phase drug development for solid tumors (particularly novel immunotherapeutics and biomarkers of immunotherapy activity) as well as the management of melanoma.  Dr. Luke is one of the foremost international investigators in the realm of immuno-oncology, having led clinical trials of immunotherapies including but not limited to anti-PD1/L1, CTLA4, many secondary checkpoints, bispecific approaches (checkpoint, CD3 and cytokine), metabolism modifiers (IDO, A2Ar/CD73/CD39 and arginase), innate agonists of STING, TLRs and oncolytic virus as well as solid tumor cellular therapies (TCRs and CART). In melanoma, Dr. Luke has designed and led two practice changing trials determining the role of anti-PD1 + CTLA4 after initial anti-PD1 failure (compendium listed in the NCCN) and altering the landscape of melanoma oncology practice across dermatology, surgery and medical oncology via establishment of modern adjuvant therapy with anti-PD1 for node negative stage IIB/C disease (leading to FDA/EMA approval). Dr. Luke has been a major contributor toward the investigation of radiation and the microbiome in relation to cancer immunotherapy.  Dr. Luke’s major translational research focus leverages large scale informatics to advance cancer immunotherapy.  Dr. Luke received his M.D. from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago.  He then pursued internship and residency at the Boston University Medical Center followed by medicine and medical oncology fellowships at Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.  Following fellowship, Dr. Luke was a tenure-track, Type 1 Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School as well as Staff Physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.  Thereafter Dr. Luke was an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. Dr. Luke is currently Senior Editor at Clinical Cancer Research, Section Editor at the Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer and Skin Cancer Section Editor for the American Cancer Society journal Cancer. Dr. Luke is actively involved in several professional societies including SITC (where he sits on the Board of Directors), AACR, ASCO, and the Society for Melanoma Research, having served on the scientific program committees for each.  Dr. Luke leads an R01 funded laboratory, he is co-PI for the Pittsburgh UM1 LAO and is project 3 clinical co-leader of the Pittsburgh Skin Cancer P50 SPORE, in addition to multiple private and state awards. Dr. Luke has received several awards for research and clinical care including the Melanoma Research Foundation Humanitarian Award, Crain’s 40 under 40, DOD Career Development Award, Paul Calabresi Career Development in Clinical Oncology Award (K12), ASCO Merit Award as well as Young Investigator Awards from the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Cancer Research Foundation and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO.

Dr. Maleki has pioneered several phase I clinical trials in Canada that combine fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) plus immunotherapy in melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer, and pancreatic cancer patients.

Dr. Maleki’s academic research focuses on sensitizing hard-to-treat cancers to immunotherapy via tumor vaccine strategies targeting DNA repair pathways in cancer cells or modifying the gut microbiome in the host.

Subsequently, Dr. Naqash completed his sub-specialty clinical training in Hematology/Oncology at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC and a early phase clinical trial fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda in the developmental therapeutics clinic.

As part of the TSET phase 1 program at Stephenson Cancer Center, Dr. Naqash is focusing his interest in drug development and incorporating a genomically driven approach to early phase clinical trials. He is also interested in Lung Cancer, immunotherapy biomarkers , understanding resistance patters to Immunotherapy and immune toxicities. Dr. Naqash has led and collaborated extensively with national and international leaders in the field of immunotherapy. Some of this work has been published in high impact journals such as Journal of Clinical Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Journal of Immunotherapy of Cancer, Clinical Cancer Research among others. Dr. Naqash has been the recipient of several coveted nationally recognized awards, including The ASCO-SITC merit awards, The ASCO merit awards, the ASCO- Young Investigator Award, 40 under 40 in Cancer, and The NCI Directors Award, among several others. Dr. Naqash is an executive member of the SITC Early Career Scientist Committee, the ASCO Trainee and Early Career Council, The ASCO Scientific Committee, IASLC Career Development Committee where he is actively involved in working towards developing educational initiatives for early-career investigators. Dr Naqash also serves as the social media editor for JCO Precision Oncology and is a member of the ASCO Social Media Working group, developing strategies to facilitate outreach for ASCO journals and ASCO meetings on social media platforms.

Her laboratory is centered around understanding how the microbiota and immune system interact and contribute to anti-tumor immunity and immunotherapy. Prior to this position, she published a number of seminal papers, including those published in Cell and Immunity. She is currently a member of the Society of Immunotherapy for Cancer (SITC) Early Career Scientist Committee as well as a member of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Women’s Task Force and PITT-FIT. She is passionate about her science and supporting women and minorities in STEM.

Dr. Posey received his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Chicago, and two Bachelors of Science degrees from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in Biochemistry and Bioinformatics. Dr. Posey was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Carl June during pivotal years of CAR-T cell development and clinical translation. The Posey Laboratory generates novel CAR-T cell therapies targeting tumor-associated glycosylation and investigates strategies to enhance CAR-T cell persistence and overcome tumor-induced immunosuppression.

She then obtained an M.S. in Molecular Oncology from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) and a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the University of Arizona, where she studied the anti- and pro-tumorigenic roles of NRF2 in cancer. Montse joined the editorial team of Cancer Cell in 2018.

From late 2012, he was a Post-doctoral Fellow, and then an Instructor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Center for Cellular immunotherapies (Drs. June and Gill). From 2017 to 2018 he served as Associate Director of Dr. Carl H. June’s laboratory. In 2018, Dr. Ruella was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology and the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies and Scientific Director of the Lymphoma Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ruella was presented with many awards and honors, including the inaugural SITC EMD-Serono Cancer Immunotherapy Clinical Fellowship (2014), the AACR-BMS Oncology Fellowship in Clinical Cancer Research (2015), the ASH Scholar Award (2016), a NIH K99-R00 award (2017), the “Paola Campese” Award Leukemia Research (2017), the Cancer Support Community Award (2018), the 2018 ASH Joanne Levy, MD, Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement, the Gilead Sciences Research Scholar in Hematology/Oncology and the Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation Award (2020), the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Translational Research Program (2021), the Alan Steinrberg Award (2022), an NIH R01/R37 (2022), an NIH P01 (2023) and was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2023. Dr. Ruella is Senior Editor for Molecular Cancer Therapeutics and Associate Editor for JITC. He serves as the inaugural Chair of the SITC Cellular Therapy committee and the Chair of the ASH Scientific Committee on Transplant Biology and Cellular Therapy. Dr. Ruella is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications on targeted immunotherapies for hematological cancers, an inventor in several patents on CART therapy, and the Scientific Founder of viTToria biotherapeutics.

His unique expertise lies in building and leading both R&D and commercial organizations to create value for scientific innovation and business growth.

Previously, Dr. Subbiah held several leadership roles in his 15-year tenure at MD Anderson Cancer Center including Executive director, Medical Oncology Research, MD Anderson Cancer Network as well as Clinical Medical Director, Clinical Center for Targeted Therapy, Division of Cancer Medicine where he oversaw both the outpatient and inpatient clinical care delivery operations for the Phase I program. He served as the Principal Investigator in over 100 Phase I/II trials- and co-PI in over 200 trials. His research interests are patient centric drug development in rare cancers, precision oncology and basket trials. He has led several first-in-human and practice changing clinical trials that have led to US FDA approval, EMA approval and approval in multiple geographies eg. Dabrafenib+ trametinib for anaplastic thyroid cancer, vemurafenib for  erdheim-chester disease, lurbinectedin for small cell lung cancer, selpercatinib and pralsetinib for RET positive non-small cell lung cancer and RET positive thyroid cancer in addition to tissue agnostic approvals for RET + cancer and BRAF+ cancers.  He has published over 350 peer-reviewed in several prestigious journals such as Nature Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Lancet Oncology, Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology and Clinical Cancer Research.  He has an exceptional track record of effectively bringing together multidisciplinary clinical trials teams, early career physician investigators, and physicians in training, all with the shared commitment to bringing novel therapies to patients with cancer. Having trained in both pediatric hematology & oncology as well as adult medical oncology, Dr. Subbiah is uniquely positioned to bring cutting-edge therapeutics across the age continuum from adolescent/young adults (AYAs) to older adults with cancer. He has won numerous awards including Emil Frei III award for Excellence in Translational Research and 2021 Andrew Sabin Family Fellowship. He is the section editor and social media editor for American Cancer Society Journal, Cancer. He is a member of the ESMO Translational Research and Precision Medicine Working Group and in the Annals of Oncology Editorial Board.

At CTEP, she implemented early clinical trials under CRADA with pharmaceutical and bio-venture companies. Prior to joining NCI, she was a faculty member in the Department of Medicine and Pathology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Blood and Stem Cell Transplant Program. As a physician scientist, she conducted clinical trials in the field of hematologic malignancies and stem cell transplantation. She also worked as a laboratory principal investigator (PI) investigating experimental therapeutics for multiple myeloma and stem cell ex vivo expansion. Dr. Takebe received her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Hirosaki University School of Medicine, Japan. She completed internal medicine residency programs in both Japan and the United States training at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, Keio University Hospital in Tokyo, and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She completed both her medical Hematology/Oncology Fellowship in 1997 and a Post-doctoral Fellowship in 1999 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She was a Translational Science PI for the NCI Exceptional Responder Initiative, a NCI co-investigator for NCI-MATCH and Pediatric MATCH, and a member of the NCI Provocative Question team and Cancer Moonshot Initiatives. She presently serves as an Associate Editor for "Current Problems in Cancer" from Elsevier. She was an oversea member for the Immunotherapy Guidance Working Group and JCROS in Japan. She is board certified in Hematology and Medical Oncology.

Dr. Tan conducted his post-doctoral research training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 2004 to 2009. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in 2009 and promoted to Associate Professor in 2013. Dr. Tan was recruited to the Moffitt Cancer Center in 2019 as the Vice-Chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. In 2022, Dr. Tan was appointed as the inaugural Senior Director of Data Science at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah. He holds the Jon M. and Karen Huntsman Endowed Chair in Cancer Data Science, Professor of Oncological Sciences and Biomedical Informatics. His research interests are translational bioinformatics and cancer systems biology, primarily by developing computational and machine learning methods for the analysis and integration of high-throughput cancer "omics" data in understanding and overcoming treatment resistance mechanisms in cancer. His lab acts as "connector" to provide seamless integration of computational and statistical methods in experimental and clinical cancer research.

He has served as Co-chair of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Immune Response Working Group and now serves as Chair of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Translational Bioinformatics Committee. His research focuses on immunogenomics applications for personalized immunotherapy, including identification of tumor antigens and discovery of mechanisms of response versus resistance to antigen-directed immunotherapies.

Dr. Betof completed her MD and PhD at Duke University, Internal Medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard University) and Medical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Betof’s laboratory focuses on understanding resistance to immune checkpoint blockade and cellular therapies for melanoma and other solid tumors. She is the Principal Investigator of clinical trials exploring novel treatments for immunotherapy-refractory melanoma and is internationally recognized for her expertise in brain/CNS metastasis and the use of novel cellular therapies. Dr. Betof has been a pioneer in the use of commercial tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy for the treatment of solid tumors. She has received funding and awards for her clinical and translational investigative work from multiple high-profile organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Melanoma Research Foundation.

For the past 5 years, she has been based in the greater Boston area, where she has worked in marketing and commercial roles at several life sciences vendors including Addgene and Taconic Biosciences. She currently works as a Sr. Marketing Programs Manager at Fortis Life Sciences, which partners with diagnostics and life sciences companies to design, validate, and manufacture solutions to solve their complex development problems. Aliyah supports the Life Sciences division at Fortis, focusing on growing the antibody manufacturing and therapeutic R&D businesses.

Dr. Wherry received his PhD at Thomas Jefferson University in 2000 and performed postdoctoral research at Emory University from 2000-2004. Dr. Wherry has received numerous honors including the Distinguished Alumni award from the Thomas Jefferson University, the Cancer Research. Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and was inducted as an AAAS Fellow in 2021. As of November 2022, Dr. Wherry has over 300 publications, an H-Index of 126, and his publications have been cited over 86,000 times.

Dr. Wherry helped pioneer the field of T cell exhaustion, the mechanisms by which T cell responses are attenuated during chronic infections and cancer. He helped identify the role of the “checkpoint” molecule PD-1 and others for reinvigoration of exhausted T cells in cancer. Dr. Wherry’s work has defined the underlying molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of exhausted T cells. His laboratory has also recently focused on applying systems immunology approaches to define Immune Health patients across a spectrum of diseases. In 2020-2021, Dr. Wherry’s laboratory focused considerable efforts on the immunology of COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination including establishing a new Immune Health Project to interrogate and use immune features to identify novel treatment opportunities.