Speakers

In alphabetical order

 

 

Sarat Chandarlapaty, MD, PhD

Medical oncologist, Department of Medicine - Memorial-Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York (NY, USA)

Sarat Chandarlapaty investigates the role of growth factor signaling in breast cancer. His group has also recently reported on estrogen receptor mutations in breast cancer patients and their potential role in resistance. 

 

 

Suzanne Conzen, MD

Professor, Department of Medicine, Section of Hematology/Oncology - University of Chicago (IL, USA)

Suzanne Conzen has identified the glucocorticoid receptor as a novel hormone-mediated driver of breast cancer. Advancing targeted therapies against this receptor will provide a new molecular target in ‘triple negative’ breast cancer, which does not express the targets of current therapies.

 

 

Scott Dehm, PhD 

Assistant professor, Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and Masonic Cancer Center - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (USA)

Scott Dehm completed his PhD in 2003 at the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada with Dr. Keith Bonham.  He conducted postdoctoral training at Mayo Clinic with Dr. Donald Tindall.from 2003-2008.  Scott is currently a Masonic Scholar and a Philip G. Semmer Scholar at the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota.  His main interest is in transcriptional regulation of the androgen receptor (AR) and mechanisms by which prostate cancer cells develop resistance to therapies targeting the androgen/AR axis.  His research has been funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, US Department of Defense Research Program, American Cancer Society, and the National Cancer Institute.   

 

 

Patricia Elizalde, PhD

Laboratory of Molecular Mechanisms of Carcinogenesis - Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine (IBYME), Buenos Aires (Brasil)

Patricia Elizalde has described novel interactions between progesterone receptor and HER2, which mediate resistance to endocrine therapy in breast cancer. She has also characterized kinase cascades that modulate the activity of nuclear hormone receptors. 

 

 

Matthew Ellis, MD, PhD

Adjunct Professor, Department of Medicine, Oncology Division - Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis (MO, USA)

Matt Ellis has led the development of neoadjuvant strategies for the treatment of breast cancer patients. His group recently identified estrogen receptor mutations in breast cancer patient tumors after endocrine therapy, which may be responsible for resistance. 

 

 

Lori Friedman, PhD

Senior Director, Translational Oncology - Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco (CA, USA)

Lori Friedman was trained in Molecular and Cell Biology, earning her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1995, and completing postdoctoral research at Cambridge University UK in 1998. Lori joined the biotech company Exelixis as a research scientist, where she lead multiple oncology projects and advanced to become Director of Signal Transduction Research. In 2004 Lori joined Genentech where she continued to focus on targeting key cancer pathways. She was attracted to Genentech because of the palpable commitment to helping patients by drawing on scientific insights. She is Senior Director of the Translational Oncology department, whose research includes validation of new oncology targets, understanding mechanism of action and mechanism of resistance of compounds, in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, and using preclinical cancer models to predict which patients will benefit from new agents. In addition to her research, Lori also leads the Genentech Women in Science and Engineering (gWISE) core team, and was honored with the Healthcare Business Women "Rising Star Award" in 2014. She has published 77 peer-reviewed manuscripts and is an inventor on 20 issued patents. Lori Friedman develops and validates therapeutic targets in the pharmaceutical industry. Her group investigates the mechanism and pharmacology of candidate agents, and works to identify predictive biomarkers of response to therapy for patients.

 

 

Ingunn Holen

Professor of Bone Oncology, Head of Laboratory Research, Academic Unit of Clinical Oncology, University of Sheffield (UK)

Professor Holen completed her PhD at the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Radium Hospital, and joined the University of Sheffield, UK, in 1995.  In 2001 she was appointed Lecturer in Bone Oncology in the Academic Unit of Clinical Oncology, with responsibility for establishing and developing a laboratory research program for the studies of therapeutic approaches in advanced breast cancer and bone metastasis. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2005, and appointed as Professor in Bone Oncology in 2014. She is currently chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Breast Cancer Campaign, is a member of the Executive of the British Association of Cancer Research and serves on a number of editorial boards of international scientific journals. 

Research in the Holen team is focussed on therapeutic approaches to advanced breast and prostate cancer, in particular how combining new and existing drugs can reduce tumour growth in bone. Working in collaboration with colleagues both within the University and abroad, her team has studied the effects of combining chemotherapy agents (targeting the tumour cells) with bisphosphonates (targeting the bone microenvironment). Prof Holen has established range of in vitro and complex in vivo models for studies of tumour growth in bone that have been utilised in numerous studies published in prestigious international journals. Other research areas include the anti-angiogenic effects of combination therapy, and determining the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in cancer-induced bone disease in breast and prostate cancer. Recently the team has focussed on studies of the very early steps in bone metastasis, in particular on characterising how tumour cell dormancy is affected by alterations to the bone microenvironment. 

The research lead by Prof Holen is funded by a number of local and national funding bodies, including Cancer Research UK, Weston Park Hospital Research Charity, NC3R, Breast Cancer Campaign and the MRC, as well as by the pharmaceutical industry and the EU.  

 

 

Naomi Laing, PhD

Naomi Laing leads translational research and drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. She directs efforts to develop novel therapies, and to identify biomarkers that will predict patient response to current and novel endocrine therapies. 

 

 

X. Shirley Liu, PhD

Director of Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston (USA)

Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology - Harvard School of Public Health, Boston (USA)

X. Shirley Liu received PhD in Biomedical Informatics and PhD minor in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2002 and became assistant professor at the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School of Public Health in 2003. Her research focuses on algorithm development and integrative modelling of high throughput genomic data to understand the specificity and function of gene expression regulators in tumor development, progression, drug response and resistance. In computational biology, her laboratory developed widely used algorithms for transcription factor motif finding, ChIP-chip/seq and DNase-seq data analysis. In epigenetics, she and colleagues identified the chromatin signature of embryonic pluripotency and were the pioneers to use the dynamics of nucleosomes and DNase hypersensitivity to predict driving transcription factors and their genome-wide binding in a biological process. In cancer biology, she and colleagues identified novel functions of ESR1, AR, FOXA1, EZH2, and NOTCH1 in various cancers. Liu received the Sloan Research Fellowship in 2008, and was named a Yangtze River Scholar and 1000 Talent Scholar in China in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

 

 

Donald McDonnell, PhD

Professor, Departmetn of Molecular Cancer Biology - Duke University School of Medicine

Chairman, Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology - Duke University School of Medicine

Donald P. McDonnell, Ph.D., is the Glaxo-Wellcome Professor of Molecular Cancer Biology and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine.  In addition, he serves as Co-Director of the Women’s Cancer Program within the Duke Cancer Institute. 

Dr. McDonnell obtained a Degree in Biochemistry from the National University of Ireland (Galway) in 1983.  He then moved to Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, where in 1988, he obtained a PhD under the mentorship of Dr. Bert O’Malley. He subsequently held positions at Smith-Kline Pharmaceuticals (Post Doc), Baylor College of Medicine (Assistant Professor) and Ligand Pharmaceuticals (Director of Molecular Biology).  In 1994, he moved to Duke where his work has focused on the genetic and pharmacological dissection of the nuclear receptor signal transduction pathways and the development of clinically useful estrogen and androgen receptor modulators. 

 

 

Senthil Muthuswamy, PhD

Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto (Ontario, Canada)

Senthil Muthuswamy investigates the function of tissue architecture and cellular polarity in regulating tumor cell biology. Work from his group has established a role for proteins regulating polarity in tumorigenesis, and as putative therapeutic targets.

 

 

Carlo Palmieri, MBBS, PhD

Professor of Translational Oncology, University of Liverpool and Consultant Medical Oncologist, Clatterbridge Cancer Centre (UK)

Carlo graduated in anatomy and medicine from the University of London, UK and undertook a PhD at Imperial College London. He has been a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist, and has previously been a senior lecturer within the department of Cancer at Imperial College London. Carlo’s academic and clinical interest is in breast cancer, and his laboratory research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms that determine sensitivity/resistance to endocrine therapy in breast cancer.

He is actively involved in developing and initiating translational and clinical research trials in the area of breast cancer. Currently, he is the chief investigator of two clinical trials which are investigating the efficacy of a novel endocrine therapy. He previously successfully co-developed and ran a translational neoadjuvant study which compared chemotherapy versus endocrine therapy, and was involved in developing and running the pathology sub-protocol (path-IES) of the Intergroup Exemestane Study. He is a member of the International Cancer Collaborative Group (ICCG), and sits on the National Cancer Research Institute Breast Clinical Study Group In the UK.

 

 

Kornelia Polyack, MD, PhD

Professor, Department of Medicine - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston (MA, USA)

Kornelia Polyak obtained her M.D. degree in 1991 from the Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School in Szeged Hungary and her Ph.D. degree in 1995 from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences/Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York working with Prof. Joan Massague. She conducted her postdoctoral work with Prof. Bert Vogelstein and Kenneth Kinzler at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Baltimore, MD from 1995-1998. Dr. Polyak is currently Professor of Medicine leading a breast cancer research laboratory at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School. Research in Dr. Polyak’s laboratory is dedicated to the molecular analysis of human breast cancer with the goal of identifying differences between normal and cancerous breast tissue, determine their consequences, and use this information to improve the clinical management of breast cancer patients. Dr. Polyak have received numerous awards including the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research in 2011 and the 2012 AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research.

 

 

Sohrab Shah, PhD

Assistant professor, Departments of Pathology and Computer Science - University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada)

Sohrab Shah has performed pioneering work in using computational genomics to profile cancer driver mutations and tumor evolution in breast and ovarian cancer. His laboratory has also utilized novel algorithms to quantify intratumor heterogeneity and explore its role in response to therapy. 

 

 

Alex Swarbrick, PhD

Laboratory Head - Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney (Australia)

Co-Lead, Translational Breast Oncology Program, The Kinghorn Cancer Centre & Conjoint Senior Lecturer, University of NSW, Sydney (Australia)

Alex obtained his PhD in 2003 from the University of NSW. He undertook postdoctoral training with Nobel laureate J. Michael Bishop at the University of California, San Francisco from 2003-2007. Alex is a Laboratory Head in the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and co-Heads the Breast Translational Oncology Program in the Kinghorn Cancer Centre. He is a fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia. His lab investigates gene regulatory networks in breast and prostate cancer and their impact on cellular heterogeneity, chemoresistance and metastasis. He has specific interests in the Inhibitors of differentiation (ID) transcription factors, MicroRNAs and hedgehog signalling. Alex leads a national collaborative program to develop and sequence PDX models of metastatic breast cancer.

 

 

Christopher J Sweeney, MBBS

Associate professor, Department of Medicine - Harvard Medical School (Boston)

Medical oncologist, Department of Medical Oncology - Dana Farber Institute (Boston)

Christopher J. Sweeney, received his medical degree from the University of Adelaide, South Australia in 1992, and completed an internship at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. From 1994 to 1997, Dr. Sweeney was an Internal Medicine resident at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, La Crosse, Wisconsin, and from 1997 to 2000, he was a Fellow in Hematology/Oncology at Indiana University Medical Center.  Dr. Sweeney is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Medical Oncology. He has held faculty appointments at Indiana University and Royal Adelaide Hospital.  In 2009 he joined the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and in 2012 became Clinical Director. He is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, Alliance and American Association for Cancer Research. Dr. Sweeney has served as the Associate Director for Clinical Research for the NCI-designated, Indiana University Simon Cancer Center and Co-Leader of the Experimental Developmental Therapeutics Program, and Chairman of the Hoosier Oncology Group from 2005 to 2007.  Dr. Sweeney has served on the Program Committee and the Cancer Education Committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and has been on the Editorial Board for ASCOs “Journal of Clinical Oncology”. He has received peer reviewed funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense and PhRMA. He has also served on the Scientific Advisory Boards of biotech companies both in Australia and USA. His research has focused on drug development and identifying markers of response to therapy with a focus on prostate cancer.

 

 

Renea Taylor, PhD

Renea Taylor investigates the role of tumor stem cells in the development of therapy resistance. Additionally, her laboratory works to understand the biology of tumor-associated stromal cells in facilitating the development of resistance.

 

 

Scott Tomlins, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pathology and Urology - University of Michigan Medical School, Michigan (US)

Scott A. Tomlins, M.D., Ph.D., obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS). His thesis, completed under the mentorship of Arul Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., described the identification and characterization of recurrent ETS gene fusions in prostate cancer. He completed residency in Anatomic Pathology at the University of Michigan Health System in June 2012 and is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and Urology, and a member of the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology (MCTP) at UMMS. He is an active member of the diagnostic Genitourinary Pathology service and has co-authored over 100 manuscripts, focusing on the integrative analysis, functional characterization and clinical translation of prostate cancer genomics. In addition, he signs out the urine based, prostate cancer early detection test (MiPS) through the MCTP’s clinical lab. He led the first exome sequencing based study of castration resistant prostate cancer and is developing broadly applicable personalized medicine approaches to prostate cancer early detection, prognosis and treatment of advanced disease. In 2013, in recognition of his work in the molecular pathology of prostate cancer, he was awarded the inaugural AAAS Martin and Rose Wachtel Cancer Research Award for Young Investigators 

 

 

Valerie Weaver, PhD

Professor, Departments of Surgery and Anatomy - Universality of California, San Francisco, CA (US)

Director for the Center for Bioengineering & Tissue Regeneration, Department of Surgery and UCSF

Associate Adjunct Associate Professor for the department of Bioengineering - UPenn, Philadelphia, PA

Valerie Weaver's group is exploring the molecular mechanisms whereby these extracellular matrix receptors modulate cell fate. Studies focus on understanding how matrix composition and organization influences mammary tissue development and tumor progression, and the role of matrix force on embryonic and adult stem cell fate.

 

Alana Welm, PhD

Chair, Department of Biomedical Research - Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (Oklahoma City, US) 

Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Cell Biology - University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (Oklahoma City, US)

Dr. Welm completed her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX under the supervision of Gretchen Darlington, PhD. She then went on to conduct postdoctoral training in Dr. J. Michael Bishop’s laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco where her work focused on developing new models of breast cancer metastasis. Dr. Welm started her own laboratory as an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute in 2007, and was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in 2013. In 2014, Dr. Welm relocated her laboratory to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) in Oklahoma City, for the opportunity to extend her lab findings to clinical trials. She holds the Scott Zarrow Chair of Biomedical Research at OMRF and is an Associate Member of the Immunobiology and Cancer Program. She is also a member of the Stephenson Cancer Center and an adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

The research in Dr. Welm’s laboratory is focused on solvi ng the problem of breast cancer metastasis using complementary in vitro and in vivo approaches. Dr. Welm’s group discovered that the Ron kinase pathway is an important facilitator of breast cancer metastasis through its unique dual function in tumor cells and in suppressing the host immune system. Current areas of research include:

1. Pre-clinical studies of Ron inhibitors for treatment and prevention of metastatic breast cancer

2. Discovering mechanisms by which Ron kinases promote metastasis

3. Determining how Ron signaling causes breast cancer metastasis to particular organ sites

4. Refining “precision medicine” for metastatic breast cancer: Developing assays for improved prediction of prognosis and determination of most effective drugs for breast cancer patients using patient-derived breast tumor grafts.