Victor Velculescu

Biography
Dr. Velculescu led the first genome wide sequence analysis in human cancers, identifying key genes and pathways dysregulated in tumorigenesis. He developed methods for global gene expression analyses and coined the word transcriptome" to describe the patterns that could now be obtained in cancer and other cells. These analyses identified a variety of genes not previously known to be involved in neoplasia, including PIK3CA as one of the most highly mutated genes in human cancer. His team's discoveries have led to new FDA approved therapies against PI3K and IDH1, and diagnostic tests for comprehensive tumor profiling. More recently, his group has created noninvasive machine learning liquid biopsy approaches for early detection and monitoring of cancer patients. His work has provided new paradigms for understanding human cancer that have benefited patients worldwide. He has been a Founder and CoCEO of Personal Genome Diagnostics and is Founder and CEO of Delfi Diagnostics.

Antoni Ribas

Biography
Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, is professor of medicine, surgery, and molecular and medical pharmacology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC). Ribas is a physician-scientist conducting laboratory and clinical translational research in how melanoma responds or resists to cancer immunotherapies, and developing gene engineered adoptive cell transfer therapies. He has been instrumental in the clinical development of several agents approved by the FDA, including the first anti-PD-1 pembrolizumab (Keytruda), the anti-CTLA-4 tremelimumab (Imjudo), as well as two combinations of BRAF and MEK inhibitors, vemurafenib (Zelboraf) and cobimetinib (Cotellic), and dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist). He is a past president of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), an elected Fellow of the AACR Academy, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the US National Academy of Medicine.

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How melanoma became a treatable cancer
Advanced melanoma used to be an untreatable cancer, resistant to all types of cancer therapy. With the improved understanding of how to target driver oncogenes and how to release the immune checkpoints, now half of the patients go onto live a normal life.

John Halamka

Biography
For over 40 years, John D. Halamka, M.D., M.S., has been dedicated to the technology and policy that enable information exchange among clinical, educational and administrative stakeholders. In particular, Dr. Halamka is focused on bringing people together for multidisciplinary collaboration and career development at all levels. He works across government, academia and industry to form consortia that accelerate progress in informatics and patient care. As Dwight and Dian Diercks President of the Mayo Clinic Platform, Dr. Halamka is currently collaborating with Young J. Juhn, M.D., M.P.H., on research addressing algorithmic bias. This work has profound implications for artificial intelligence (AI) research and health equity and is a high priority of the Mayo Clinic Platform and Mayo Clinic as a whole. Dr. Halamka also is dedicated to educating the next generation of health care technology professionals. His expertise has given him the opportunity to teach extraordinarily diverse audiences, ranging from medical students to international policymakers. Before transitioning to Mayo Clinic, he served as a professor at Harvard Medical School for 25 years. Dr. Halamka's research and clinical background, combined with his passion for teaching, have enabled him to implement innovative technologies in local, regional, national and international settings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as co-leader of the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition and the national convalescent plasma effort, The Fight Is In Us. He also was an active participant in Harvard's Clinical and Translational Science Awards program and was the co-principal investigator of Harvard's i2b2 project and Harvard Catalyst efforts.

Keith Flaherty

Biography
As described in the more than 300 peer reviewed primary research reports he has authored or co-authored, Dr. Flaherty and colleagues made several seminal observations that have defined the treatment of melanoma when they established the efficacy of BRAF, MEK and combined BRAF/MEK inhibition in patients with metastatic melanoma. He was the principal investigator of the NCI MATCH trial, the first NCI-sponsored trial assigning patients to targeted therapy independent of tumor type on the basis of DNA sequencing detection of oncogenes. Dr. Flaherty was elected President of AACR in 2025. Dr. Flaherty co-founded Loxo Oncology in 2013 and Scorpion Therapeutics in 2020, serving on the board of directors through the acquisitions of both by Eli Lilly in 2019 and 2025. He co-founded X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XFOR), privately held Strata Oncology (2015), Apricity Oncology (2017), Gyges Oncology (2020), Khora Therapeutics (2024), and Monimoi Therapeutics (2025).

Elad Sharon

Biography
Elad Sharon, MD, MPH, is a medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he is the Clinical and Translational Director of the Immunotherapy Toxicity Program and a Member of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. From 2011 through August 2023, Dr. Sharon served as a senior investigator in the Investigational Drug Branch of the NCI Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP). In that role, he worked with academic and industry colleagues to develop promising new cancer therapies. His portfolio included antibody-drug conjugates, immune checkpoint inhibitors and other agents. He also served as an attending physician in NCI Developmental Therapeutics Clinic. As part of his work in immunotherapy drug development, he has made a major effort to advance the understanding of immune-related adverse events, including the establishment of the Alliance-NIH irAE Biorepository, for which he continues to be the Medical Oncology Chair. In addition, Dr. Sharon is the Co-Principal Investigator of the AIM-NIVO trial, evaluating the use of nivolumab for patients with pre-existing autoimmune disease. From 2017 through 2023, Dr. Sharon served as the Co-Chair of the NCI Cancer Moonshot’s Adult Immunotherapy Implementation Team, through which oversaw the Immuno-Oncology Translational Network to help the NCI accelerate cancer care innovation. While working for the NCI CTEP, Dr. Sharon assisted in the review, approval, management, and analysis of hundreds of clinical trials conducted within the NCI’s academic and community oncology networks, including trials within the ETCTN, SWOG, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, NRG, the Children’s Oncology Group, and ECOG-ACRIN. In addition, Dr. Sharon oversaw several trials leading to FDA approvals, including two rare cancer trials whose results led to the approval of atezolizumab for advanced Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma and pembrolizumab for Merkel Cell Cancer. Dr. Sharon has had interactions with dozens of pharmaceutical companies, hundreds of academic sites, as well as years of formal interactions with the FDA on behalf of the NCI. Further, he has worked with several providers of data to evaluate real world evidence for use in drug development and patient safety analyses, through collaborations with the FDA, Friends of Cancer Research, and other stakeholders in the field. In his new role, Dr. Sharon is seeking to develop innovative clinical trials to better understand the side effects associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors and other immunotherapy agents. He has been a national leader in this emerging field, conducting clinical and translational research for the NCI and DFCI, with impactful papers elucidating a mechanistic understanding of immune-related Adverse Events (irAEs) and their effect on overall patient well-being. To this end, he is now the Medical Oncology Co-Chair of the Alliance Immuno-Oncology Toxicity (IOTOX) Working Group. His efforts in immunotherapy drug development are also continuing, both at DFCI and nationally through the NCI-funded National Clinical Trials Network. Dr. Sharon received his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas in 2003. He completed his internal medicine residency at Emory University in 2006 and his Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at the NIH in 2011. He obtained a Master of Public Health degree at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2009.

Mark Stewart

Biography
Mark Stewart works at Friends of Cancer Research, a Washington, DCbased organization that brings together partners across healthcare to drive advances in science, policy, and regulation that accelerate the development of cancer therapies and diagnostics. At Friends, he leads collaborative projects that create frameworks for incorporating novel clinical trial endpoints, advancing ctDNA and liquid biopsy applications, integrating real-world evidence, and applying innovative designs to make trials more efficient and representative. His work also explores emerging technologies such as AI-based tools to enhance oncology drug development, clinical trial design, and data interpretation. Through multi-stakeholder partnerships with regulators, academia, industry, and patient groups, he helps develop consensus-driven solutions that overcome barriers in drug development. These efforts have informed national policy discussions, contributed to regulatory innovation, and translated promising innovations into meaningful progress for people with cancer.

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Trevor Bivona

Biography
Professor

Vivek Subbiah

Biography
Vivek Subbiah, MD, joined Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI) in 2023, and serves as chief, Early-Phase Drug Development. In his role, Dr. Subbiah oversees SCRI's nine drug development units and leads the expansion of early-phase capabilities and programs across SCRI's growing research network. Dr. Vivek Subbiah comes to SCRI from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center where he was an associate professor in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics. During his near 15-year tenure there, Dr. Vivek Subbiah held several leadership roles including Executive Director, Medical Oncology Research, MD Anderson Cancer Network as well as Clinical Medical Director, Division of Cancer Medicine where he oversaw both the outpatient and inpatient clinical care delivery operations for the Phase I program. Dr. Vivek Subbiah has served as the principal investigator in over 100 phase III trials and co-investigator in over 200 clinical trials.

Javad Shahidi

Biography
Javad Shahidi is currently Senior Vice President - Head of Biotech Unit and Development Innovation at BeOne Medicines. Over the past two decades Javad’s career has been dedicated to cancer research in both academia and industry. He has held increasing responsibilities in oncology clinical development and has led the clinical development and regulatory submissions of multiple oncology compounds leading to their global approvals across several indications. He has particular interest in designing innovative, large-scale, and efficient drug development capabilities in order to deliver more impactful drugs to more patients around the world faster.

Jens Juul Holst

Biography