Marcela Maus

Biography

Charles Swanton

Biography

Phil Febbo

Biography
Dr. Phil Febbo is Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at Veracyte, a global cancer diagnostics company where he remains focused on improving cancer outcomes through discovery, development, and accessibility of innovative, high-quality molecular diagnostics. He held multiple clinical and scientific roles over 15 years in academia at Dana-Farber, Harvard Medical School, the Whitehead Institute for Genome Research, Duke University, and UCSF where he was Professor of Medicine and Urology. After transitioning to industry, he was Chief Medical Officer at Genomic Health (2013-2018) and Illumina (2018-2023). Dr. Febbo served on the boards of Varian Inc. (Director) and the A CMG Foundation and is currently on the boards of the Reagan Udall Foundation for the FDA (Vice-Chair) and ASC Os Conquer Cancer Foundation. He holds a B. A. in Biology from Dartmouth College, an M. D. from UCSF, completed internal medicine residency at the Brigham and Womens Hospital, and medical oncology fellowship at the DFCI.

Maximilian Diehn

Biography
Maximilian Diehn received his Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College and his M.D./Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford University. He is a board certified Radiation Oncologist and specializes in the treatment of lung cancers. Dr. Diehn’s current research program spans laboratory, translational, and clinical studies. His areas of interest include cancer genomics, stem cell biology, and lung cancer biology. His work has been recognized with a variety of awards, including the V Foundation Scholar Award, the Sidney Kimmel Scholar Award, the Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award, and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. His group has developed an ultra sensitive and specific method for detection of circulating tumor DNA called CAPP-Seq. Current work is focused on applying CAPP-Seq to a range of clinical contexts, with an emphasis on tumor heterogeneity and minimal residual disease.

Sarah-Jane Dawson

Biography
Professor Sarah-Jane Dawson is a clinician-scientist. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Melbourne in 1998, and trained as a medical oncologist in Melbourne, Australia. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK. Following postdoctoral studies at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, she returned to Melbourne in 2014 to head the Molecular Biomarkers and Translational Genomics Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She also holds a joint appointment with the Centre of Cancer Research at The University of Melbourne (since 2016) and currently holds a CSL Centenary Fellowship (2018-2022). She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and was recipient of the Jian Zhou Medal in recognition of translational medical science in 2020. Her current research interests are focused on the development of noninvasive blood-based biomarkers ('liquid biopsies') for clinical application, including early detection, risk stratification and disease monitoring in cancer management.

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Talk
CtDNA for precision medicine: Going beyond the cancer genome
Cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has proven to be an important biomarker for monitoring adaptive changes to cancer therapies. I will provide an overview of ctDNA approaches that are providing an opportunity to track both genomic evolution and transcriptional changes in real-time to improve our understanding of the mechanisms leading to molecular resistance in cancer.

Aadel A. Chaudhuri

Biography

Ash Alizadeh

Biography
Ash A. Alizadeh, MD, PhD is the Moghadam Family Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and a practicing hematooncologist and physician-scientist in the Division of Oncology, leading the Cancer Genomics program for the Stanford Cancer Institute. His research focuses on the development of data-driven approaches to better understand cancer biology, improve diagnostics, and personalize therapies. Dr. Alizadeh is a recognized leader in computational methods for cancer biology and oncology translational research, contributing extensively to the advancement of precision medicine. His group has contributed to the development of several commonly used liquid biopsy techniques for cancer detection and monitoring (including CAPP-Seq, PhasED-Seq, RARE-Seq, EPIC-Seq), as well as methods for tumor immune profiling (including CIBERSORT and EcoTyper).

Chris Hourigan

Biography
Christopher S. Hourigan, DM, DPhil, FRCP, is a physician-scientist oncologist focused on measurable residual disease (MRD) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). He chairs the nationwide “MEASURE” clinical protocol (NCT05224661), co-leads the FNIH-FDA-NCI-Academic-Industry Biomarkers Consortium for AML MRD, and is incoming chair of the European LeukemiaNet AML MRD international clinical standard of care guidelines. Professor Hourigan trained at Oxford, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard Business School. Previously co-director of the Myeloid Malignancies Program, tenured Senior Investigator, and Chief of the Laboratory of Myeloid Malignancies at the National Institutes of Health. He served many years on the acute leukemia inpatient service at Johns Hopkins, and is currently founding director of the new Virginia Tech FBRI Cancer Research Center in Washington, DC. Elected to Alpha Omega Alpha, American Society for Clinical Investigation; Fellowship of the American and Royal College of Physicians and awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

C. Ola Landgren

Biography
Dr. C. Ola Landgren is a board-certified hematologist-oncologist and he has published more than 500 papers and chapter books with a primary focus on multiple myeloma and its precursor disease. Dr. Landgren's research focuses on mechanisms underlying progression from precursor disease to frank malignancy, underlying mechanisms of disease response/resistance, role of MRD (minimal residual disease) negativity, identification of novel treatment targets, early drug development, and identification of novel biomarkers. His research focus also includes advanced AI based medical tools, and by integrating his translational research efforts he is developing tools for diagnosis, individualized prognosis, and treatment optimization. Prior to joining University of Miami, he served as Chief of the Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and prior to that he was the Chief of the Multiple Myeloma Section at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD.

Gavin Ha

Biography
Dr. Gavin Ha is a computational biologist who studies the role of genomic alterations in cancer. He and his research team focus on developing and applying computational methods to profile cancer genomes from patient tumors and blood. His laboratory develops novel approaches to study cell-free DNA released from tumor cells into the blood (also known as circulating tumor DNA). The use of this approach, called “liquid biopsies,” combined with insights from tumor genome analysis, will be critical to uncover causes of treatment resistance, discover novel genetic biomarkers from the blood, and develop non-invasive applications for cancer precision medicine. We are actively engaging in collaborations with members of Fred Hutch and UW Medicine to study various types of tumors, including prostate, breast, lung or other cancers.

Janet Jin

Biography
Dr. Janet Jin is an accomplished leader in precision medicine with nearly 20 years of experience across the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries. She leads a global multidisciplinary organization focused on advancing biomarker-driven drug development, with expertise spanning clinical diagnostics, imaging, translational pathology, and computational biology across therapeutic areas. Dr. Jin provides strategic leadership in the development and execution of patient selection, pharmacodynamic, and target engagement biomarker strategies, reverse translation, and the integration of innovative biomarker technology platforms to accelerate drug development and enhance clinical decision-making. She collaborates across cross-functional teams and external partnerships to ensure precision medicine strategies are effectively implemented and aligned with global regulatory requirements. Earlier in her career, Dr. Jin led oncology assay development efforts advancing next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based liquid biopsy platforms for biomarker discovery and minimal residual disease assessment, contributing to the broader adoption of liquid biopsy technologies and their application in precision oncology.

AI and Data Sciences Showcase:
AtaraxisAI

Valsamo Anagnostou

Biography