Speaker Profile
M.D., FACS, Associate Professor, Harvard
Biography
Daniel Faden, MD, FACS, is a head and neck cancer surgeon-scientist who leads an NIH-funded research program focused on leveraging next-generation molecular diagnostics to develop and apply liquid biopsy technologies for early cancer detection, minimal residual disease monitoring, and precision surveillance. He is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School where he is Principal Investigator in the Mike Toth Head and Neck Cancer Center, an attending surgeon in the Division of Head and Neck Surgical Oncology at Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, and an Associate Scientist at the Broad Institute. His laboratory has a particular emphasis on HPV-associated cancers, where his team has pioneered HPV whole-genome sequencing assays to enable earlier diagnosis and more informed patient management. His work has helped shape modern approaches to HPV cancer care.
Session Abstract – PMWC 2027 Silicon Valley
Track Chair:
Victor Velculescu, Johns Hopkins
PMWC Award Ceremony
• Rebecca Fitzgerald, University of Cambridge (Luminary)
• Mary-Claire King, University of Washington (Pioneer)
• Nickolas Papadopoulos, Johns Hopkins (Pioneer)
Featured Speakers
• Mary-Claire King, University of Washington
• Rebecca Fitzgerald, University of Cambridge
• Nickolas Papadopoulos, Johns Hopkins
• Victor Velculescu, Johns Hopkins
• Phil Castle, NIH
• Elad Ziv, UCSF
• Ash Alizadeh, Stanford
• Hamed Amini, Hepta
• Becky Taub, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals
• Trevor Pugh, University of Toronto
• Doga Gulhan, Harvard
• Pranav Rajpurkar, Harvard
• Chris Douville, Johns Hopkins
• Sylvia Katina Plevritis, UCSF
In Precision Medicine, Almost All Diseases Are Genetically Rare
A genetics-first keynote framing risk, prevention, and actionability.
The Reckoning
What the first wave of early detection got right and wrong.
The End of One Size Fits All
Risk-stratified screening, high-risk populations, and single-cancer tests.
Treating Disease at the Earliest Stage
Where detection and therapeutic interception begin to converge.
Pre-Cancer Detection & the Liver Disease Frontier
cfDNA and clinical action across the liver-disease-to-cancer continuum.
AI Across Multimodal Signals
Fragmentomics, methylation, imaging, pathology, and integration: hype versus real science.
PMWC Hall of Impact
Previous Speakers Include
Nobel laureates, technology founders, regulators, CEOs and scientific pioneers who have taken the PMWC stage.
