Speaker Profile
Ph.D., American Cancer Society Professor of Genome Sciences and of Medical Genetics, U. of Washington School of Medicine
Biography
Mary-Claire King is a pioneering human geneticist best known for proving that breast and ovarian cancer can be inherited. In 1990, Dr. King and her team discovered the BRCA1 gene, which is responsible for a significant proportion of inherited breast and ovarian cancer cases. The finding came after roughly 17 years of research against prevailing scientific opinion, and it transformed cancer diagnosis, risk assessment, drug development, and prevention. Earlier, her doctoral work demonstrated through comparative protein analysis that chimpanzees and humans are 99 percent genetically identical. She also pioneered the use of DNA sequencing for human rights investigations, applying it to identify kidnapped children in Argentina and cases of human rights violations on six continents. Her current work spans inherited breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer; schizophrenia; and severe inherited disorders in children. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.
Session Abstract – PMWC 2027 Silicon Valley
Track Chair:
Victor Velculescu, Johns Hopkins University
PMWC Award Ceremony
• Daniel De Carvalho, University of Toronto
From Mutation to Methylation: The Next Wave of Liquid Biopsy Biomarkers
• Chair: Victor Velculescu, Johns Hopkins University
• Daniel De Carvalho, University of Toronto
• Stephen Master, CHOP/U Penn
• Gordon Sanghera, Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Advancing Minimal Residual Disease Detection Through cfDNA & cfRNA Profiling
• Chair: Luis Diaz, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Anne-Renee Hartman, Adela
• Minetta Liu, Natera
• Rita Shaknovich, Agilent
• Ajay Gannerkote, Integrated DNA Tech
AI-Informed Biomarker Trials: Turning Early Signals into Actionable Designs
• Chair: Manish Kohli, University of Utah
• Eric Klein, GRAIL
• Sarah Moseley, DELFI Diagnostics
• Samuel Levy, ClearNote Health
Role of AI in Liquid Biopsies & Cancer Detection
• Chair: Amoolya Singh, DELFI Diagnostics
• Ron Andrews, Dxcover
• Pankaj Vats, NVIDIA
• Paul Shi, Amgen
• Christopher Troll, Claret Bioscience
Integrating Genetic Risk with Early Detection: A Precision Prevention Framework for Cardiovascular Disease
• Paolo Di Domenico, Allelica
AI-Driven Metagenomic and Host RNA Profiling for Precision Diagnosis of Infections
• Charles Chiu, UCSF
AI-Driven Host–Pathogen Signatures from Plasma cfDNA: Bridging Infection Biology and Early Diagnostics
• Sivan Bercovici, Karius
Ultra-Sensitive Multimodal Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Detection: AI-Driven Signal Profiling
• John Sninsky, CellMax Life
Overcoming Limits of Traditional cfDNA Assays Using Active Chromatin
• Diana Abdueva, Aqtual
Whole-genome methylome-based early cancer signal detection
• Sally Mackenzie, EpiMethyl Analytics
BrainSee Sees the Brain: FDA-Approved AI for Predicting Modifiable Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s Within Five Year
• Padideh Kamali-Zare, Darmiyan
