Speaker Profile
M.D.,Ph.D., Co-Director of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics, Johns Hopkins
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.
Session Abstract – PMWC 2026 Silicon Valley
Track Chair:
Victor Velculescu, Johns Hopkins University
PMWC Award Ceremony
• Klaus Pantel, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf / ELBS
• Daniel De Carvalho, University of Toronto
Keynote: Early Detection of Cancer by Multimodal Liquid Biopsy Analysis
• Klaus Pantel, UKE / ELBS
From Mutation to Methylation: The Next Wave of Liquid Biopsy Biomarkers
• Chair: Victor Velculescu, Johns Hopkins University
• Daniel De Carvalho, University of Toronto
• Manel Esteller, Sant Pau Research Institute
• 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
• Klaus Pantel, UKE / ELBS
AI-Informed Biomarker Trials: Turning Early Signals into Actionable Designs
• Chair: Manish Kohli, University of Utah
• Luis Diaz, MSKCC
• Eric Klein, GRAIL
• Peter Bach, DELFI Diagnostics
• Samuel Levy, ClearNote Health
Role of AI in Liquid Biopsies & Cancer Detection
• Chair: Amoolya Singh, DELFI Diagnostics
• Matthew Baker, Dxcover
• Pankaj Vats, NVIDIA
Fragmentomics for Early Detection
• Varsha Rao, Claret Bioscience
Integrating Genetic Risk with Early Detection
• Giordano Botta, Allelica
Metagenomic Diagnostics & Global Pathogen Surveillance
• Charles Chiu, UCSF
AI-Driven Host–Pathogen Signatures from Plasma cfDNA
• Sivan Bercovici, Karius
Ultra-Sensitive Multimodal Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Detection
• Atul Sharan, CellMax Life
AI-Enhanced Proteomic Signatures for Early Cancer Detection
• Diana Abdueva, Aqtual
