The Landscape of Cancer Research: Advances in Immuno-oncology 2024

Maike completed her veterinary degree in Germany and spend some time at the NIH, Frederick, USA, to train with Dr. S. K. Durum. She moved to Cambridge, UK, to carry out her PhD work with Prof. D.T. Fearon and her postdoctoral studies with Prof. G.M. Griffiths. In 2016 she started her own lab as a Sir Henry Dale Fellow and Junior Group Leader at the CRUK Cambridge Institute. Maike’s research aims to elucidate the role of the developmental Hedgehog signalling pathway in the immune system in health and disease. Her lab is also running a clinical research study at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and is committed to translate basic research findings into novel immunotherapeutic approaches.

Prof. Dr. med. Sebastian Kobold is professor for experimental immunooncology, head of the immunopharmacology group and deputy director of the division of clinical pharmacology at the university hospital in Munich. He has received, among many other awards, the Cancer Research Award 2022 of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the Georges Köhler Award 2023 of the German Society of Immunology. Focusing on tumor immunology, Prof. Kobold is especially interested in developing and testing novel strategies to treat cancer using the immune system. His goal is to translate his findings into the clinics in order to improve therapies for cancer patients.

Dr. Saba Ghassemi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and serves as a Principal Investigator at the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on developing novel CAR T cells with enhanced potency through a multidisciplinary approach that integrates engineering with CAR T cell immunology. Dr. Ghassemi pioneered the development of an abbreviated culture paradigm, resulting in less differentiated progeny with improved potency. This breakthrough led to a successful clinical trial at UPenn utilizing a 3-day manufacturing process. Additionally, she has devised a novel method for delivering CAR transgenes into quiescent T cells, enabling the generation of highly potent CAR T cells within 24 hours. Dr. Ghassemi is currently spearheading efforts to transition this innovative platform into an upcoming clinical trial at Penn. Her groundbreaking work has garnered recognition through several research grants and patent applications aimed at enhancing CAR T cells' efficacy, expansion, and fitness for adoptive immunotherapy. Dr. Ghassemi's ongoing research endeavors focus on optimizing, streamlining, and automating the manufacturing process of CAR T cells, with the overarching goal of enhancing the translational applicability and accessibility of these novel therapies to a broader range of geographical locations and patient populations.

Dr. Pestano heads the Research and Development organization at Biodesix, a leading diagnostic solutions company. He is also the NYS CLEP Laboratory Director of the company’s corporate clinical testing laboratory in Louisville, Colorado. His greater than 20 years of experience in laboratory and assay development for high complexity molecular diagnostics for oncology includes genomic and proteomic approaches in support of Biodesix Nodify and IQLung blood-based tests. Most recently his work has focused on the detection and standardization of molecular testing for cell free nucleic acids as a part of a consortia led by the Friends of Cancer Research. As a critical part of product development Dr. Pestano has fostered innovative key collaborations with leading academic and industry partners across the globe. Prior to Biodesix, Dr. Pestano was at Ventana, a member of the Roche Group, where he led project teams in Pharma Services and in Assay Development. Dr. Pestano received his Ph.D. training at The Graduate Center, City University of New York and conducted his post-doctoral training in cancer immunology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School.

Tim Beech is product manager at biomodal. As technical liaison for research and development and commercial teams, Tim focuses on product development roadmaps to help drive innovations that will benefit the life science community. His multidisciplinary skill set and knowledge base serve to provide user-focused products to the market that are critical to delivering greater insights into multiomics. Tim studied Biomedical Sciences at University College London, concentrating on Neurodegenerative diseases, Genetics, and more. Prior to joining biomodal, he held research-focused positions in the NGS platform developer space and in a biotech CRO.

Dr. Craig Eagle currently serves as Guardant Health’s chief medical officer. Prior to joining Guardant Health, Dr. Eagle served as Vice President of Medical Affairs Oncology for Genentech, where he oversaw the medical programs across the oncology portfolio and developed innovative cancer trials and strategies in personalized health care. Prior to Genentech, Dr. Eagle has held several positions in the U.S. and internationally over his 19-year career at Pfizer including global head of the Oncology Medical and Outcomes Group. In this role, he oversaw the worldwide medical programs and development of numerous commercially successful drugs. Dr. Eagle currently serves on the Board of Directors for Generex Biotechnology and NuGenerex Immuno-Oncology. Dr. Eagle attended medical school at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and received his general internist training at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. Dr. Eagle completed his specialist training in hemato-oncology and laboratory hematology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney and was granted Fellowship in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP) and the Royal College of Pathologists Australasia (FRCPA).

Dr Sara Abalde-Cela is the Research Group Leader of the Medical Devices group at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Braga, Portugal. The Medical Devices group focuses on the development of optofluidic platforms for the diagnosis and understanding of diseases. Sara holds a PhD in nanotechnology by the Universidade de Vigo and a postdoc in the field of microfluidics at the University of Cambridge. Sara has attracted +6 million € in competitive funding as a PI, such as Pathfinder, FET Open or RIA/IA Actions. She has also been active in teaching, science outreach and start-up programs internationally (Cambridge, London, Boston, Vigo, and Braga). Sara is also the co-founder and CTO of the start-up RUBYnanomed (2018 – now), having raised more than 5 million € for innovation to date. In 2022 she was nominated as finalist for Women Innovators Prize by the European Innovation Council.

Mark Yarchoan, M.D, is an Associate Professor of Medical Oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore Maryland. Dr. Yarchoan runs an NCI-funded laboratory focused on developing novel immunotherapies for hepatobiliary cancers. He also leads multiple clinical trials of immunotherapy agents for hepatobiliary cancers.

Dr. Yan Leyfman has been recognized as one of the top international researchers in oncology by the American Society of Hematology and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). He has contributed to the development of several anti-cancer therapies that have recently entered clinical trials and new treatment recommendations of care. His successes have been recognized by the Goldwater Research Foundation, Sigma Xi, New York Times, and Harvard Medical School. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was recruited to join the Global COVID-19 Taskforce to serve as Director of the Immunology Division, which produced one of the first mechanisms for SARS-CoV-2 and COVI-Flu along with therapeutic interventions for both. In June 2021, Dr. Leyfman presented the first mechanism to explain the interplay between cancer and COVID-19 at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting, which was recently published in BMC’s Journal of Hematology & Oncology. His work has been published as the cover article in the journal, Shock, and in the textbook, Insights on a Post-COVID World. Over the past year, Yan was recognized as the 2020 iCHEM Emerging International Scholar in Immunology & Immunotherapy, 2020 New York State & City Manhattan Hero for his community service and research contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic and by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for research excellence. Dr. Leyfman was recognized as a 2021 & 2022 Hero in Healthcare for research contributions to cancer & COVID-19 at the Lymphoma, Leukemia & Myeloma Congress and amongst the top 6 early career scientists for 2022 in recognition of his contributions to cell and immunotherapy with a 2023 Phacilitate Advanced Therapies Young Scientist Award.