Speakers
Nisha J D'Silva, BDS, MSD, PhD
Donald A Kerr Endowed Collegiate Professor of Oral Pathology
Professor of Dentistry
School of Dentistry and Professor of Pathology
University of Michigan
Nisha D’Silva, BDS, MSD, PhD, is the Donald Kerr Endowed Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. She is also Professor of Pathology at the Medical School and a Rogel Scholar of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center. Dr. D’Silva is a dentist-scientist; her translational research in head and neck cancer focuses on biomarkers and molecular mechanisms of tumor progression and treatment resistance. Her clinical practice in oral and maxillofacial pathology informs her research, due to heightened awareness of clinical issues with oral cancer. She has been the principal investigator of multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants and is currently funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research/NIH Sustaining Outstanding Achievement in Research award, and by the National Cancer Institute. She has published more than 100 papers in high impact journals including Microbiome, Clinical Cancer Research, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Nature Communications.
Karen Anderson, Ph.D., Professor
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
Biodesign Center for Personalized Diagnostics
Health Solutions Ambassador, College of Health Solutions
I have extensive experience in the development and clinical translation of diagnostics for infectious diseases and cancer for global health applications. My laboratory is at the Biodesign Institute at ASU, and I have a joint appointment as an Adjunct Professor and a practicing medical oncologist (20% effort) at Mayo Clinic Arizona. I am the PI of an NCI U01 EDRN Clinical Validation Center grant for cancer diagnostics (year 1/5), the co-PI of a second NCI U01 EDRN Biomarker Characterization Center for ovarian and lung cancer diagnostics (year 17/21), PI of a UG3/UH2 global health grant for cervical cancer detection in India (in no cost extension). I been the PI of two investigator-initiated clinical cancer vaccine trials, supported by two NCI/AVON grants. I have developed highly efficient predictive algorithms for HLA-peptide binding and immunogenicity based on biochemical data and molecular dynamic modeling, validated across HIV, HPV, SARS-CoV-2, and cancer. Our breast cancer circulating immune biomarkers are the first commercially available breast cancer blood test (Videssa Breast). I was the PI of an active R21 NCI IMAT grant on development of single cell technologies, co-PI of an NSF grant for biomarker technologies. My lab has 4-6 PhD graduate students, and technician support for this project. I have authored multiple reviews and book chapters on cancer biomarkers and immunotherapy. I am the newly elected co-chair of the NCI/EDRN steering committee and chair of the executive committee. I serve as a member of the NIH Center for Scientific Review Advisory Council. I have been an ad hoc reviewer for SPORE, SBIR, NIH/AOIC, NCI/Global Health, CPRIT, Komen, DOD, and the DSI-A Africa U54 grants as well as Cancer Biomarkers Study Section sitting reviewer. I have a demonstrated record of productive translational research in the field of tumor immunology and molecular diagnostics with over 110 publications.