I-SCORE: Investigators' and Site Coordinators' Opportunity for Research Excellence Meeting (Speaker Bios)

Dr. Mary “Nora” Disis is an expert in the immunology and immunotherapy of breast and ovarian cancers. She is dedicated to translating lab discoveries into the clinic for patients and holds several patents for targeted cancer therapies and diagnostics. Dr. Disis’ research interest lies in the discovery of new molecular targets for cancer immunotherapies, particularly vaccines and T-cell therapies. Today, her work has led to several clinical trials testing cancer vaccines. Her group also studies how the immune system could be used to diagnose cancer and develops novel tests for characterizing the human immune system. In addition to her research and clinical work, Dr. Disis holds many local and national leadership positions in her field. She is a Deputy Editor at JAMA and Editor-in-Chief of JAMA Oncology.

Jens Eickhoff, PhD is a Distinguished Scientist in the Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He has been involved with cancer control and cancer prevention clinical trials for about 15 years. He became a MPI of the Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network (CP-CTNet) Data Management, Auditing, and Statistical Center (DMASC) in 2025.

He serves as a co-director for the UW Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core a Specialized Programs for Research Excellence (SPORE) Prostate Cancer grant. He has extensive experience in the design, analysis, and conduct of phase I-IV clinical trials. He has served as the lead study statistician on > 60 cancer clinical trials over the last 24 years where he has been advocating and implementing innovative study designs, including the use implementation of various types of adaptive designs for dose finding and early efficacy trials. He has served on numerous Data Safety and Monitoring Boards (DSMBs) for NIH and industry funded clinical trials.

Scott M. Lippman, MD, is associate vice chancellor for cancer research and care, professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, and holds the Chugai pharmaceutical chair in cancer. He is also an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Lippman has been recognized in every major "Top Doctor" listing including U.S. News & World Report.

Dr. Lippman has received numerous awards, including the American Cancer Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Award, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) He brings more than 25 years of experience as principal investigator of translational research involving investigator-initiated clinical trials. He has participated in the national leadership of clinical/translational research planning and development within the National Cancer Institute Cooperative Group setting and currently serves on the National Cancer Institute's Clinical Trials and Translational Research Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the AACR, the Association of American Cancer Institutes and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and has served on the FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee. Before joining UC San Diego Health, he was chair of the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Dr. Lippman completed fellowships in hematology and medical oncology at Stanford University and the University of Arizona. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is board-certified in internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology.

Dr. Bansal completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at New York Medical College, New York. Subsequently, he served as the Chief Resident at New York Medical College, New York. Then he completed his Gastroenterology Fellowship from the University Hospital at Stony Brook, Long Island, New York. Currently, he is the Medical Director of Gastroenterology Cancers Prevention Clinic of the NCI-designated Kansas University Cancer Center and an Professor of Medicine in the Department of Gastroenterology at the University of Kansas Health System, Kansas City, KS.

Dr. Bansal overarching research interest is cancer prevention. He conducts research in the areas of inherited gastrointestinal cancer syndromes, Barrett’s esophagus and novel imaging techniques for detection of premalignant and malignant lesions in the gastrointestinal tract. He is the principal investigator on an NCI funded 14-center trial to test a novel combination of vaccines and IL-15 superagonist in patients with Lynch syndrome. He recently was funded to repurpose itraconazole for prevention of recurrent Barrett’s esophagus in a 5-center clinical trial. He has > 100 peer-reviewed publications and is a reviewer for multiple peer-reviewed journals. His work was covered by the Wall Street Journal.

Dr. Emma Barber is the John and Ruth Brewer Professor of Gynecology and Cancer Research at Northwestern University. Dr. Barber is an accomplished surgeon and researcher. As the Division Chief and the Director of Robotic Surgery in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Barber ensures that the benefits of a minimally invasive approach are extended to as many women with gynecologic conditions requiring surgery as possible – especially those recently diagnosed with cancer. Dr. Barber is also an accomplished researcher. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and five book chapters.

Dr. Barber has received multiple federal grants including funding from the NIA, NCI, and NICHD. Her research focuses on mitigating the toxicity of gynecologic cancer therapies, including surgery and chemotherapy so that patients experience fewer complications and have better quality of life.

Dr. Barroilhet is an Associate Professor in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. In her role, she treats women living with ovarian, cervical, vulvar, uterine and vaginal cancers. Her clinical interests include cancer prevention and working with patients at high risk for developing gynecologic cancers (such as BRCA patients).

Dr. Barroilhet joined the University of Wisconsin Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2012. She has been the recipient of the NCI Clinical Care Team Leadership Award. Most recently she has been funded by the Reproductive Science Development Program and the NCI, where she has an R01 award entitled Repurposing Atovaquone for the Prevention of Ovarian Cancer. Her primary research interests focus on prevention and early detection of ovarian cancer in a high-risk population. Dr. Barroilhet has published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and has been active in presenting research at national conferences.

Julie E. Bauman, MD, MPH is director of the George Washington (GW) University Cancer Center as well as associate dean of cancer and professor of medicine at the GW School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

Dr. Bauman completed a dual MD/MPH degree at Tufts University School of Medicine, internal medicine residency at the University of Utah and medical oncology fellowship at the University of Washington / Fred Hutch Cancer Center. Her education and training, at the intersection of oncology and public health, resulted in unique expertise in clinical trial design. As a recipient of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award, Bauman is a nationally recognized leader in cancer therapeutics for both prevention and treatment, with a long track record of NIH team science funding.
Dr. Bauman is the co-principal investigator of the University of Arizona Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network, one of only four NCI-funded clinical trial networks devoted to drug development for cancer prevention. Her own research focuses on "green chemoprevention," or the use of whole plants or their extracts for cancer prevention.

Dr. Bauman also leads multiple national clinical trials for the treatment of head and neck cancer, with dedicated expertise in precision medicine and immunotherapy. She is the current co-chair of the NCI Cancer Prevention Steering Committee. Dr. Bauman is also a 2020 graduate of the premiere Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine fellowship at the Drexel University College of Medicine.

Philip E. Castle, Ph.D., M.P.H., was appointed Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in July 2020. In this role, Dr. Castle oversees the conduct and support of research in cancer prevention, early detection, and screening, and prevention and management of symptoms and toxicities in cancer patients. DCP also is the home of the NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program (CPFP), which trains future leaders in the field of cancer prevention and control, and from which Dr. Castle received his public health training from 1999 to 2002.

Dr. Castle earned a Ph.D. in Biophysics in 1995 and, in conjunction with his training in the CPFP, a Master’s in Public Health in 2000, both at The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. Most recently, Dr. Castle was a tenured professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, and a visiting professor at institutions in Singapore, China and Australia. Dr. Castle was previously the Chief Scientific Officer of the American Society for Clinical Pathology.

Dr. Castle has been a principal investigator for more than 15 years, initiating, conducting, and leading several large NCI molecular and clinical epidemiologic research studies in the U.S. and internationally, including the Mississippi Delta Project; the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) Persistence and Progression Cohort and the Guidelines Cohort at Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC); and the Anal Cancer Screening Study.

Brian is a Senior Toxicologist and Director of Regulatory Affairs, in which capacity he provides toxicology and regulatory support to the PREVENT and Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network (CP-CTNet) programs. He also serves as the NCI’s Principal Representative to the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), where he works to advance novel toxicology methods to reduce the use of animals in scientific research.

Brian completed his Ph.D. in Molecular and Environmental Toxicology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, which was followed by a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Following a brief transition into industry, he joined the FDA as a Pharmacology/Toxicology Reviewer in the Division of Hematology Oncology Toxicology in the Office of Oncologic Diseases. He served as the primary toxicology reviewer on multiple New Drug Applications (NDAs) and hundreds of research and commercial Investigational New Drug Applications (INDs) prior to joining the DCP in the Spring of 2020.

Christina Curtis, PhD, MSc is the RZ Cao Professor of Medicine, Genetics, and Biomedical Data Science, Senior Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Medicine and Director of AI and Cancer Genomics at Stanford School of Medicine. Dr. Curtis's laboratory leverages computational modeling, high-throughput molecular profiling and experimentation to develop new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent cancer. Her research has redefined the molecular map of breast cancer and led to new paradigms in understanding the origins of human cancers, as well as how they evolve and metastasize.

Dr. Curtis's accomplishments have been recognized by numerous awards, including the 2018 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Pioneer Award, the 2022 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic Science, the 2024 Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in breast cancer research and 2024 AACR - Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Breast Cancer Research, as well as the 2025 European Society for Molecular Oncology (ESMO) Translational Award and the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. She is a Susan G. Komen Scholar, a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, and a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research (FAACR).

In addition to her research, she is an advisor to multiple academic institutes, as well as to biopharma and biotech. Dr. Curtis was a member of the AACR Board of Directors and is the chair of the AACR Data Science Task Force.

The goal of Dr. Djuric’s research program is to develop efficacious approaches for reducing cancer risk. This research has included both pre-clinical rodent studies and clinical trials.

Dr. Djuric has developed methodology for eliciting dietary changes that target key mechanisms in carcinogenic processes. Dr. Djuric also has strong interests in evaluating the interplay of obesity and background diet in modulating the efficacy of cancer preventive pharmaceutical agents and how modulation of dietary factors can be utilized to optimize preventive interventions. Other ongoing research seeks to establish pragmatic methodology for eliciting a preventive way of eating that can be implemented in clinical and community settings.

Dr. Carol Fabian is a breast medical oncologist and a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Founder. She is founder and Director of the Breast Cancer Prevention and Survivorship Research Center
Dr. Fabian’s research focus the past 25+ years has been on early phase prevention trials and risk biomarkers which can serve as response indicators. Benign tissue is obtained by a minimally invasive procedure which she developed called Random Periareolar Fine Needle aspiration (RPFNA). With RPFNA The inner and outer quadrants of both breasts are sampled and material pooled for cytomorphology, and immunochemistry and gene expression Recent work is also evaluating spatial genomics with RPFNA material, and in collaboration with others circulating miRNA, and stool microbiome.

Dr. Fabian and her team have focused on evaluating prevention interventions which are unlikely to negatively impact quality of life. Recent trials for premenopausal women have included lignans, omega-3 fatty acids, and novel selective estrogen receptor modulators such as acolbifene which appears to have some selective estrogen receptor down regulator activity. An ongoing study in premenopausal women evaluates low dose tamoxifen compared to acolbifene. For peri and postmenopausal women, the emphasis is on interventions which multi-task to improve quality of life and/or other health issues while reducing breast cancer risk. The multisite of Bazedoxifene and Conjugated Estrogens vs wait list control, and a weight loss study with tirzepatide are examples of this emphasis.

Dr. Leslie Ford built clinical cancer prevention research as a scientific field when few people were considering the possibility of prevention and is recognized as a national and international leader in cancer prevention research. She has a passion for prevention and strong belief that all clinical science must, to the fullest extent possible, derive as a translation of basic science. The European Institute of Oncology recognized her in 2007 for her "outstanding passion and pivotal role in creating, sustaining, and confirming the value of cancer prevention in modern oncology.

Dr. Gutkind is a Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, and Associate Director for Basic Science at the Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego. His team is exploiting emerging insights into dysregulated signaling circuits and individual genomic and molecular alterations to develop novel precision cancer therapies and multimodal strategies to enhance the response to immune checkpoint blockade.

Dr. Gutkind is a world-renowned scientist, recognized for his pioneering studies revealing the key role of G proteins and G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in human malignancies, and for his discovery that the PI3K-mTOR and Hippo signaling networks are the most frequently dysregulated signaling mechanisms in HPV- and HPV-associated oral cancer. His laboratory has published more than 600 manuscripts, and he has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (2019) and named American Cancer Society Research Professor (2024), reflecting his team’s outstanding achievements in basic and translational cancer research.

As part of his translation efforts, he led many multi-institutional clinical trials that established the benefits of targeting mTOR for the prevention and treatment of oral cancer. His laboratory has recently launched a new initiative targeting oncogenic and immune-escape signaling drivers as a novel, multimodal precision cancer immunotherapy strategy. He has organized multiple meetings and symposia, and served on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals and on national and international advisory committees. He has also supervised and mentored many junior investigators who are now holding leadership roles in multiple institutions throughout the United States and abroad.

Dr. Brandy Heckman-Stoddard received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine focusing on the intersection of Rho and IGF signaling in mammary gland development and breast cancer before joining the National Cancer Institute as a Cancer Prevention Fellow in 2008. During the fellowship she completed a Master's in Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health working with the Institute for Global Tobacco Control and the Evidence-Based Practice Center. During her time at NCI as a fellow, she focused on breast cancer prevention research including preclinical development and early clinical trials.

Dr. Heckman-Stoddard's research focuses on drug development for breast cancer prevention and biomarker development. Dr. Heckman-Stoddard is particularly interested in local delivery of agents, alternate dosing strategies, biomarkers of efficacy to reduce the number needed to treat and targeting of stem cells. She serves as Program Officer for the Early Phase Breast Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials grants portfolio and scientific lead of early phase breast cancer clinical trials within the NCI Cancer Prevention Clinical Trial Network (CP-CTNet).

In 2016, Dr. Heckman-Stoddard became the Chief of the Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Research Group (BGCRG) expanding the work of the group through supporting and recruiting additional staff. BGCRG currently includes 1 Senior Scientific Officer, 2 Medical Officers, 5 Health Scientist Administrators, a Nurse Consultant, a Scientific Program Analyst, and a Cancer Prevention Fellow.

Lee Jones, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Population Sciences’ Division of Outcomes Research at City of Hope® Cancer Center Duarte. An internationally renowned physician-scholar in the field of exercise science, Dr. Jones leads the Exercise-Oncology (ExOnc) Program, a translational research initiative at City of Hope’s Beckman Research Institute that investigates the effects and mechanisms of structured exercise therapy on the development and treatment of cancer, with a particular emphasis on clinical outcomes for high-risk patients.

In addition to being an author or co-author of more than 280 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Jones has secured continuous funding and support for his work from institutions including NCI, the American Cancer Society, the Department of Defense and several philanthropic foundations. Prior to joining City of Hope in 2025, he was director of the Exercise Oncology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Jones earned his doctorate degree and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in exercise oncology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. His early work focused on behavioral interventions to promote physical activity among cancer survivors and included some of the first trials focusing on the benefits of exercise for cancer patients. During his tenure at Duke University Medical Center, he advanced into mechanistic and translational research, leading early clinical trials that demonstrated the safety, feasibility and efficacy of supervised exercise therapy in preserving cardiorespiratory fitness during and after cytotoxic therapy.

Dr. Seema A. Khan is a Bluhm Family Professor of Cancer Research and Professor of Surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. She received her medical degree in Pakistan and her master’s degree at Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Khan completed General Surgery training at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse NY and Surgical Oncology training at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Her research interests at Northwestern University include improving the identification of women at high risk for breast cancer to improve prevention, pre-clinical investigation of new prevention, agents for breast cancer, and clinical trials that test novel approaches to improve breast cancer prevention. She is PI of the Northwestern LAO for the CPCT-Net program of NCI/DCP.

Dr. Bruce Kimler is a radiation biologist and breast cancer researcher at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He is a Professor and Vice-Chair for Research and Faculty Development in the Department of Radiation Oncology. He also plays a leadership role in the Breast Cancer Prevention and Survivorship Research Center.

During his career he has also held secondary appointments in the Department of Radiation Biophysics at the University of Kansas in Lawrence; the International Molecular Cytology Program of the Instituto de Investigaciones Citologicas in Valencia, Spain; and as a Graduate Faculty Member in the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics.

Since 1996, he has collaborated with Dr. Carol Fabian, a breast medical oncologist, to conduct more than 36 clinical trials, enrolling more than 5,000 women who are at high risk for development of breast cancer or who are survivors of a breast cancer diagnosis. Most of the trials involve acquisition of normal breast tissue by random periareolar fine needle aspiration (RPFNA) to identify favorable modulations of risk biomarkers that are predictive of the efficacy of an agent or strategy to reduce risk for breast cancer. These efforts have been funded by $34 million in grants from the National Cancer Institute, foundations, and pharmaceutical companies; for which Dr. Kimler was either a Co-Principal Investigator, Principal Investigator, or Co-Investigator

Dr. Messing is an internationally renowned expert in all facets of urologic oncology, both as a clinician/surgeon, and as a clinical, translational and basic researcher.

His research contributions have ranged from enhancing our knowledge about the basic molecular biology and genetics of development and progression of cancers of the bladder, prostate and kidney, and bringing these studies to fruition for the detection, prevention and treatment of these diseases. He has also designed and conducted landmark phase III clinical trials for each of these cancers and has carried out the first screening trial for bladder cancer in a general population.

Important work has included defining the roles of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and its cell surface receptor in urothelial carcinogenesis and progression, investigating polyamine synthesis inhibition as a means to prevent bladder and prostate cancers, in large phase III clinical trials studying DFMO's ability to prevent bladder cancer's recurrence, the timing of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in treating regionally advanced completely resected prostate cancer, the effectiveness of adjuvant alpha interferon for completely resected, locally extensive, renal cell carcinoma, and the role of a single intravesical instillation of gemcitabine in preventing recurrence of low grade non-muscle invading bladder cancer (NMIBC).

Furthermore, his clinical trial work continues as the study coordinator of a large phase III clinical trial of immediate post TURBT intravesical instillation therapy for prevention of recurrence of low-risk bladder cancer. Much of the above-mentioned work continues, but currently he is also investigating gender disparities in bladder cancer's incidence and outcome.

Dr. Lauren Nye is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine with a subcertification in medical oncology. She completed a fellowship at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She earned her medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and completed her residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Dr. Nye specializes in the management of the continuum of breast cancer - from breast cancer prevention to treatment of breast cancer to improving survivorship. Dr. Nye wants to guide patient’s through their individual journey.

Dr. Nye sees patients in her High Risk Breast Clinic who are at an increased risk for breast cancer which can include having a family history of breast cancer, carrying a genetic mutation increasing the risk of breast cancer or having a prior breast biopsy that elevates ones risk for breast cancer.

Dr. Nye’s areas of research include breast cancer prevention and survivorship with current projects focusing on prevention in young women at high risk for breast cancer who are still considering pregnancy, for postmenopausal women who are experiencing hot flashes and weight loss interventions in women at high risk, genetic mutation carriers and breast cancer survivors. She also works with the breast cancer team to design and ensure clinical trials are available to our breast cancer patients requiring treatment.

Since 2015, Dr. Samimi has served as a Program Director in the Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Research Group, Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP), NCI, managing the ovarian and endometrial cancer prevention grant portfolios. She also serves as Director of the NCI Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network (CP-CTNet), and as scientific lead for early phase endometrial and ovarian cancer prevention trials within CP-CTNet. Dr. Samimi’s research interests include molecular mechanisms of ovarian cancer etiology and identification of women and families at high risk for ovarian cancer.

Dr. Samimi leads the Traceback program, aimed to increase identification of families at increased risk for ovarian cancer by genetic testing of previously diagnosed cases. She also serves as Project Scientist for uterine cancer for the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET), a consortium of NCI-sponsored investigators who apply modeling to improve understanding of cancer interventions in prevention, screening, and treatment.

In addition, Dr. Samimi leads studies investigating perceptions of cancer risk and decision-making regarding cancer prevention in patients and primary care physicians. Dr. Samimi also works with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to support research related to progression of benign gynecologic disease to gynecologic cancer.

Dr. Edward Sauter serves as a medical and program officer in the Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Research Group (BGCRG). He received his medical degree from Louisiana State University in New Orleans, LA and his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. He completed a residency in general surgery at the Ochsner Hospital and Clinics in New Orleans and a fellowship in surgical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. He also received a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He spent 20+ years in academic medicine as a physician scientist with an NIH funded laboratory before joining BGCRG. The focus of his clinical care has been on the treatment of breast cancer. His research has centered on 1) the prevention and early detection of breast cancer using noninvasive and minimally invasive approaches, and 2) pregnancy associated breast cancer.

Malvi Savani, MD, MS is an oncologist at the Southern Arizona VA Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. She is also a member of the CP-CTNet at the University of Arizona Cancer Center with an interest in cancer prevention. She has a productive academic portfolio consisting of 24 publications, ad hoc reviewer status for peer-reviewed journals in hematology and leadership within hematology.

During fellowship, as she transitioned from hematology to focus on head and neck cancer under the mentorship of Dr. Julie Bauman, she sought to gain experience with early phase clinical trials. During her fellowship, she completed a Master’s in Clinical Translational Sciences to develop a formal structured education in clinical trial design and execution. Under mentorship of Drs. Bauman and Chow, she developed a clinical trial protocol evaluating the use of broccoli seed and sprout extract in detoxification of carcinogens in firefighters.

Dr. Schuetze is a medical oncologist and clinical researcher who has been caring for patients with connective tissue tumors including soft tissue and bone sarcomas for over 25 years. He has over 25 years of experience in oversight and conduct of translational and therapeutic trials in patients with bone and soft tissue sarcomas and benign connective tissue tumors. He has been Principal Investigator of NCTN and ETCTN supported clinical trials. He has served as the Medical Director of the Rogel Cancer Center Oncology-Clinical Trials Support Unit since 2010 and is the co-leader of the Connective Tissue Clinical Research Team. He was awarded an ASCO Advanced Clinical Research Award in Sarcoma in 2008, the University of Michigan Division of Hematology/Oncology Excellence in Research Award in 2010, and an NIH Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award in 2012. He currently serves as the contact PI for the multi-institutional LMS SPORE “The Genetics and Genomics of Leiomyosarcoma: Improved understanding of cancer biology and new approaches to diagnosis and treatment”, and is the Co-PI of the Clinical Cancer Prevention grant from the Division of Cancer Prevention in the NCI.

Suzanne Siminski is President and CEO of Frontier Science Foundation. She currently serves as Frontier Science sub-PI and Director of the Data Management and Reporting Unit for the Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network (CP-CTNet) and is the Contact MPI for the HIV/Cervical Cancer Prevention CASCADE Network Coordinating Center. She is also Frontier Science Principal Investigator for the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS), PHACS affiliate study “Health Outcomes around Pregnancy and Exposure to HIV/ARVs” (HOPE), and the Clinical Pharmacology Quality Assurance and Quality Control Project (CPQA), and is the Frontier Science PI of the Tuberculosis RePORT International Coordinating Center (TB-RiCC), all programs funded by the NIH. Ms. Siminski’s main research interest is in clinical trials data management, specifically in the areas of Cancer, HIV/AIDS, TB and drug use and addition.

Additionally, she oversees Frontier Science’s compliance program and has interests in innovative data collection such as EMR data integration, geocoding, data sharing strategies, and data science initiatives. She has served as a project advisor for a large industry sponsored Phase III breast cancer clinical trial (OlympiA) which is being conducted throughout Europe. She also represents Frontier Science on the NIAID harmonization data repository hub initiative. As Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Science Foundation, Ms. Siminski is strategically increasing the repertoire of clinical research services provided by the organization, and actively building global collaborative partnerships with investigators around the world.

Dr. Vilar-Sanchez is a Professor and Chair ad interim of the Department of Cancer Prevention at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a physician-scientist and a medical oncologist by training with clinical expertise in hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes (mainly Lynch Syndrome and Familial Adenomatous Polyposis - FAP) and colorectal medical oncology. Dr. Vilar-Sanchez’s research efforts are focused in developing novel cancer interception strategies including vaccines and chemopreventive agents, and early detection methods for patients at high-risk for colorectal cancer development.

In order to accomplish this overarching goal, the Vilar-Sanchez laboratory has characterized the genomic and transcriptomic landscape of pre-cancers using next-generation sequencing approaches and has identified novel targets for interception using systems biology tools. In parallel, his research team has applied systematically this same workflow to genetically engineered mouse models that mimic the natural history of hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes to perform cross-species comparisons and validate these novel preventive agents and biomarkers in vivo. Moreover, the Vilar-Sanchez laboratory has teamed with other groups to develop ex vivo models that better recapitulate the biology of normal mucosa and premalignancy.

Dr. Waldman is the Hilary Korpowski Professor of Cancer Biology and the Chair of the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, & Cancer Biology in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Samuel MV Hamilton Professor of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, USA. His training includes fellowships in clinical pharmacology and experimental therapeutics with the 1998 Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad. He maintains a translational research program bridging the laboratory and clinic, focused on targeted approaches to primary and secondary prevention in GI malignancies. He serves as co- Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Biology & Therapy.

Dr. Weinberg is the Vice President for Cancer Prevention and Professor of Medicine at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, USA. His educational background includes fellowships in gastroenterology as well as cancer epidemiology. In addition to administrative responsibilities, he remains an active clinician and investigator with a current focus on pancreatic and colorectal cancer prevention and control. He also serves as co- Editor-in-Chief of Gastroenterology (2022-2027).

Dr. Jason Willis is a gastrointestinal medical oncologist whose efforts are focused on leveraging genomic insights into the molecular heterogeneity of colorectal and pancreas cancers to identify novel targets for cancer interception, early detection, and active treatment. As a clinical and translational investigator, Dr. Willis works collaboratively to evaluate novel therapeutic interventions and combinatorial strategies for targeted interception of intestinal pre-malignancies, particularly in high-risk populations such as healthy Lynch syndrome and Familial Adenomatous Polyposis carriers.

The research program of Ju Dong Yang, MD, has been focused on clinical and translational research of liver cancer. Dr. Yang conducted several population-based cohort studies to describe recent trends in liver cancer epidemiology in the United States. He published several outcome research papers in liver cancer. Dr. Yang has also conducted several modeling studies and proposed a survival prediction model in liver cancer patients. He has also conducted a multistate Markov model study and investigated the impact of liver cancer surveillance on overall survival in patients with cirrhosis. In addition, Dr. Yang has been interested in liver cancer health disparities research from a global perspective. His research highlighted that Africans have a very early onset of HCC with extremely poor survival.

Finally, Dr. Yang has been interested in liver cancer biomarker research. He and his colleagues have reported that circulating tumor cells (CTC) are detectable in liver cancer patients and are independent predictors of patient survival. Our more recent study indicated that circulating cell-free tumor DNA mutation and methylation are promising diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers in liver cancer.

Dr. Yendamuri currently serves as Roswell Park’s Chief Strategy Officer and Chair of Thoracic Surgery, as well as the Director of the Thoracic Surgery Laboratory. He holds a secondary academic appointment as Professor of Surgery at the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Yendamuri joined Roswell Park in 2007 after completing his training in cardiothoracic surgery from the MD Anderson Cancer Center. He holds a medical degree from All India Institute of Medical Sciences and an executive MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

In his role as President and CEO of RPCI Oncology P.C., Dr. Yendamuri leads the growth and development of community cancer services across New York State through the Roswell Park Care Network. Founded in 2019, the Roswell Park Care Network was created to expand access to cancer care and services. The network brings world-class care and cancer treatments to communities to allow for easier and more timely access to comprehensive cancer care. In addition to his clinical expertise in complex thoracic surgical oncology, Dr. Yendamuri leads a research program focused on lung cancer interception.

His work has been continuously funded by the NCI for 14 years. He has published over 200 peer reviewed manuscripts and has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a Surgical Leaders Fellowship Grant from the American Surgical Association and Society of Asian Academic Surgeons and a Presidential Service Award from the Eastern Cardiothoracic Surgical Society, both in 2023.