|
2017 Symposium Featured Talks
Please enjoy the featured talks below from our recent symposium. Thank you!
Please note: These videos are for private viewing only. Any unintended use of the videos without consent is prohibited.
Sandra Horning, MD
Genentech
Owen Witte, MD
UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center
Laure Escoubet, PhD
Celgene
Silvia Buonamici, PhD
H3 Biomedicine
Tom Marsilje, PhD
Patient Advocate
Moderator: Andrew Pollack
Panel Members:
Ezra Cohen, MD, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
Tom Marsilje, PhD, Patient Advocate
Stephen Schoenberger, PhD, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, Human Longevity Inc.
Helen Torley, MB ChB, MRCP
Halozyme
Andrew Lowy, MD
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
Ida Deichaite, PhD
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
2017 Symposium
The 13th Moores Cancer Center Industry/Academia Translational Oncology Symposium was held on Thursday, February 16, 2017. We thank all attendees for a successful symposium, and look forward to the collaborations being made.
Keynote Speaker Duane Roth Award Lecture
Partnering for Patients in the Academy and Industry
Sandra Horning, MD
Head of Global Product Development
Chief Medical Officer
Genentech
[+] Biography
|
Sandra J. Horning, M.D., FACP, FASCO, was appointed Chief Medical Officer and head of Global Product Development in January 2014. She oversees late stage clinical development and co-chairs the Late Stage Portfolio Committee.
Sandra joined Roche in late 2009 as senior vice president, global head of clinical oncology and hematology product development. She is an Emerita Professor of Medicine (Oncology and Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation) at Stanford University School of Medicine where she served as a tenured professor, practicing oncologist and investigator, and held multiple leadership positions including Vice-Chair of the Department of Medicine prior to joining Roche/Genentech.
Sandra has authored 300 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, reviews and editorials, and has served on the editorial boards of multiple peer-reviewed medical journals. She was named a Best Doctor in America consecutively from 1992-2008 and served as Chairman of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group lymphoma committee and 2005-6 President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Sandra received Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Medicine degrees at the University of Iowa and completed post-doctoral training in internal medicine at the University of Rochester and in medical oncology at Stanford University.
|
Keynote Speaker
Finding Therapeutic Targets for Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Owen N. Witte, MD
Director, UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center
Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics
University of California, Los Angeles
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
[+] Biography
|
Owen Witte received his undergraduate degree from Cornell and his MD from Stanford University. He completed postdoctoral research at MIT then joined the faculty at UCLA where he presently is a University Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics and holds the President's Chair in Developmental Immunology. He is the Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.
Dr. Witte has made significant contributions to the understanding of human leukemias, immune disorders, and epithelial cancer stem cells. His work includes the discovery of tyrosine kinase activity for the ABL gene and the demonstration of the BCR-ABL oncoproteins in human leukemias. This has had practical impact in leading to the development of kinase targeted therapy as an effective treatment for these leukemias and other cancers. His work also led to the co-discovery of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) which is required for normal B-lymphocyte development, and when mutated leads to X-linked agammaglobulinemia, a form of immune deficiency. New inhibitors for BTK are entering clinical practice for the treatment of certain lymphomas and leukemias. Recent work has concentrated on defining the stem cells for epithelial cancers of the prostate and other organ sites to help define new types of therapy for these diseases.
Dr. Witte is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine. He has received many awards for his research including most recently the AAMC Award for Distinguished Research in Biomedical Sciences (2016) and the Stanford Medical School Kornberg-Berg Lifetime Achievement Award in Biosciences (2016). He currently serves on several editorial and advisory boards. Dr. Witte previously served on the Board of Directors for the American Association for Cancer Research. He was also re-appointed for his 2nd term by President Obama to the President’s Cancer Panel.
He has extensive experience consulting in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he is a Founder and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Kite Pharma, and a Founder and member of the Board of Directors of Trethera Corporation.
|
Baseline tumoral IFNγ mRNA and PD-L1 protein expression associated with response and overall survival in durvalumab-treated NSCLC patients
Carlos Bais, PhD
Director R&D, Translational Medicine Oncology
Medimmune
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Carlos Bais received his PhD in molecular biology in the year 2000 from the University of Buenos Aires. From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Bais received his postdoctoral training in genetics at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Columbia University. In 2005 he took a scientist position at Genentech where he led a laboratory that focused on anti-angiogenic therapy research. From 2012 to 2015 he worked as avastin biomarker lead and then as avastin plus immunotherapy combinations biomarker lead. Carlos is currently a Director of translational medicine oncology at Medimmune.
|
Understanding and Targeting Spliceosomal Gene Mutations in Cancer
Silvia Buonamici, PhD
Director
H3 Biomedicine Inc.
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Silvia Buonamici grew up in Italy where she completed her graduate training in Molecular Biology and Genetics. During last year of PhD studies, she decided to join Prof. Giuseppina Nucifora’s Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Chicago to study the function of Evi1 in leukemia and developed the first mouse model phenocoping the human disease. She continued to study the pathogenesis of leukemia in the laboratory of Iannis Aifantis where she identified the role of the chemokine receptor CCR7 in the migration of leukemic Notch1 mutant cells across the blood brain barrier. Silvia started her own lab in the fall of 2009 at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in the oncology department where she developed the Hedgehog signaling pathway inhibitor LDE225 (Odomzo) that recently received the FDA approval for locally advanced basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer. During her period at Novartis, she identified the allosteric inhibitor of BCR-ABL, ABL001 currently being tested in patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. In 2011, she joined H3 Biomedicine, a new cancer genomics based drug discovery company where she began to study the mechanism of action of the spliceosome mutations identified in leukemia the same year. She is now the Director of the Target Biology and Translational Research department involved in the development of the spliceosome modulator currently in a phase I clinical trial. In addition her department is involved in the preclinical development of several oncology drugs. In her spare time, she enjoys to spending time with her family, playing with her two kids and exercising.
|
Inhibition of microglial PI3Kg suppresses glioblastoma tumoigenicity by disrupting IL11-STAT3-MYC signaling.
Clark Chen, MD, PhD
Chief of Stereortactic and Radiosurgery
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
[+] Biography
|
Clark Chen, MD, PhD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon and a nationally recognized brain tumor specialist. With a special interest in oncology and the study of DNA repair and genetic alterations in brain tumors, his goal is to provide the best possible care to brain tumor patients while also developing new therapies to improve outcomes.
Prior to joining UC San Diego Health in 2011, Dr. Chen led the brain tumor program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (affiliated with Harvard Medical School) and was an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
As an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine, Dr. Chen serves as vice chair of research in Division of Neurosurgery and is co-principal investigator of the Center for Theoretical and Applied Neuro-Oncology (CTAN), which studies novel strategies for brain and spine tumor therapy and biomarker development.
He is the recipient of several highly competitive research awards, including the Damon Runyon Fellowship Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Career Award in Medical Sciences, the Sontag Foundation Distinguished Scientist Award, the Doris Duke Foundation Clinical Scientist Award, and the Forbeck Scholar award
Dr. Chen completed his neurosurgery training at Massachusetts General Hospital, including a fellowship in radiosurgery and a second fellowship on stereotactic neurosurgery. He earned his MD and PhD degrees from Harvard Medical School and an MS in epidemiology from Columbia University. He is board-certified in neurological surgery.
|
Targeting KRAS addicted lung cancer
David Cheresh, PhD
Distinguished Professor of Pathology
Associate Director, Innovation and Industry Alliances
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
[+] Biography
|
David Cheresh has made fundamental discoveries on the role that gangliosides, integrins, growth factor receptors and intracellular kinases play in tumor growth, and vascular remodeling. His early work focused on the functional role of the GD2 ganglioside in neuroectodermal tumors. At that time Cheresh jointly discovered the anti-GD2 (now termed Unituxin), which was FDA approved in 2015 for patients with advanced neuroblastoma. He discovered that integrin αvβ3 is specifically expressed on angiogenic endothelial cells where it contributes to the growth of tumor-associated blood vessels and plays a role in the progression of various cancers. Cheresh’s research in this area has been widely cited with eight of his peer-reviewed publications being cited >1000 times. Cheresh has developed antibodies, kinase inhibitors and nanoparticles now in clinical development in patients with cancer and inflammatory disease. Most recently, Cheresh has identified how tumor stem cells develop in response therapeutic intervention or cellular stress. Cheresh and colleagues have identified specific pathways that contribute to cancer stemness and have begun to develop therapeutics to target these pathways in order to reverse drug resistance and cancer progression.
Dr. Cheresh received his doctorate in immunology from the University Of Miami School Of Medicine. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the 15th Hans Linder Memorial Lecture from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel; the XXIII Annual Myron Karon Memorial Lectureship from the University of Southern California; the Robert Flynn Professorship Award from Tufts University School of Medicine; the Judah Folkman lectureship; and the Paget-Ewing award from the Metastasis Research Society/American Association for Cancer Research. He has a received both an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award and a National Cancer Institute Merit Award.
|
Epigenetics of GBM Cancer Stem Cells
Laure Escoubet, PhD
Director, Head of Epigenetic Drug Discovery
Celgene
[+] Biography
|
Dr Laure Escoubet joined Celgene in 2006 bringing her epigenetic expertise to bear immediately with the identification and validation of promising epigenetic targets in cancer through a functional genomic screen, effectively launching Celgene’s epigenetic drug discovery efforts.
Laure has been supported the pre-clinical development of small molecule inhibitors and provided expertise to the external epigenetic AGIOS, Epizyme and Quanticel collaborations. She designed the first comprehensive epigenetic profiling of cancer stem cells, allowing the identification of proprietary transcriptional and epigenetic targets.
Prior to Celgene, Laure did her post-doctoral training at the University of California, San Diego, in the laboratory of Christopher K. Glass. There, she pioneered genome-wide epigenetic studies in inflammation, investigating the regulation of chromatin modifications in macrophages and the orchestrated program that controls gene expression in these cells.
Laure received her PhD in Human Pathophysiology from the University Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France.
|
Combining VEGF inhibitors with strategies to manipulate the immune system in cancer
Napoleone Ferrara, MD
Senior Deputy Director for Basic Science
Distinguished Professor of Pathology
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Ferrara earned his M.D. degree in 1981 from the University of Catania Medical School in Italy. After completing his postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco, he joined Genentech Inc. in 1988. It is there where he spent nearly 25 years working on the isolation, molecular cloning and biological characterization of VEGF-A which resulted in the development of bevacizumab, the first anti-angiogenic agent to be approved by the FDA for cancer therapy. His research also led to the development of ranibizumab, which has been FDA-approved for the treatment of multiple intraocular neovascular disorders. In December 2012, Dr. Ferrara joined the University of California, San Diego as a Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology, and Senior Deputy Director for Basic Science of the Moores Cancer Center. He plans to continue his research focusing on the biology of angiogenesis and the identification of its regulators.
Dr. Ferrara has authored over 300 scientific publications, which have been cited over 70,000 times. He is also the recipient of numerous scientific awards, including the AACR Cain Memorial Award, the Lefoulon-Delalande-Institut de France Prize, the Passano Award, the General Motors Cancer Research Award, the ASCO Science of Oncology Award, the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award, the Lasker-deBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Janssen Award for Biomedical Research, the Economist Innovation Award, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award and the Gairdner Foundation International Award. Dr. Ferrara has been an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA since 2006 and most recently became an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.
|
Rationale development of patient driven combinations with ibrutinib
Danelle James, MD, MAS
Head of Oncology
Pharmacyclics
[+] Biography
|
Danelle James is Head of Oncology at Pharmacyclics where she leads clinical development efforts for CLL/SLL, Graft vs Host Disease, and Solid tumors. Prior to joining Pharmacyclics in 2011, Dr. James was a faculty member in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology at University of California San Diego. Her research focus there for ten years, was the study of the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and the tumor microenvironment and the clinical-translational development of agents that can be used to target these interactions. Danelle worked closely under the mentorship of Thomas Kipps and as a member CLL Research Consortium (CRC), she co-coordinated the clinical trials program evaluating the combination of novel agents for the treatment of CLL. Danelle started her career in industry approximately 20 years ago at Biogen in Cambridge Massachusetts where she worked in the Department of Immunology and Inflammation.
Dr. James completed Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Oncology fellowship at UCSD, is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and in Hematology. She obtained formal education in clinical research methodologies and a Masters degree in Advanced Studies of Clinical Research from UCSD.
|
RNA Processing Deregulation as Driver of Cancer Stem Cell Generation
Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of Regenerative Medicine
Director, CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic at UC San Diego
Deputy Director, Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
[+] Biography
|
Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Regenerative Medicine, Co-Leader of the Hematologic Malignancies Program in the Division of Hematology-Oncology and Director of Stem Cell Research at the Moores UC San Diego Cancer Center Dr. Jamieson specializes in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) and leukemia. MPNs are a family of clonal bone marrow disorders where overproduction of blood cells causes heart attack, stroke, deep venous thrombosis, and pulmonary emboli and can develop into acute myeloid leukemia. Although effective treatments are available, they are laden with serious side effects and patients can become resistant to the treatments. Dr. Jamieson studies MPN cancer stem cells, which can evade chemotherapy and then activate again later, causing disease relapse, progression, and resistance to treatment. Her goal is to find more selective and less toxic therapies for leukemia patients.
|
RON kinase as a Modulator of the Pancreatic Cancer Microenvironment
Andrew Lowy, MD, FACS
Chief, Division of Surgical Oncology
Professor of Surgery
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
[+] Biography
|
Andrew M. Lowy, MD is a surgical oncologist with a primary interest and expertise in pancreatic cancer treatment and research. Dr. Lowy serves chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Pancreatic Cancer Task Force which is charged with setting the direction of clinical research in pancreatic cancer in the United States. He also serves as surgical liaison to the Pancreas sub-committee of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), and as the surgical principal investigator for the largest adjuvant pancreatic cancer clinical trial ever conducted in the United States. Dr. Lowy's laboratory focuses on the study of pancreatic cancer signaling and preclinical modeling and his lab co-developed the first genetically engineered mouse model of pancreatic cancer currently used in laboratories worldwide. His lab has been continuously funded by the National institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute to study pancreatic cancer since 1999. He is also currently funded as part of the first Stand-Up-To –Cancer TransAtlantic Pancreatic Cancer Dream Team.
|
Next Generation Antisense Inhibitors: Targeting difficult to drug pathways in Cancer
Robert MacLeod, PhD
Vice President Oncology Discovery
Ionis Pharmaceuticals
[+] Biography
|
Dr. MacLeod is currently the Vice President of Oncology Discovery at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on RNA targeting therapeutics. In this capacity Dr. MacLeod is responsible for and actively involved in the discovery and preclinical development of antisense drug candidates in the several therapeutic areas including, oncology, thrombosis, inflammatory and muscle diseases. Prior to joining Isis Pharmaceuticals Dr. MacLeod held positions at Takeda Pharmaceuticals and MethylGene Inc., where he directed the efforts of multidisciplinary drug discovery teams that discovered numerous novel experimental therapeutics. Dr. MacLeod obtained his undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Concordia University in Montreal and his doctoral degree from McGill University. As part of his Ph.D studies, Dr. MacLeod employed antisense strategies to demonstrate that the DNA Methyltransferase enzymes were bona fide cancer targets. In Dr. MacLeod’s Post Doctoral work at Isis Pharmaceuticals I explored novel terminating mechanisms for antisense drugs.
Dr. MacLeod gained his initial experience in antisense technology as a Post-Doctoral fellow at Ionis Pharmaceuticals under the supervision of Dr. Stanley T. Crooke (Chairman and CEO of Ionis). In this capacity he contributed to the identification of novel, non-RNase H terminating mechanisms for antisense drugs. Since returning to Ionis in 2008, Dr. MacLeod has been actively involved in the discovery and preclinical development of antisense drug candidates in the several therapeutic areas including, oncology, thrombosis, inflammatory and muscle diseases. These include the clinical stage compounds, FXIRX (now partnered with Bayer) for the treatment of thrombosis, DMPKRX for myotonic dystrophy (now partnered with Biogen) and PKKRX for angioedema. Under his direction the oncology team identified and advanced into clinical development the first two Generation 2.5 cEt ASOs STAT3RX (now AZD9150) and ARRX (now AZD5312), where robust single agent antitumor responses were demonstrated with STAT3RX in several tumor types, ultimately leading to the creation of a broad strategic collaboration between Isis and AstraZeneca focused on the discovery and development of antisense drugs for the treatment of cancer.
|
A Preclinical Evaluation of Niraparib Efficacy as Monotherapy, Following Platinum and Relative to Olaparib in Patient-Derived Ovarian Xenograft Tumor Models
Keith Mikule, PhD
Senior Director Discovery Pharmacology, Strategic Partnerships
TESARO
[+] Biography
|
Keith joined TESARO to lead research and translational investigations for the niraparib program, a clinical-stage poly-ADP-ribose polymerase 1/2 (PARP) inhibitor. Following submission of the niraparib NDA, Keith joined the Strategic Partnerships group and is now focused on bringing new drug candidates into the TESARO portfolio. Keith earned his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 2001 for his work to characterize signaling pathways that modulate neuronal path finding. As a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Keith discovered and characterized a novel p38-p53-p21-dependent G1/S centrosome integrity checkpoint. Since entering industry in 2005, he has had a successful track record of developing small and large molecule drugs with novel mechanisms of action. At AstraZeneca’s Oncology Innovative Medicines group, he led discovery programs targeting PARPs, KifC1, ROS1, and transcription factors and was accountable for target validation, proof-of-mechanism, disease linkage, and biomarker investigations. .
|
Novel cancer therapeutics from the immunomicrobiome
Jackie Papkoff, PhD
Senior Vice President & Head of Research
Evelo Biosciences
[+] Biography
|
Jackie Papkoff, Ph.D. is Senior Vice President & Head of Research at Evelo Biosciences where she leads the preclinical scientific team. She joined Evelo from the J&J California Innovation Center where she was one of the founding members and served as Vice President of Immunology Scientific Innovation. Prior to that Jackie held a variety of R&D leadership positions in both biotech and pharma including a cancer-immunology focused antibody therapeutics company she co-founded. Jackie has deep expertise in cell biology and molecular mechanisms of disease which she has applied to therapeutic and biomarker preclinical development for oncology and immunology therapeutic indications. She has worked in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry for over 20 years and has broad scientific strategy, executive leadership and business experience.
|
MM-141, a bispecific antibody against IGF-IR and ErbB3 designed to overcome an intrinsic resistance mechanism of IGF-IR Inhibitors
Birgit Schoeberl, PhD
Head of Discovery, SVP
Merrimack Pharmaceuticals
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Birgit Schoeberl leads early stage drug discovery and development programs as the Head of Discovery at Merrimack. She is an internationally recognized leader in the application of Systems Biology to biology and drug development. In her years at Merrimack, she has held leadership roles in the creation and development of many of Merrimack's clinical programs, most notably MM-121. Dr. Schoeberl was also one of the founding scientists of Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals, a majority owned subsidiary of Merrimack focused on the application of Systems Biology to regenerative medicine. She serves on Silver Creek’s Scientific Advisory Board and as an observer on their Board of Directors. Dr. Schoeberl also serves as a reviewer for multiple peer-reviewed journals, including Cell Systems, Science Signaling, and PLOS Computational Biology. She joined Merrimack in 2003 after doing postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she built some of the earliest computational models of signaling networks. Dr. Schoeberl earned her PhD in Systems Biology from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems and a MS in chemical engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, both in Germany.
|
Translational control of normal and malignant stem cells
Rob Signer, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Robert Signer, an Assistant Professor in the Division of Regenerative Medicine, is a stem cell biologist whose trailblazing work on protein synthesis in hematopoietic stem cells opened the door to uncharted areas of cellular investigation. His laboratory, located in Moores UCSD Cancer Center, is working to determine how cell-type specific differences in protein synthesis promote tissue regeneration and suppress the development of cancer. Protein synthesis has long been thought of as a housekeeping function, performed similarly by most cells. Dr. Signer broke that paradigm by discovering that blood-forming stem cells synthesize less protein than other types of blood cells, and that low protein synthesis is crucial for the regenerative activity of stem cells. Dysregulation of protein synthesis occurs in many human diseases, including cancer. Dr. Signer is working to discover how mechanisms of translational control regulate normal and malignant stem cell function. He earned his Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto, his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from UCLA, and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at UT Southwestern.
|
Targeting Hyaluronan in Pancreas Cancer
Helen Torley, MB ChB, MRCP
President and Chief Executive Officer
Halozyme, Inc.
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Torley joined Halozyme in January 2014 as President and Chief Executive Officer. Throughout her career, Dr. Torley has led several successful product launches, including Kyprolis®, Prolia®, Sensipar®, and Miacalcin®. Prior to joining Halozyme, Dr. Torley served as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Onyx Pharmaceuticals (Onyx) from August 2011 to December 2013 overseeing the collaboration with Bayer on Nexavar® and Stivarga®and the U.S. launch of Kyprolis. She was responsible for the development of Onyx's commercial capabilities in ex-US markets and in particular, in Europe. Prior to Onyx, Dr. Torley spent 10 years in management positions at Amgen Inc., most recently serving as Vice President and General Manager of the US Nephrology Business Unit from 2003 to 2009 and the U.S. Bone Health Business Unit from 2009 to 2011. From 1997 to 2002, she held various senior management positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, including Regional Vice President of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sales and Head of Cardiovascular Global Marketing. She began her career at Sandoz/Novartis, where she ultimately served as Vice President of Medical Affairs, developing and conducting post-marketing clinical studies across all therapeutic areas, including oncology. Before joining the industry, Dr. Torley was in medical practice as a senior registrar in rheumatology at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow, Scotland. Dr. Torley received her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees (M.B. Ch.B.) from the University of Glasgow and is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (M.R.C.P).
|
Multivalent antibody engineering to get DR5 agonists back on TRAIL
Klaus Wagner, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Inhibrx
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Wagner received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees with the highest academic honors from the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen in Germany and was also awarded a Scholarship of the German Merit Foundation. His scientific career at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) and Genentech focused on anticancer drug discovery and predictive biomarker development. At Genentech, Dr. Wagner lead a research group to identify and develop predictive biomarkers for TRAIL and agonistic anti-DR5 antibodies. As a result of his research efforts in this area, his team successfully identified a novel link between death-receptor O-glycosylation and TRAIL ligand-induced death receptor clustering to form higher order receptor complexes. Subsequently, Dr. Wagner completed his medical training as an intern & resident at Indiana University and as a medical oncology fellow at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. After fellowship he worked at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center as a medical oncologist, where he also served as the local principal investigator of many cancer immunotherapy trials in lung and head & heck malignancies. Since August 2015 Dr. Wagner has lead the clinical translation of Inhibrx bio-therapeutic pipeline as Chief Medical Officer.
|
Junior Scientist Presentation: Pro-inflammatory pathways point the way to novel therapeutic targets for multiple myeloma
Leslie Crews, PhD
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Leslie Crews is a senior scientist in the Department of Medicine at UCSD. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles, Dr. Crews embarked upon a research career in stem cell biology, completing her PhD in Molecular Pathology at UCSD. Her passion for understanding stem cell function and dysfunction in age-related disorders has been a driving force in her research covering a range of topics from cancer and hematology to neuroscience and infectious disease. Currently, working in the laboratory of Dr. Catriona Jamieson, Dr. Crews leads several translational cancer and human stem cell research projects, with a particular focus on molecular mechanisms of multiple myeloma progression. In collaboration with clinicians and bioinformatics experts from UCSD, the Mayo Clinic, Toronto, and Italy, her recent work has identified a role for inflammation responsive pathways in the acquisition of drug resistance and stem cell-like behavior of malignant cells in multiple myeloma. She is also pioneering novel stem cell-targeted RNA editing and splicing detection tools with the overall goal of developing new regenerative medicine technologies that will improve the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of human cancers.
|
Patient Advocacy Panel Discussion: What does Real Time Translation Mean for Patients?
Moderator: Andrew Pollack
The New York Times
[+] Biography
|
Andy Pollack covered the business and science of biotechnology and medicine from The New York Times from January 2000 through September 2016, when he retired.
He joined The New York Times in 1981, covering computers and telecommunications, after three years at The Dallas Times-Herald. He previously covered technology and other business while based in San Francisco from 1985 to 1992, Tokyo from 1992 to 1997 and Los Angeles from 1997 to 2000.
Pollack earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton and a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
|
Panel Members:
Ezra Cohen, MD
Professor of Medicine
Associate Director, Translational Science
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Ezra Cohen is the Associate Director of the Moores Cancer Center where he heads the Solid Tumor Therapeutics program. Dr. Cohen is also a Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego Health where he specializes in Head and Neck Cancer and Immunotherapy and is recognized as an expert on novel cancer therapies. He earned his medical degree from the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, completing his residencies in family medicine at the University of Toronto and in internal medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Cohen completed his hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine where he was named chief fellow. Prior to joining UC San Diego Health System, he was the co-director of the Head and Neck Cancer Program at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Cohen is a board-certified oncologist and cancer researcher.
|
Tom Marsilje, PhD
Patient Advocate
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Tom Marsilje is a 20-year oncology drug discovery scientist including being a co-inventor of the lung cancer drug “ceritinib”. He is a co-author on 25 scientific publications and is co-inventor of 19 Issued US Patents. He is also diagnosed with “currently incurable” stage IV colon cancer. He works with many different CRC patient advocacy organizations in order to increase CRC patient empowerment and education on the CRC clinical trial landscape. Advocacy highlights include helping to create and run the COLONTOWN CLINIC CRC Clinical Trial online community recently featured on NBC Evening News with Lester Holt and MSNBC and the release of a MSS-CRC curated clinical trial finder in both web & phone app formats. As a prolific writer, he writes a personal blog on life at the intersection of being both a cancer patient and researcher with readership in 140 countries “Adventures in Living Terminally Optimistic”, a science column for Fight Colorectal Cancer "The Currently Incurable Scientist", is a regular columnist on Stage IV life and issues for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
|
Tony Reid, MD, PhD
Professor of Clinical Medicine
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Tony Reid currently serves as Director of Early Phase Research of the Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). He is currently a professor of medicine with primary specialty in cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, pancreatic cancer and hematology/blood diseases at UCSD. Dr. Reid has published broadly on the use of a new agent for the treatment of these malignancies and conducts a variety of clinical trials that utilize correlative studies to translate between important clinical and basic science observations. He has focused most of his work on early phase therapeutic clinical trials using gene therapy strategies to enhance the immune response to these malignancies. He was also the lead investigator on the original trials using Onyx-015 to treat colorectal cancer and has pioneered the use of adenoviral and vaccinia vectors for the treatment of cancer. Dr. Reid has been at the forefront of using interventional radiology to selectively deliver therapeutic directly to the tumor using the tumor's own vascular supply.
Dr. Reid has received national recognition for his work, including awards from the Interferon Society, the International Society of Gene Therapy and the Society for Interventional Radiology. He is on the review board of numerous prestigious journals including Nature Cancer Gene Therapy, Gene Therapyand Clinical Cancer Research.
Dr. Reid completed his residency and fellowship at Stanford University, where he also received his M.D. and a Ph.D. in biochemistry.
|
Stephen Schoenberger, PhD
Professor, Division of Cellular Immnology
La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology,
Head of Cancer Vaccines, Human Longevity Inc.
[+] Biography
|
Dr. Schoenberger is a Professor in the Laboratory of Cellular Immunology and Chair of LIAI’s Center for the Immunobiology of Cancer, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from UCLA in 1993 and completed postdoctoral training in Immunohematology and Tumor Immunology at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands. Dr. Schoenberger was appointed to LIAI’s faculty in 1998 as an Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002, gained Tenure in 2005, and became a Professor in 2007. He is a recipient of Scholar Awards from both the American Cancer Society and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and is on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Dr. Schoenberger is a leader in the immunobiology of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses with particular expertise on the generation and maintenance of immune memory by these subsets and in the key role of antigen-presenting cells (APC) in mediating antigen-specific tolerance versus immunity. His research has revealed a new mechanism for how CD4+ T cells provide the ‘help’ necessary for optimal CD8+ T cell responses via APC activation and his laboratory was the first to demonstrate the role of T cell programming in guiding the development of CD8+ T cells. More recently, he has sought to translate his laboratory’s insights into T cell and APC biology for the personalized immunotherapy of cancer based on patient-specific tumor neoantigens in work that will lead to clinical trials at the Moores Cancer Center planned for later in 2016.
|
|
We Thank Our Sponsors:
|