New members as of July 2024:

• Ibrahim Abu-Gheida Burjeel Medical City, Abu Dhabi, UAE
  

  Dr. Abu-Gheida is the Chief Medical Officer of Burjeel Medical City and clinical director of the department of radiation oncology at Burjeel Medical City. Dr. Abu-Gheida is also the chairman of the first Emirates Oncology Society Radiation Oncology Work group formulated in 2023. He also serves as a regional Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) committee representative for the Middle East and Africa. Dr. Abu-Gheida completed his undergraduate training where he earned a Bachelor of Science with honors degree from the American University of Beirut. Following this, Dr. Abu-Gheida completed his Medical School training at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. He continued and joined the Department of Internal Medicine at the American University of Beirut. Then did his training in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, where he also served as the chief resident. During his Training, Dr. Abu-Gheida completed a Harvard-affiliated NIH-funded research program as well. After his residency, Dr. Ibrahim went to Cleveland Clinic / in Ohio, where he was appointed as an Advanced Clinical Radiation Oncology Fellow. Dr. Abu-Gheida went and joined the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center where he sub-specialized in treating Breast, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary cancers. Dr. Abu Gheida played an instrumental role in establishing and heading the radiation oncology facility and department at Burjeel medical city. He has chaired and co-chaired multiple international oncology conferences. Dr. Ibrahim has more than 40 peer-reviewed papers in the prestigious medical journal including the American Society of Radiation Oncology official journal - the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology and Physics, Nature, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and several others. He is also the primary author and editor of several book chapters published in prestigious books.

  Ibrahim Abu-Gheida’s research and publication profile can be found on:
  https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=34Lr_tEAAAAJ&hl=en

• Humaid Obaid Al-Shamsi Burjeel Cancer Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE
  

  Prof. Humaid Obaid Al-Shamsi is the Chief executive officer of Burjeel cancer institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE, President of the Emirates Oncology Society, Lead of the Gulf Cancer Society, Full Professor of Oncology at the Ras al Khaimah Medical and Health Sciences University, Ras al Khaimah, UAE and an adjunct Professor of Oncology at the College of Medicine at the University of Sharjah.
  He is the first Emirati to be promoted to a professor in oncology in the UAE. He is also the Chairman for Colorectal Cancer in the MENA region, appointed by the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network®. He is also the only member of Lung Cancer Policy Network in the MENA region that aims to advance lung cancer research and screening globally.
  He is the Chairman of the Oncology and Hematology Fellowship Training Program for the National Institute for Health Specialties in the United Arab Emirates. He is the only member in GCC in the WIN Consortium which comprised of organizations representing all stakeholders in personalized cancer medicine globally.
  He is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Oncology from the UK , USA(ABIM), and Canada (FRCPC), he is also has been awarded the FRCP(London) in 2023 and he will be awarded FRCP Glasgow next week inshalla.
  He is the only physician in the UAE with a subspecialty fellowship certification and training in Gastrointestinal Oncology and the first Emirati to train and complete a clinical post-doctoral fellowship in Palliative Care. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center between 2014 and 2017.
  He has published more than 140 peer-reviewed articles in JAMA Oncology, Lancet Oncology, The Oncologist, BMC Cancer, and many others. His area of expertise including precision oncology and cancer care in the UAE. In 2016 he published with his group from MD Anderson the JCO paper describing a new distinct sub group of CRC , NON V600 BRAF mutated CRC. In 2022, he published the first book about cancer research in the UAE and also the first book about cancer in the Arab World, both of which were launched at Dubai Expo 2020. “Cancer in the Arab Wolrd ” which has been downloaded more than 450,000 times in their first 18 months of publication to be the ultimate source of cancer data in the Arab region.
  He also published the first comprehensive book about cancer care in the UAE which is the first book in UAE history to document the cancer care in the UAE with many topics addressed for the first time e.g neuroendocrine tumors in the UAE.
  He is passionate about advancing cancer care in the UAE and the GCC and has made significant contributions to cancer awareness and early detection for the public using social media platforms. He is considered as the most followed oncologist in the world with over 300,000 subscribers across his social media platforms (Instagram , Twitter , LinkedIn and TikTok).
  In 2022, he was awarded the prestigious Feigenbaum Leadership Excellence Awards from Sheikh Hamdan Smart University for his exceptional leadership and research, as well as the Sharjah Award for Volunteering. He was also named the Researcher of the Year in the UAE in 2020 and 2021 by the Emirates Oncology Society.
  In May 2024 HH Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed alnahyan Vice President of the United Arab Emirates awarded him the first place in UAE Nafis program for outstanding leadership in private sector across all business and medical disciplines.
  Bedside his clinical & administrative duties , he is engaged in education & research training for medical trainees at different levels of their training to enhance their clinical and research skills.
  Prof.Alshamsi mission is to advance cancer care in the UAE & the MENA region and make cancer care accessible to everyone in need around the globe.

• Trever Bivona University of California, San Francisco, CA
  

  Trever Bivona, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology division, Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco, CA

  Dr. Trever Bivona is a cell and molecular biologist and a medical oncologist. He received his MD and PhD degrees from NYU School of Medicine, followed by internal medicine training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, and medical oncology and post-doctoral research training at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Dr. Bivona then joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco in 2011 where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology division, and the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, and a member of the Helen Diller UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Bivona is also an appointed Senior Investigator at the Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco. Dr. Bivona directs a basic and translational research program investigating oncogene signaling pathways and the molecular basis of response and resistance to cancer therapeutics, with a major focus on kinase and RAS signaling. Recent work by Dr. Bivona and colleagues uncovered a new form of oncogenic kinase and RAS signaling through liquid-liquid phase separation and biomolecular condensation. Dr. Bivona is currently Principal Investigator of the NIH/NCI Bay Area and Anderson Acquired Resistance to Therapy Network (ARTNet) Center. He received a NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

• Phillip Buckhaults University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
  

  Phillip Buckhaults, Ph.D., Professor, Drug Discovery & Biomedical Sciences (DDBS) College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Fred Bunz Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD
  

  Fred Bunz, Ph.D., M.D., Associate Professor, department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

  Dr. Bunz earned his M.D. and Ph.D. in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Stony Brook University, was a Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins, and is currently an Associate Professor in the department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research interests are centered on the signaling molecules and pathways that are activated by DNA damage and viral infection. The long term goal of this work is to better understand how current therapies work and to develop new and improved cancer treatments. A recent area of interest is the development of oncolytic viruses. Dr. Bunz also serves as a co-director of the Oncology Tissue and Imaging Core at the Kimmel Cancer Center and co-director of Admissions for the program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, the largest PhD training program at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is the author of Principles of Cancer Genetics, a widely used textbook currently in its 3rd edition.

• Benedito A. Carneiro Brown University, Providence, RI
  

  Benedito A Carneiro, MD, MS is a Medical Oncologist and Clinical Investigator renowned for his expertise in early drug development and first-in-human trials exploring novel therapeutics for solid tumors and genitourinary cancers. Dr. Carneiro serves as the founder and Director of the Cancer Drug Development Program (Phase I) and Director of Clinical Research at the Brown University Health Cancer Institute. He is also Associate Director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Co-Leader of the Cancer Therapeutics Program at the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University and Associate Professor of Medicine. He leads numerous first-in-human (phase I) clinical trials evaluating novel treatments for advanced solid tumors, including kidney, bladder, prostate, lung, pancreas, and colon cancers. Dr Carneiro's research spans clinical and translational research efforts, exploring novel immunotherapies, genomic-driven treatment strategies, cellular therapy, and the identification of therapeutic targets and biomarkers of treatment response and resistance mechanisms in collaboration with translational scientists.

  Dr. Carneiro has expertise in the mechanisms of cell death (apoptosis) and its interface with anti-tumor immune response and novel agents targeting tumors with defects in DNA repair mechanisms. Ongoing research projects investigate novel strategies to treat advanced prostate cancer with immunotherapies and overcoming therapy-induced senescence. He has authored over 110 articles in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to multiple book chapters. He is an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), and the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). He represents the Legorreta Cancer Center at the WIN (Worldwide Innovative Networking in Personalized Cancer Medicine) Consortium. He is an active AACR Annual Meeting Clinical Trials Committee member and has participated in the ASCO Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee.

• Clark C. Chen Brown University, Providence, RI
  

  Dr. Chen is a neurosurgeon at Brown University Health and a professor at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. He is a recognized expert in the surgical treatment of benign and malignant brain cancer and directs the Brain Tumor Program at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine. He is an NIH-funded investigator who has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications, including studies published in Nature, Nature Genetics, Molecular Cell, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. His laboratory research focuses on the characterization of microRNAs as they relate to DNA damage and glioblastoma therapeutic resistance. He has served as a primary investigator for over 30 clinical trials.

• Jonathan Chernoff Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA
  

  Jonathan Chernoff, MD PhD, Director, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA

  Dr. Chernoff has devoted his research career to understanding how cells receive and interpret signals, and how this process in corrupted in cancer. In particular, he focuses on the regulation of signal transduction by phosphorylation, with the overarching goal to understanding how these pathways are rewired in cancer, and their implications for the development, spread, and resistance of solid tumors to therapy.

  His group has made important discoveries in three signaling pathways: Rho-family small GTPases, Hippo, and Insulin signaling, through discoveries and subsequent work on the STE20 kinases PAK and MST, and the protein tyrosine phosphatase PTP1B, respectively. He has broad expertise in molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, proteomics, and mouse models of cancer. Dr. Chernoff is the author of more than 200 publications and he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science in 2017.

• Stephen G. Chun University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
  

  Dr. Chun is a Radiation Oncologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center where he serves as Director of Radiation Oncology Clinical Research for the MD Anderson Houston Area Locations. He has received grant funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as Principal Investigator and has widely published on the multidisciplinary management of aerodigestive malignancies in journals such as the Lancet, the Journal of Clinical Oncology and JAMA Oncology. Dr. Chun is highly active with NRG Oncology and was responsible for launching their podcast which was the first ever established by an NCI cooperative group.

• Nathan Dolloff Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Charleston, SC
  

  Nathan Dolloff, PhD, Associate Professor, Medical University of South Carolina, Director of Entrepreneurship, Hollings Cancer Center, MUSC Office of Innovation, Chief Technology Officer, Zucker Institute for Innovation Commercialization, Charleston, SC

  Nathan Dolloff is PI of an NIH-funded cancer therapeutics research program at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, SC. In addition to his research program, Dr. Dolloff serves as Chief Technology Officer for MUSC’s technology commercialization office, the Zucker Institute for Innovation Commercialization. As part of that role, he leads entrepreneurship initiatives for the NCI designated MUSC Hollings Cancer Center and the MUSC Office of Innovation. He is founder of Leukogene Therapeutics, Inc., which is a Charleston-based spin-out company developing an MHC class II targeted (M2T™) therapeutic cancer vaccine platform for some of the deadliest cancers, including pancreatic cancer and Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML). M2T™ directs tumor associated antigens to antigen presenting cells thereby promoting their presentation to the immune system and driving an anti-tumor immune response. Leukogene has raised over $6M to date and has been awarded multiple Phase I and Phase II SBIR/STTR grants from NIH/NCI. Earlier in his career, Dolloff led projects that produced multiple cancer drug candidates, including olaratumab/LARTRUVO, CDK9 inhibitors, dual CDK1/GSK3beta inhibitors, and the discovery of the PDI inhibitor, LTI6426. Dolloff is an MUSC Eminent Scholar and was MUSC’s Innovator of the Year in 2018. He is an inventor on numerous issued and pending patents, author of >40 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters, fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and former Research Scholar of the American Cancer Society.

• Peiwen Fei University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center, Honolulu, HI
  

  Peiwen Fei, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Cancer Biology. University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

  Dr. Peiwen Fei has been in the tumor-suppression field of basic cancer research on DNA Damage Response (DDR) / Fanconi Anemia (FA) Signaling and TP53 signaling for more than two decades. Her research team often reports new findings, constantly opening new niches of investigation. These have been highlighted not only in several scientific news media (ScienceDaily, Pubadvanced, World Biomedical Frontiers, and Global Medical Discovery), but also via invited reviews. Beyond this area of cancer research, she has also recently emerged as a leader in studying cancer health disparities associated with some racial/ethnic populations, including Native Hawaiians / Pacific Islanders.

• Lori Hazlehurst West Virginia University and Cancer Institute, Morgantown, WV
  

  Dr. Hazlehurst is professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at West Virginia University. Her research focus is delineating cancer vulnerabilities in the context of the tumor microenvironment. Her work has led to validation of novel targets as well as pharmacological approaches to further validate and define the therapeutic window for clinical development. In addition to her academic career she is co-founder of Modulation Therapeutics which is now a clinical stage therapeutic company where she has gained more experience in the drug development pathway. She has received grant funding from National Cancer Institute as principle investigator and has served on multiple NCI study sections.

• Elizabeth P. Henske Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
  

  Elizabeth (Lisa) Petri Henske is the Director of the Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a practicing medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She earned her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Yale and her MD from Harvard, followed by residency and fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her laboratory discovered that lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is caused by mutations in the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) genes and was the first to discover that the TSC1 and TSC2 proteins physically interact. Her research laboratory is focused on the cellular, metabolic, and immunologic mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis and therapy of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and rare renal tumors, including angiomyolipomas and chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. She has led clinical trials in LAM and is supported by grants from the NCI, NHLBI and NIDDK.

• Justin D. Lathia Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
  

  Justin D. Lathia, PhD; Professor, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic; Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University; Scientific Director, Rose Ella Burkhardt Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center, Cleveland Clinic; Molecular Oncology Co-Leader, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

  Dr. Justin Lathia leads a translational cancer stem cell research laboratory with a focus on understanding how cancer stem cells interact with their surrounding microenvironment as well as one another with the goal of identifying unique pathways for therapeutic development and a recent focus on sex differences in glioblastoma. Work in the Lathia laboratory has resulted in multiple Phase 1 clinical trials aimed at targeting myeloid-derived suppressor cells that interact with cancer stem cells to suppress the immune system in glioblastoma or cancer stem cell specific therapeutic vulnerabilities. Dr. Lathia has co-authored over 260 publications. Dr. Lathia also serves on the editorial board for Cell Reports, Cancer Research, and Neuro-Oncology.

• Sean Lawler Brown University, Providence, RI
  

  Sean Lawler Ph.D leads the Brain Cancer Therapy Lab in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Brown University. He is co-Director of the Brain Cancer Research Group at Legorreta Cancer Center. The Lawler Lab investigates therapeutic approaches for the treatment of Brain Cancer, from preclinical models, to the analysis of data from patient tumors, with the goal of developing the next generation of therapeutic approaches for these extremely challenging diseases. Sean Lawler obtained his PhD from the University of London in 1992, and specialized in mammalian signal transduction mechanisms during his post-doctoral training at UCSF, INSERM and the University of Dundee, before faculty appointments at Massachussetts General Hospital, The Ohio State University, the University of Leeds, and Brigham and Women's Hospital where he has developed an expertise in translational approaches for brain tumor therapy.

• Bora Lim University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
  

  At MDACC, she served as Chair for the Clinical Research for the IBC program, Chair of the TMP-CRG, and SRC group 3 member. At Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in December 2020, as a Tenured Associate Professor, Director of Translational Research, and Associate Director of Clinical Science at the Breast Center, she further strengthened her scientific portfolio by taking advantage of the strong laboratory infrastructure and developed productive collaborations as both the administrative core Clinical Lead and the Project 1 trial lead for the Breast SPORE project at BCM. During this tenure, she led the clinical core part of the BCM Breast SPORE and its Project 1, organizing different parties. Now back at MDACC, she is the Director of Translational Research for the Morgan Welch IBC Research and Clinic Program, and Section Chief for Translational Research of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology. At the national level, she serves as a reviewer for several grant programs including the DOD, CME committee member for the AACR, and as a member of several committees and representative of ASCO.

• Jia (Jenny) Liu St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  

  Jia (Jenny) Liu, MD PhD FRACP, Translational Lead, Early Phase Unit, The Kinghorn Cancer Centre, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, NSW Australia.

  As the Translational Lead of Early Phase Drug Development at The Kinghorn Cancer Centre, she oversees and manages the design and execution of early phase clinical trials for novel cancer therapeutics, with a focus on head and neck cancer. Dr Liu graduated with BSc(Med)Hons Class 1, MD (university medal) and PhD from University of New South Wales in 2014, and is currently a member of the Medical Oncology Group of Australia Executive Committee and Chair of the National Oncology Mentorship Program. She has a strong track record in translational research in epigenetics, proteomics and survivorship, alongside her clinical expertise with drug development and is currently principal investigator on over 15 trials, and leads investigator-led trials at TKCC in collaboration with scientists, cooperative groups and industry. She has been the recipient of over 10 grants and 10 prizes/awards and has been a speaker to multiple national and international conferences including ASCO, ESMO GI and ASTRO.

• Hui-Wen Lo University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX
  

  Hui-Wen Lo, Ph.D., McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas

  Dr. Lo is UTHealth Houston Distinguished Professor in Neuro-Oncology, Professor of Neurosurgery with tenure, Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Neurosurgery, and the Director of the Metastatic Brain Tumor Research Program at McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Lo started her independent academic career at Duke University School of Medicine 2006 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. During 2014-2022, Dr. Lo was a tenured Associate Professor and Professor of Cancer Biology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, as well as, the Associate Director for Shared Resources Management and Associate Director for Basic Sciences at the NCI-designated Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is a basic and translational cancer biologist with more than 30 years of experience in conducting cancer-related studies. She has published >120 peer-reviewed publications. Her research is innovative and her scientific discoveries have led to two patents and one clinical trial. Her laboratory has been continuously funded by many NIH and DoD grants, as well as, funding from private foundations in the past 18 years.

• Emil Lou University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
  

  Emil Lou, M.D., Ph.D, FACP, Professor with tenure, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, Department of Medicine and Graduate Faculty Program member in the Integrative Biology and Physiology Program (IBP) at the University of Minnesota

  Dr. Lou received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees (Microbiology and Immunology) from SUNY Upstate Medical University in 2004. He performed his residency training in Internal Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and then subsequently completed his Medical Oncology and Hematology fellowship at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2010. He also completed an additional fellowship in Neuro-Oncology at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke. Dr. Lou, a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, is board certified in Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine. In addition he is also board certified in Neuro-Oncology through the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties. Dr. Lou’s clinical practice focuses on patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancers, and his research program centers on advancing understanding of clinical cancer biology of solid tumors. His lab investigates the role of intercellular communication on tumor heterogeneity and impact on cancer cell invasion, progression, tumor recurrence, and chemotherapy resistance, with special focus on tunneling nanotubes (TNTs), long cellular protrusions that act as skyways to create cellular networks for communication and coordination.

• Anirban Maitra University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
  

  Dr. Maitra is a Professor of Pathology and Translational Molecular Pathology, and Scientific Director of the Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston (since August 2013). Dr. Maitra is the Principal Investigator of an NCI-funded laboratory dedicated to pancreatic cancer research. The arc of his research career has been defined by contributions made in the spheres of genetics and molecular pathology of pancreatic cancer and its precursor lesions, in both human and cognate mouse models of pancreatic neoplasia. Dr. Maitra is deeply committed towards identifying and implementing translational research opportunities in pancreatic cancer that can improve the survival of patients stricken with this disease, with a particular focus on early detection and cancer interception.

• Ruben A. Mesa Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston Salem, NC
  

  Ruben Mesa, MD, President, Atrium Health Levine Cancer, Executive Director, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center

  Dr. Mesa is the President of Atrium Health Levine Cancer, the Executive Director of the NCI Comprehensive Cancer based at Wake Forest Baptist; the Vice Dean for cancer programs at Wake Forest School of Medicine Enterprise Cancer Service Line Atrium Health and Senior Vice President for Atrium Health where he oversees all efforts for cancer practice, education and research across Atrium Health (the Southeast Region for Advocate Health the 5th largest health system in the USA). From 2017-2023 Mesa was the Executive Director of the NCI Designated Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson where he developed and grew the cancer service line, co-led the development and construction of a new cancer focused hospital, grew cancer faculty, peer reviewed funded research and successfully renewed the NCI designation in 2020. Mesa practiced hematology at Mayo Clinic (MN 2002-2009, AZ 2009-2017) and was Chair of Hematology & Medical Oncology and Deputy Director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center.

  Mesa is an international expert in hematologic cancers, who has dedicated his life’s work to research and drug development for myeloproliferative neoplasms and led/co-led the development of six drugs that have been FDA approved for myeloproliferative neoplasms and was the inaugural panel chair of the NCCN guideline panel for the first USA guidelines for MPNS. Mesa is passionate about advancing cancer health equity and increasing minority patients’ participation in cancer clinical trials, implement a mandate that each new trial at the Mays Cancer Center had a minority accrual plan, and in March 2022, he testified on the importance of clinical trial diversity before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Mesa also co-led the Mays Cancer Center’s biennial Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos Conference held in San Antonio.

• Boris C. Pasche Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Detroit, MI
  

  Boris Pasche, MD, PhD, FACP

  Dr. Pasche serves as President and CEO of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and Chair of the Department of Oncology at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. He has served in various, esteemed clinical and academic positions. He was Director of the Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center and Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology. During his tenure, NCI-funding doubled within 8 years. Prior to that, he was chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he expanded the clinical and research programs, and tripled its funding. He also served as Deputy Director of the University of Alabama Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to that he was the founder of the Cancer Genetics Program at Northwestern University in Chicago.

  A diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Medical Oncology and the American Board of Hematology, Dr. Pasche received his medical degree from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, and his doctoral degree from the same institute. He also received a medical degree from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center, and a Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the New York Hospital Cornell University Medical Center. He completed post-doctoral training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.

  Widely published and with an extensive history of peer-reviewed research funding exceeding $20M, Dr. Pasche has trained and mentored many graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and fellows, several of whom hold leadership positions around the country.

  He was the first to identify and characterize TGFBR1^*6A, a germline as well as somatically acquired mutation of the type I TGF-β receptor. He is the co-inventor and developer of a new targeted systemic therapy for cancer based on the use of amplitude-modulated radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, which received FDA approval and is bringing a new therapeutic option for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

• Steven A. Rosenzweig Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC
  

  Steven A. Rosenzweig, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology and Immunology Medical University of South Carolina

  Dr. Rosenzweig is Professor of Pharmacology and Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina, Associate Director of Shared Resources at Hollings Cancer Center. Dr. Rosenzweig obtained his PhD from the University of Toronto and carried out postdoctoral studies at Yale University School of Medicine. Recruited to MUSC in 1991 due to his interests and accomplishments in cell signaling research, he has made seminal contributions to the structure and function of peptide hormones, growth factors and their receptors. More recent research has focused on the structure and function of the insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) and their potential as natural IGF antagonists and thus cancer therapeutics. This led to his current interest in using a portion of the C-terminus of IGFBP2 in generating a nanotube platform for the delivery of therapeutics and biologics to difficult to reach locations in a variety of cancers and other diseases. Included in the many awards he has received, is the 11^th Annual Piero P. Foà Endowed Lecture in 2015.

• Yashbir Singh Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN
  

  Dr. Yashbir Singh is an Assistant Professor of Radiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, USA. He holds an ME and PhD, with his doctorate completed in Taiwan on a Taiwanese Government scholarship. Dr. Singh's research focuses on applying deep learning-based AI algorithms and topological data analysis to medical imaging, aiming to improve patient care through enhanced image interpretation and identification of new disease biomarkers. His academic journey includes a DAAD fellowship from Germany, and positions as a visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School's Cardiac Surgery Department and as a medical scientist at West Virginia University's Heart and Vascular Institute. Dr. Singh is part of the Early Career Reviewer program at the NIH's Center for Scientific Review.

  Dr. Singh has received several accolades, including recognition as a top reviewer by the European Society of Radiology and being a finalist for the Arthur E. Weyman Young Investigator's Award from the American Society of Echocardiography. He has authored numerous scientific publications and received travel grants from the New York Academy of Sciences and Stanford University.

• Kumar Somasundaram Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
  

  Kumar Somasundaram is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology Cell Biology at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He obtained his Veterinary Medicine degree (1985) from Madras Veterinary College, a Masters in Biotechnology (1987), and a Ph.D. in bacterial genetics (1993) from Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India. Subsequently, he did his post-doctoral training in cancer genetics at Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania before moving to the Indian Institute of Science (1999). The primary focus of his laboratory is the genetics of glioma, the most common primary adult cancer.

• Noel Warfel University of Arizona Cancer Center, Tucson, AZ
  

  Dr. Warfel is an Associate Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Arizona. His research is focused on understanding how factors in the tumor microenvironment impact tumor cells metastasis and drug resistance, with the goal of identifying unique pathways for therapeutic development. Work from the Warfel laboratory has advanced our understanding of HIF-independent signaling pathways that are activated in response to hypoxia. Most notably, Dr. Warfel’s research focusing on PIM kinases as expanded how we view PIM kinases in disease and as potential therapeutic targets. Dr. Warfel has received grant funding from the American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, and Department of Defense as Principal Investigator is has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.