Track Chair: Cindy Perettie, Roche
Biography
Dr. Liu brings a wealth of experience in developing blood-based biomarkers to predict treatment benefit and outcomes in solid tumors and in developing novel therapeutics to improve survival, with a particular focus in breast cancer. She chaired the Circulating Biomarker Working Group of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. She also co-chaired the Correlative Science Working Group and led several multi-institutional clinical trials through the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium. Dr. Liu most recently served as professor of oncology and chair of research in the Department of Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. In her role at Mayo, she also held a dual appointment in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and served as co-leader of the Genomics in Action Strategic Priority for the Center of Individualized Medicine.
Biography
Dr. Victor Lin is a medical oncologist at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center (MBPCC) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In addition to caring for patients with a clinical focus in thoracic oncology and sarcoma, he provides physician leadership for MBPCC’s clinical research and genetics programs spanning multiple sites across the state. Prior to joining MBPCC, Dr. Lin was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). While at UAB, he was the Associate Director of the Molecular Tumor Board and Co-Chair of the Molecular Oncology Steering Committee. Dr. Lin now serves on the OneOncology Molecular Tumor Board and has been appointed to both the OneOncology Precision Oncology Committee and the OneR Steering Committee.
Biography
Dr. Harmeet Dhani is lead Medical Director at Biological Dynamics, an innovative liquid biopsy biotechnology company that uses extracellular vesicle (EV)-based protein biomarkers for early cancer detection, and neurodegenerative and infectious diseases.Harmeet is a surgeon scientist who after completing his medical degree, went onto general surgery residency and pursued transplant and hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery, including a research fellowship at Georgetown University where he has an accomplished track record in studying liver, intestinal disease and transplantation. Most notably, he has published and received awards for his work to elucidate markers of allograft rejection, including Emerging Livers Scholar Award from the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease and the Young Investigator Award from American Transplant Congress.He continued to decorate his career with experience in the oncology division at Natera. He also holds a Master’s in Clinical Research from UCSD, and is currently earning his MBA part-time at Georgetown University.
Talk
Never too late – championing earlier cancer detection
Changing the paradigm of early cancer detection through a novel exosome-based platform called VeritaTM. BioDyn empowers at-risk patients and providers with a highly sensitive biomarker assay for clinical adoption in multi-cancers, one cancer at a time.
Biography
Dr. Diaz is a physician-scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His teams provided the first definitive evidence for using circulating tumor DNA as cancer biomarker for screening, monitoring, and detection of occult disease; and discovered the therapeutic link between immunotherapy and cancer genetics in patients with mismatch repair deficient tumors. This research led to the historic first pan-tumor FDA approval for any solid tumors with this genetic lesion and the first cancer study that resulted in a 100% complete response rate. He is the recipient of numerous recognitions for his work including the Waun Ki Hong Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research. He is Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Discovery and is an elected member of the Giants of Cancer Care, the AACR Fellows Academy, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the American Academy of Physicians. In 2021, Dr. Diaz was appointed by President Joseph Biden to the National Cancer Advisory Board.
Biography
Dr. Kurzrock is a board-certified medical oncologist and a renowned expert in precision medicine. She is known for developing one of the largest and best known Phase I clinical trial programs in the United States while at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas. Dr. Kurzrock established the UCSD’s Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy at the Moores Cancer Center. The center focuses on genomically-driven therapy as well as precision immunotherapy, especially in rare cancers. Dr. Kurzrock is a global leader in personalized medicine, bringing the first transcriptomic study to the clinic in an international setting spanning five countries (WINTHER), as well as the first study of individually customized combination therapy (IPREDICT). Dr. Kurzrock received her MD from the University of Toronto, Canada. She has over 800 PubMed publications, an H-index of 122, has been named to the lists of most highly cited scientists in the world and the 25 world leaders in precision medicine, and she has a uniquely strong record of competitive funding with more than 100 million dollars in lifetime funding.
Biography
I am a medical oncologist and clinical researcher. My research focuses on precision medicine and clinical pharmacology.
Biography
Kathryn A. Phillips founded the UCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Precision Medicine over a decade ago. She has published ~200 articles in major journals (e.g., JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Health Affairs) and has had funding from NIH as a PI for 30 years. Kathryn is the Editor-in-Chief of Health Affairs Scholar; serves on the editorial boards for Health Affairs, Value in Health, JAMA Internal Medicine; is a member of the National Academy of Medicine Roundtable on Genomics; has served on the Board of Directors for GenomeCanada and as an advisor to FDA and CDC; and is a member of ICER’s evidence review committee.
Biography
Ash completed his PhD in Biophysics & MD at Stanford in 2003 under Pat Brown’s mentorship. Supported by HHMI & NIH MSTP, he built and applied the lymphochip microarray platform to profile gene expression in DLBCL and other tumors. This work led to discovery of DLBCL subtypes and a framework for cell-of-origin. Following his clinical subspecialty Hematology & Oncology training, he completed his postdoctoral studies with Ron Levy & Irv Weissman. His lab studies genomic biomarkers of tumors, whether detected through primary tissue biopsies or non-invasively using liquid biopsies. His group has developed several methods for ctDNA detection including CAPP-Seq, PhasED-Seq, and EPIC-Seq, and developed digital cytometry methods (CIBERSORT/x), applying it broadly to human cancers (PRECOG; EcoTyper). His group applies such genomic tools for early detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of diverse tumors. His group builds and employ tools from functional genomics, computational biology, molecular genetics, and disease models.
Biography
Cindy Perettie today works for a Diagnostic Molecular Lab with a focus on PCR Systems and Testing, Sequencing Systems, and Testing. Precision Medicines evolution has also been a focus of Ms. Peretties career where she worked on development and commercialization of key therapeutics and diagnostics in this space. Ms. Perettie is passionate about improving the care of cancer patients globally and brings more than two decades of scientific and commercial experience with global biopharmaceutical and diagnostic organizations. la
Biography
Dr. Tsimberidou has designed highly innovative clinical trials that have changed the standard of practice of oncology in patients with solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. She pioneered the personalized medicine program for advanced cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center, demonstrating that identification of molecular aberrations and selection of therapy based on tumor abnormalities is associated with improved clinical outcomes compared with standard approaches. She is leading IMPACT2, a randomized trial in precision oncology, and personalized immunotherapy trials. She has published >280 articles in high-impact peer-reviewed journals. She has been invited to present her work as a keynote speaker at numerous national and international conferences. She has received various prestigious awards including a Career Development Award from ASCO. She chaired ASCO’s Clinical Research Committee (2016-2017) and serves on various ASCO committees. Her high-quality innovative research focuses on development and implementation of precision oncology through innovative therapeutic approaches, education, and patient care.
Talk
Implementation of Precision Oncology in Advanced Cancer
In 2007, we initiated the personalized medicine program for patients with advanced cancer. We used tumor molecular profiling to optimize selection of investigational targeted therapies and demonstrated that this approach was associated with favorable outcomes. Although several gaps still exist, personalized oncology holds the promise to improve clinical outcomes.
Biography
Dr. Diaz is a physician-scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His teams provided the first definitive evidence for using circulating tumor DNA as cancer biomarker for screening, monitoring, and detection of occult disease; and discovered the therapeutic link between immunotherapy and cancer genetics in patients with mismatch repair deficient tumors. This research led to the historic first pan-tumor FDA approval for any solid tumors with this genetic lesion and the first cancer study that resulted in a 100% complete response rate. He is the recipient of numerous recognitions for his work including the Waun Ki Hong Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research. He is Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Discovery and is an elected member of the Giants of Cancer Care, the AACR Fellows Academy, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the American Academy of Physicians. In 2021, Dr. Diaz was appointed by President Joseph Biden to the National Cancer Advisory Board.
Biography
Razelle Kurzrock, MD, is a world leader in precision medicine and immunotherapy. As a medical oncologist/researcher, she is recognized as one of the most important voices in precision medicine and one of the most highly cited scientists globally. Dr. Kurzrock is known for founding and chairing the largest Phase 1 clinical trials department in the world while at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. More recently, at the University of California, Dr. Kurzrock founded and led the Rare Tumor Clinic and the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy. Dr. Kurzrock has brought oversight to >500 clinical trials, with many agents yielding FDA approvals. She has authored >900 peer-reviewed paper with an exception Hirsch index (h-index) score of 136 (>77,000 citations). Her strong record of competitive funding is comprised of ~$125 million in lifetime funding. She has four children, two Basenjis (dogs) and is married to Philip Cohen, MD, who is a dermatologist.
Biography
Mike Nolan has nearly three decades of experience and a proven record of delivering transformative diagnostic technologies to drive better outcomes for patients. Currently, Mike leads a multidisciplinary team of experts committed to radically transforming cancer care with a multiomics platform to detect cancer in its earliest stages using a standard blood draw. He is passionate about health equity and access to care. From overseeing the largest, most diverse clinical study of its kind for colorectal cancer (CRC), to working closely with community and industry leaders to expand access to screening, Mike inspires teams to develop and execute strategies that achieve remarkable results. Mike has also held leadership roles for some of the most recognized names in healthcare and diagnostics.
Biography
Jeffrey M. Venstrom, MD, is a physician-scientist with expertise in oncology, hematology, and drug/diagnostic development. Dr. Venstrom is currently developing new integrated evidence strategies for multi-cancer early detection, the biggest unmet need in Oncology.
Prior to joining GRAIL, he served as Chief Medical Partner at Genentech, where he led new Health Equity strategies, and developed an innovation incubator for Medical Affairs, across Oncology and Neuroscience. During his 8 years at Roche, Dr. Venstrom established and led the Global Hematology Biomarker Franchise at Genentech and Roche where he focused on biomarker and companion diagnostic development for early and late-stage molecules in hematology/oncology and immunology. Prior to joining Genentech/Roche, Dr. Venstrom was the Krishnamurthi Endowed Chair in Hematologic Malignancies at The University of California, San Francisco. In addition to clinical care of cancer patients, he led a grant-funded research lab and served as principal investigator for several industry-sponsored translational research trials and collaborations.
Biography
Dr. Hegde oversees clinical product development, cancer genomics, and early-stage research, as well as regulatory and quality assurance, to accelerate advancement of the Company’s leading comprehensive genomic profiling portfolio. She is passionate about innovation in cancer research and translating innovations to precision medicine tools to advance care for patients. Dr. Hegde has spent nearly two decades in the biopharmaceutical industry, with a proven track record in drug development, registration, and commercialization of therapeutics with companion diagnostics in cancer immunotherapy. Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Dr. Hegde spent 12 years at Genentech. Dr. Hegde served as senior director and principal scientist in oncology biomarker development at Genentech, during which she established and led the biomarker group accountable for translational science strategies in cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Hegde was instrumental in the approvals for atezolizumab in both the United States and European Union, as well as its forthcoming diagnostic filings.
Biography
Dr Kamgar is a medical oncologist with expertise in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Her research is focused on development of new treatment strategy for patients with pancreatic cancer.
Biography
Dr. McKenzie joined Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI) in 2015 and serves as the vice president of SCRI’s Personalized Medicine Program. He also serves as the scientific director for Genospace, SCRI’s precision medicine software platform. McKenzie has more than 10 years of basic science and translational research experience in oncology. In his role, Dr. McKenzie is responsible for providing scientific and operational oversight for implementing the personalized medicine strategy at SCRI. He and the personalized medicine program provide scientific, consultative and programmatic services to clinical research investigators, study sponsors, research personnel and other healthcare providers to advance molecular profiling efforts at SCRI. As scientific director at Genospace, McKenzie is responsible for providing scientific and strategic guidance to data science and product development activities. Prior to joining SCRI, Dr. McKenzie was a research fellow at Vanderbilt University’s Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in pharmacology from The University of Vermont.
Biography
Dr. Varsha Rao is the Director of Partnerships and Clinical Affairs at ClaretBio. She oversees the clinical applications of the novel next-generation sequence assays and analytical pipelines developed at ClaretBio with a main focus on evaluating the utility of cell-free DNA fragmentation patterns in cancer progression and treatment response monitoring. Before joining ClaretBio, she was a Research Scientist at Stanford University School of Medicine in Prof Michael Snyder’s lab. As a part of multiple consortia such as the Integrative Personalized Omics Profiling Project, the Human Microbiome Project and the NASA Twins Study she has worked on longitudinal multiomic analyses, focusing on applying transcriptomics and liquid biopsy approaches to understand nuances of metabolic diseases, cancer, infectious disease and general health. She received her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2012.
Talk
Clinical Dx Showcase:
Claret Bioscience
Claret Bioscience's mission is to improve the quality of NGS data obtained from degraded, highly fragmented, and low yield samples. Our approach aims to provide a complete picture of DNA molecules, enhancing the sensitivity of disease screenings, and ultimately improving treatment decisions.
Getting the complete story - cfDNA fragmentomics
Capturing cfDNA fragmentation information can potentially enable clinical diagnoses at low depth of sequencing.
Biography
Maximilian Diehn received his Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College and his M.D./Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford University. He is a board certified Radiation Oncologist and specializes in the treatment of lung cancers. Dr. Diehn’s current research program spans laboratory, translational, and clinical studies. His areas of interest include cancer genomics, stem cell biology, and lung cancer biology. His work has been recognized with a variety of awards, including the V Foundation Scholar Award, the Sidney Kimmel Scholar Award, the Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award, and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. His group has developed an ultra sensitive and specific method for detection of circulating tumor DNA called CAPP-Seq. Current work is focused on applying CAPP-Seq to a range of clinical contexts, with an emphasis on tumor heterogeneity and minimal residual disease.
Biography
Dr. Castle has been responsible for the clinical development and performance of the Laboratory, Specialty Drug and Gene Therapy programs at eviCore healthcare for the past 8 years. In addition to his decade-long experience in the Specialty Drug field, Dr. Castle has been working in the genomic and molecular diagnostic field since 2007. During this time, he has been responsible for both designing initiatives that support the advancement of precision medicine and developing programs that ensure these tests are used appropriately. Dr. Castle routinely provides educational presentations on molecular and genomic testing to eviCore’s health plan clients and represents eviCore at industry meetings as well as scientific conferences.
Biography
Health policy and payment expert, pulmonary physician, and lung cancer epidemiologist, Peter has devoted his career to repairing defects in the healthcare delivery system that impede access to high-quality cancer care and working to ameliorate healthcare’s cost crisis. His work spans seminal studies including that identification of racial gaps in lung cancer care, the development of the first lung cancer risk prediction model (the “Bach model”), lead authorship on multiple lung screening guidelines, and definitional work on pharmaceutical pricing and value. Peter previously served as Senior Adviser at the US Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services and mentor on many National Institutes of Health K awards. He has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars.
Biography
Dana Dilbeck has over 20 years of Executive Healthcare experience primarily in the Oncology sector. Most recently in the life science industry focused on molecular diagnostic testing to advance cancer care. She is currently the
Senior Director Market Access, Reimbursement and Pricing for Agilent. Previously, Director of Payer Relationships and Reimbursement for Pacific Edge Diagnostics. In addition, she served as the Vice President for a molecular diagnostic company, that provides a large next generation sequencing (NGS) panel for oncology care. Dilbeck worked for McKesson Specialty Health-US Oncology for over 15 years focused on Payer Strategy and Public Policy for the National Network of over 1000 + physicians. Managing contracting and strategies for comprehensive Oncology services. Additional experience includes MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Dilbeck is an expert in physician reimbursement and managed care pricing strategies to address high-cost cancer care services. Dilbeck has a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management from Rice University.
Biography
Dr. Zhou is a co-founder of EarlyDx and a Professor of Pathology and Lab Medicine at UCLA. She has an extensive publication record in bioinformatics, big data analytics, and liquid biopsy diagnostics. She is currently leading the NIH-funded UCLA Center for the Early Detection of Liver Cancer. She previously served as the Head of Computational Biology program at University of Southern California. She is a recipient of NSF CAREER Award and Alfred Sloan Fellowship. She holds a Diplom in Biochemistry from University of Tubingen (Germany), and a Nachdiplom in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. She completed her postdoctoral training in Biostatistics at Harvard University.
Talk
Methylome-based Liquid Biopsy for Early Cancer Detection
EarlyDiagnostics’ cfMethyl-Seq technology provides cost-effective cfDNA methylome sequencing for sensitive and specific cancer detection and localization.
Biography
Dr. van ‘t Veer is a world-renowned molecular biologist whose research focuses on precision medicine to advance patient management based on knowledge of the genetic makeup of the tumor and the patient. As inventor of MammaPrint she has made seminal impact on “rightsizing” the treatment of breast cancer and on molecular genomics. Dr. van ‘t Veer is Biomarker Committee Chair for the multicenter clinical trial I-SPY 2, overseeing the processes for FDA-IDE biomarker usage and qualifying biomarker companion diagnostics. She has over 330 peer-reviewed scientific articles and is co-inventor of 6 patents. Dr. van t Veer received the 2007 ESMO life-time achievement award and the prestigious European Union Women Innovator Award, 2nd prize in 2014. Dr. van ‘t Veer earned her PhD in Medicine at the University of Leiden as well as two postdoctoral fellowships, at the Cancer Center of Harvard Medical School and Mass General Hospital followed at The Netherlands Cancer Institute.
Biography
Daniel Kim is an Assistant Professor at the University of California Santa Cruz, an Associate Member of the Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection, and a Research Scholar of the American Cancer Society. His lab studies noncoding RNAs in extracellular vesicles to discover novel biomarkers for cancer and other diseases via RNA liquid biopsy technology. His noncoding RNA research has been recognized by awards from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences.
Biography
Joshua Cohen is a co-founder and the Chief Innovation Officer of Haystack Oncology. He is also conducts liquid biopsy research with Drs. Bert Vogelstein, Kenneth Kinzler, and Nickolas Papadopoulos at the Johns Hopkins Ludwig Center. Josh has invented and developed several liquid biopsy technologies, both for cancer screening and minimal residual disease detection, including the technology upon which Haystack’s Duo™ chemistry is based. His liquid biopsy research served as the basis for a landmark prospective interventional clinical trial demonstrating, for the first time, the use of circulating tumor DNA analyses for the detection of minimal residual disease and selection of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II colorectal cancer patients.
Biography
Emma Shtivelman is currently the Chief Scientist with Cancer Commons, a non-profit organization that helps cancer patients to identify the most promising treatments, clinical trials, and to find relevant experts. Prior to that, Emma worked as a cancer researcher in academia and biotech, analyzing deregulated signal transduction and metabolism in cancer, developing cancer models in vitro and in vivo, and conducting preclinical research related to target and drug validation.
Biography
Dr. Beer is an internationally recognized leader, holding appointments as deputy director of the Knight Cancer Institute, Chief Medical Officer at OHSU’s Knight Cancer Institute Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, professor in the OHSU School of Medicine, head of the Prostate Cancer Research Program, and the Grover C. Bagby Endowed Chair for Prostate Cancer Research prior to joining Exact. He has also authored and co-authored more than 280 articles, playing a leading role in establishing a new global standard of care for patients. In addition to his role at Exact Sciences, Dr. Beer is continuing as an adjunct professor of medicine and sees patients with prostate cancer at OHSU.
Talk
Framing the Future of Cancer Screening
Multi-cancer Early Detection Testing
Cancer is often detected too late. MCED liquid biopsy tests are designed to harness the power of a variety of biomarkers from various tumors to help detect cancer prior to symptom onset. We’ll share the current evidence for novel multi-analyte approaches to MCED testing that, in combination with standard of care screening, may have the potential to detect more cancers at earlier stages when they are more treatable.
Biography
Dr. Beer is an internationally recognized leader, holding appointments as deputy director of the Knight Cancer Institute, Chief Medical Officer at OHSU’s Knight Cancer Institute Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, professor in the OHSU School of Medicine, head of the Prostate Cancer Research Program, and the Grover C. Bagby Endowed Chair for Prostate Cancer Research prior to joining Exact. He has also authored and co-authored more than 280 articles, playing a leading role in establishing a new global standard of care for patients. In addition to his role at Exact Sciences, Dr. Beer is continuing as an adjunct professor of medicine and sees patients with prostate cancer at OHSU.
Biography
Eric currently leads the Clinical Diagnostics and Data Science group within the Translational Medicine organization at Genentech. The focus of his team is to identify, develop and implement clinical biomarker assays, platforms and data analyses in order to advance drug development, diagnostic/drug co-approval and ultimately patient care. These efforts employ both traditional (e.g., IHC and PCR) and novel (e.g., NGS, liquid biopsy, digital pathology) modalities across the patient journey from diagnosis to early stage and advanced disease treatment. Prior to joining Genentech in 2012, Eric led a team at Illumina focused on diagnostic assay and platform development including a team that developed the first NGS-based FDA cleared platform (MiSeqDx). Eric received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics from the University of California San Francisco.
Biography
Dr. Yang Pan leads clinical oncology biomarker development and translational efforts at Gilead Sciences. The focus of her research includes applying biomarkers (pharmacodynamic, predictive, prognostic and safety biomarkers) in all phases of clinical trials. Using conventional and innovative biomarker platforms from both tumor biopsies and noninvasive samples, the aims of Dr. Pan’s team are to inform dosing, understand mechanism of action and resistance in targeted patient populations. Prior to Gilead Dr. Pan was a Director of Medical Sciences at Amgen.
Dr. Pan received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego and MBA from University of Washington Business School.
Biography
Alan is Chief Medical Officer at Mirati Therapeutics. Prior to Mirati, Alan was the president, head of global development, oncology, at Zai Lab. Prior to joining Zai Lab, he was the SVP and global head of late-stage oncology at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. During his tenure at Genentech/Roche, he led the teams responsible for the global development and regulatory approval of several innovative medicines, most recently Tecentriq®. Prior to joining Genentech/Roche, Alan served as professor and chief of hematology/oncology at Oregon Health and Science University. Previously, he served on the faculties of the medical schools of Indiana University and Vanderbilt University.
Alan holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from Rush Medical College. He completed his training in internal medicine and a fellowship in medical oncology at Yale-New Haven Medical Center. He has over 300 publications, including articles, reviews, abstracts and book chapters.