Speakers

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Rachel Humphrey has more than 20 years of oncology drug development experience and has pioneered the clinical development of numerous first-in-class oncology drugs. As Black Diamond’s Chief Medical Officer, Rachel is responsible for leading and executing the Company’s clinical development strategy. Rachel joined Black Diamond from CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. in 2020, where she served as Chief Medical Officer and as a member of its Board of Directors. While at CytomX, she supervised the clinical development of ProbodyTM Therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Previously, she held numerous senior leadership roles in cancer drug development, including Vice President (VP), Head of Immuno-Oncology at Eli Lilly and Company, Senior VP and Head of Immuno-Oncology at AstraZeneca, Executive VP and Chief Medical Officer at Mirati Therapeutics, and VP, Clinical Development at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). Rachel also held multiple positions in global clinical development at Bayer. Rachel’s career is notable for, among other achievements, her overall supervision of the early and late-stage clinical development of ipilimumab (Yervoy®) at BMS and sorafenib (Nexavar®) at Bayer. Rachel received her M.D. from Case Western Reserve University and her B.A. from Harvard University. She received her training in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and started her career as an oncology fellow and staff physician at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. She is also the lead singer and one of the co-founders of the band, The Checkpoints, a blues band made up of luminaries in immuno-oncology, including the Nobel Laureate, Jim Allison, and is featured in the movie “Jim Allison: Breakthrough,” which was released in the fall of 2019.

Lisa Eli has more than 15 years of experience in Oncology Precision Medicine, specifically in biomarker and companion diagnostic development for breast cancer and other solid tumors. She currently serves as Senior Director of Translational Medicine and Diagnostics at Puma Biotechnology, where she focuses on preclinical and clinical development for neratinib, a HER2-specific, irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets HER2 mutations and amplifications.  Lisa earned her PhD in Biochemistry at Stanford University and completed her post-doctoral training at UCSF.

Dr. Andreas Bader is Chief Scientific Officer at Triumvira Immunologics Inc. and has ~25 years' experience in cancer research and oncology drug-discovery and development. Previously, Dr. Bader acted as Co-Founder and CEO of Orros Biotherapeutics LLC, and as a scientific Co-Founder of Mirna Therapeutics Inc., where he held multiple leading positions in R&D and led research programs from discovery to the completion of a Phase 1 clinical trial. Dr. Bader completed his post-doctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, and received his PhD in Biochemistry and his MSc degree in Biology from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.

Dr. Shih joined MSD Late Stage Oncology in 2018 leads several global phase 3 immunotherapy studies in gastric cancer, notable KN811 (HER2 positive), KN585 (Neoadjuvant/adjuvant), KN-61 and KN63 (both second line), lead protocol development of KN975 (esophageal chemoradiotherapy study), and is global lead for the recently open LEAP-15 (lenvatinib+pembro+chemo) in gastric cancer. Dr. Shih received his MD from George Washington University, residency at Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Pediatrics, and hematology/oncology fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Prior to joining MSD, Dr. Shih was Associate Professor at Indiana University and Director of the Brain Tumor Program at Riley Hospital for Children. Dr. Shih was the former co-chair for the Plexiform Committee for the NF Clinical Trials Consortium (NFCTC). Prior to MRL, was active PI in several consortiums, including the NFCTC, Children’s Oncology Group (COG), and the NEXT pediatric brain tumor consortium, member of the CNS committee of the COG.

Dr. Poon has held various scientific and corporate roles at Zymeworks since joining in October 2007, and currently serves as Vice President, Business Development and Alliance Management. Dr. Poon is responsible for establishing strategic licensing partnerships and collaborations with multinationals and academic institutions, competitive intelligence and alliance management. While at Zymeworks, Dr. Poon has been instrumental in establishing the majority of program and platform partnerships with pharma. He also made key scientific contributions to the development of the Azymetric™ and EFECT™ therapeutic platforms, which are being deployed in a number of Zymeworks’ internal and partnered therapeutic programs. Dr. Poon obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. David Rimm is a Professor in the Departments of Pathology and Medicine (Oncology) at the Yale University School of Medicine. He is the Director of Yale Pathology Tissue Services. He completed an MD-PhD at Johns Hopkins University Medical School followed by a Pathology Residency at Yale and a Cytopathology Fellowship at the Medical College of Virginia. He is boarded in Anatomic and Cytopatholgy. His research lab group focuses on quantitative pathology using the AQUA® technology invented in his lab, and other quantitative methods, with projects related to predicting response to both targeted and immune- therapy in cancer and standardization of those assays for CLIA labs. His lab is involved in testing new high-plex methods including imaging mass cytometry (Fluidigm) and digital spatial profiling (NanoString). He also has supported projects related to rapid, low cost diagnostic tests. The work is supported by grants from the NIH, BCRF, and sponsored research agreements from biopharma. He also serves on the CAP Immunohistochemistry committee and multiple scientific advisory boards for biotech and pharma. He is an author of over 400 peer-reviewed papers and 8 patents.

Debora Barton joined Carisma Therapeutics in November 2019. She brings 18 years of oncology experience, both in academia as a practicing physician and in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, she served in key senior executive positions in cellular therapy and radiopharmaceutical biotech companies including Iovance Biotherapeutics and Advanced Accelerator Applications, acquired by Novartis during Debora’s tenure. In her leadership roles, Debora built Clinical Development and Drug Safety teams, setting up infrastructure for the conduct of clinical studies and was instrumental in obtaining FDA Breakthrough Designation for a cell therapy product and in the approval of a radiopharmaceutical agent by both FDA and EMA. Previously, Debora spent 10 years at Celgene and Novartis, always focusing on improving the lives of cancer patients. She holds an MD from Pontificia Universidade Catolica Sao Paulo (PUC-SP) and completed her fellowship in Oncology at Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) in Brazil.

Edith A. Perez, MD is an internationally recognized translational researcher and cancer specialist, Chief Medical Officer of Bolt Therapeutics, Inc., Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, and Director of the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer Translational Genomics Program. Dr. Perez is known for her strategic vision in designing innovative clinical trials, her passion for patient care, and her strong team leadership. Her experience includes leadership in academic and biopharmaceutical environments, as well as focused philanthropic endeavors.

Flavia Michelini was born and educated in Italy. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from “Tor Vergata” University in Rome. In 2010, she started her PhD program in Fabrizio d’Adda di Fagagna’s laboratory at the FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan, working on a novel class of small non-coding RNAs named DDRNAs, involved in the DNA damage response. In 2014, she obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from the European School of Molecular Medicine. As a postdoctoral fellow in the same laboratory, she uncovered that DNA double-strand breaks trigger the transcription of long non-coding RNAs named dilncRNAs, which are DDRNA precursors and are important for the site-specific signaling of an appropriate DNA damage response and DNA repair. In 2019 she became Research Associate in Maurizio Scaltriti’s laboratory at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. In the last two years she worked on translational research-based projects, aimed at understanding the mechanism of action of antibody drug conjugates directed towards HER2 and HER3 across different cancers. Flavia owns a strong track record of scientific publications in high-impact scientific journals: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hWI6fbMAAAAJ&hl=eng

I head a translational research lab in Discovery Oncology at Genentech that investigates cell membrane receptors as targets for development of cancer therapeutics, with emphasis on the HER2/erbB2 pathway. Our early research efforts focused on biology and preclinical development of anti-HER2 antibodies for HER2-amplified breast cancer. This work contributed to the development and approval of both Trastuzumab and Pertuzumab. Subsequently, we developed antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) designed to selectively deliver potent cytotoxic agents to HER2-positive tumor cells, resulting in approval of Trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) for HER2-positive early and metastatic breast cancer. We are currently exploring use of T-DM1 in other cancers that overexpress HER2 as well as investigating new HER2-directed ADCs utilizing cytotoxic agents with different mechanisms of action. We have since expanded our studies on ADCs to include exploration of different targets, different antibody formats and novel drugs for potential new ADCs.

Dr James Garner is Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Kazia Therapeutics Limited, an oncology biotech company with a primary focus on brain cancers. A physician by training, James has spent almost twenty years in drug development and commercialisation, in senior international roles with Biogen, Takeda, and Sanofi. He has overseen several dozen clinical trials and has been responsible for over thirty NDA filings globally. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, he worked as a management consultant with Bain & Company.

14 years industrial experience of research and development of antibody-based therapies, protein engineering and conjugation technologies, with a PhD in Biochemistry from Göteborgs University. Currently at the Targeted Radiopharmaceutical department, Bayer AS, focusing on targeted alpha therapy (TAT) with three targeted thorium conjugates (TTCs) in clinical Phase I.

Leisha A. Emens, MD, PhD, is a professor of medicine in hematology/oncology, co-leader of the Hillman Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program, and director of translational immunotherapy for the Women's Cancer Research Center (WCRC). She is internationally recognized for her work in breast cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Emens is currently board-certified in medical oncology. She received her medical and PhD degrees from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Emens completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in oncology at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, followed by a residency in internal medicine at the University of Texas at Southwestern in Dallas. She then completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology and trained in immunology as a senior clinical and research fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Dr. Emens is a member of the American College of Physicians (ACP), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS), and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).

Dr. Walker is a medical oncologist who received his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma, followed by training in internal medicine, hematology/oncology, and hematopoietic stem cell transplant at Oregon Health Sciences University. After practicing for several years in Seattle as a hematologist/oncologist, including directing a multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Clinic and Anticoagulation Clinic, he has been working in drug development since 2011, including stints at Oncothyreon, Cascadian Therapeutics, and now Seattle Genetics. He has been involved in the clinical development of tucatinib since 2013, and now serves as the Global Development lead for TUKYSA and Vice President of Clinical Development at Seattle Genetics.

Before joining Pieris Pharmaceuticals as Director Immuno-Oncology overseeing pre-clinical development of Pieris´s innovative pipeline projects, Dr. Zettl was Project Leader at Boehringer-Ingelheim from 2011, leading antibody programs in the field of Immuno-Oncology from early preclinical into clinical phases. During his PhD and postdoctoral studies, he worked in a variety of areas of cancer biology at the EMBL in Heidelberg Germany and at the MRC-LMB in Cambridge UK. Research topics covered molecular mechanisms of how oncolytic viruses exploit the host cytoskeleton and the impact of metallo-protease (TACE) activation on cytokine and growth factor signalling with implications for cancer and inflammatory disorders. Dr. Zettl authored numerous high impact publications and patents in the field of Immuno-Oncology.

Maurizio Scaltriti was an Associate Professor and the Associate Director of Translational Science of the Center for Molecular-Based Therapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Since October 2020 is the VP for Translational Medicine TDE in the Early Oncology Department of AstraZeneca. His research is focused in characterization of actionable genomic alterations found in solid tumors and the identification of novel mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapy. Mauri is an internationally recognized opinion leader in targeted therapy and translational science, with more than 15 years of experience bridging the gap between the clinic and the laboratory.

Dr. Michael Press, MD, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Pathology and holds the Harold E. Lee Chair in Cancer Research at the University of Southern California’s Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Press is a board certified pathologist, directs the USC Breast Cancer Analysis Laboratory as well as the Central Laboratory for the Translational Research In Oncology (TRIO)/Cancer International Research Group (CIRG), and is Leader of the USC Clinical Laboratories. His personal consultation practice laboratory evaluates prognostic and predictive markers used in making treatment decisions for women with breast cancer (more than 27,000 referrals). His laboratory serves as a Central Laboratory for either retrospective or prospective analyses of tissue specimens that collectively have accrued more than 13,000 patients over 28 clinical trials. The research interest of the Press laboratory is in molecular alterations of cancers, especially those that have the potential to be important in either diagnostic or therapeutic decision-making for patient management. The laboratory has a long-standing record of activity investigating HER2 gene amplification and overexpression with assessment of this alteration as a target for therapy in breast, ovarian, endometrial, salivary gland and gastric cancers, as well as others. His research has been continuously funded by research grants for more than 35 years. He is the author or co-author of more than 250 peer-reviewed publications. The most prominent area of activity for his laboratory has been in the study of the human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2) in breast and other cancers. He published his first paper in this area in 1989 (Science 244: 707-712, 1989) and his laboratory is still actively contributing to this area as well as to the conduct of clinical trials evaluating HER2 as a target for therapy. The Press laboratory is also investigating the potential for cell cycle regulatory proteins, especially PLK4 and TTK / MPS1, as targets for treatment with small molecule inhibitors.

Mika Derynck has over 25 years of clinical academic, and drug development experience. She is currently the Chief Medical Officer at Amunix Pharmaceuticals working on pro-drug T-cell engagers and cytokines for oncology. Prior to Amunix, Mika was at Genentech/Roche for 15 years where she led the Franchises for Cancer Immunotherapy, Gastrointestinal/Genitourinary, and the China Development Team for Product Development Oncology. Prior to that she led the Breast Cancer Franchise for Development. Prior to that she was in Early Development, gRED, where she had oversight on the PI3K, AKT, mTOR, MEK programs from preclinical to phase I and II. She has extensive regulatory experience from IND for first-in-human studies, phase II-III, global full and accelerated approvals, negotiation of post marketing requirements and conversions of accelerated approval, and registration of non-registrational studies (phase 2 or cooperative group study). Drugs include Perjeta®, Avastin®, Tecentriq®, Cotellic®, Taselisib, Pictilisib, Ipatasertib, Apitolisib, GDC-0810, GDC-0623, GDC-0349, anti-IGF1R Mika is trained in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology, having received her M.D. at Boston University, residency at Johns Hopkins University, and fellowship at University of California, San Francisco. Shortly after completion of her fellowship, she joined the faculty at UCSF and continued her clinical and translational research work in Prostate Cancer.

Dr. Uboha is an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI. She specializes in treating patients with gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies. Her research interests are dedicated to the development of biomarker based early phase clinical trials for patients with GI cancer. Her background and PhD in molecular biology allows for in-depth understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying tumorigenesis and drug development. Dr. Uboha is a nationally recognized expert in gastroesophageal malignancies and neuroendocrine tumors. Dr. Uboha has received numerous funding awards for her research and is actively engaged in developing clinical trials for patients with GI malignancies. She co-Chairs the Big 10 Cancer Research Consortium GI Section and is a member of the National Cancer Institute upper GI task force. Dr. Uboha is also a member of NCCN committee for neuroendocrine malignancies.

Dr. Nina Weisser is a Principal Scientist in the Oncology department at Zymeworks Inc. where she leads a research team in the characterization and development of multispecific antibody therapeutics. Joining Zymeworks in 2012, she has lead several research programs, including zanidatamab (ZW25) from discovery to early development. She obtained a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Guelph (Canada) in 2008 and conducted her post-doctoral fellowship at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Nina also holds a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Guelph.

Stuart Barnscher is an Associate Director in the Oncology department at Zymeworks where he leads a team of researchers in the mechanistic characterization and development of antibody-drug conjugate and multi-specific therapeutics. Prior to joining Zymeworks in 2016 via a merger with Kairos Therapeutics, Stuart was instrumental in the development of the antibody drug conjugate platform technology, now termed ZymeLink™, that occurred at Kairos. Prior to Kairos, Stuart was a synthetic organic chemist at Agensys where he designed and synthesized toxins for use as antibody-drug conjugate payloads.

Dr. Nicholas McAndrew is a hematologist oncologist who practices in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. His primary clinical and research interests are in breast cancer. He is board certified in internal medicine and board eligible in medical oncology and hematology. Dr. McAndrew is also clinical researcher, having completed a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, with a focus on clinical trials. His research is focused on the development of new therapies in breast cancer, as well as in using biomarkers to help predict response to therapy. Dr. McAndrew received his medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his internal medicine residency as well as his hematology/oncology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Villanova University."

Paul is a noted scientist and biotechnology executive with strong strategic and leadership experience. His industry expertise covers bench to IND and clinical trial development of small molecule drugs, biologics, and cellular therapeutics. His recent accomplishments include the launch of successful new biotech companies. In 2012 he engaged in the strategic analysis of cancer immuno-therapeutics with CoStim Pharmaceuticals' executive and investment team to prioritize and launch that company's program portfolio. In 2013 he partnered with X-Chem Inc to create XRx Discovery, a privately held drug discovery company focused on oncology, inflammation, and fibrosis. In 2016 he co-founded Aleta Biotherapeutics, a novel CAR T cell company that has since moved from bench to clinical development in under 4 years. He is deeply engaged in the biotech community, as a MassBio and ASGCT mentor, by serving on diverse Boards and as a highly sought speaker and panelist in the IO, cell therapy and investment communities. His ability to work so broadly across the industry grew from his outstanding early career at Repligen and Biogen and is further highlighted by his multiple successful drug-development campaigns, over 50 patents filed and granted, and approximately 100 peer-reviewed publications including recent publications in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Immunity, PNAS USA, and JCI. In 2015 he edited the book “Novel Therapeutic Approaches to the Treatment of Cancer.

Reva Basho, MD is a breast medical oncologist and Co-Director of the Women's Cancer Research Program at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. Her research focuses on the treatment of high-risk breast cancers and development of novel targeted therapies. Her specific interests include targeting the PI3K pathway in triple-negative breast cancer and new treatment approaches for HER2+ disease and brain metastases. Dr. Basho has given multiple lectures to academic audiences on topics pertinent to the treatment of breast cancer. Her research has received various awards from national societies, and she has been funded by multiple sources including the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Dr. Basho's work has also been published in high-impact journals including JAMA Oncology, among others.

Susanne Haneder, VMD, received her PhD in pathology from the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich. She is an associate principal pathologist at AstraZeneca, leading the HER2 Computational Pathology team, which develops novel Image Analysis solutions to quantify whole slide images. Prior to this role, she run a pathology laboratory and biobanking platform in a preclinical setting, managing many research projects. She has broad experience in immuno-oncology and oncology projects, focusing on translational research and digital pathology solutions to better understand HER2 related biology.

Dr. Janjigian’s clinical practice and research are focused on improving treatment outcomes for people with esophageal and stomach cancers. She has vast experience working with translational biomarker studies leading both investigator initiated and large multicenter registration trials, as well as early phase clinical trials and is a leader in the field.