Immunogenomics to Create New Therapies for High-Risk Childhood Cancer
Dream Team Leader:
John M. Maris, M.D., director, the Center for Childhood Cancer Research, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Co-leader:
Crystal L. Mackall, M.D., chief, Pediatric Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Md.
John M. Maris, M.D., is Giulio D’Angio chair in neuroblastoma research and professor of pediatrics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He currently serves as director of the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Maris completed his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and performed all of his postdoctoral training in pediatric hematology/oncology and genetics at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Maris’ group has discovered the majority of the genes that influence susceptibility to human neuroblastoma using both traditional family-based linkage approaches and genome wide-association approaches. In parallel, his group has identified many of the oncogenic drivers of the disease. Together, this work has resulted in the implementation of new genomic biomarkers of outcome that are now routinely used in the clinic, and several early-phase clinical trials of new targeted therapeutics. Maris has led large collaborative research efforts focused on translational oncology, most recently a genomic dissection of more than 300 high-risk neuroblastoma cases using next-generation sequencing technologies, resulting in an unprecedented detailed characterization of the hereditary and somatic neuroblastoma genomes.
Maris has published more than 220 peer-reviewed manuscripts and dozens of book chapters and review articles. He is recognized as a leading expert in the field of pediatric oncology and serves on several scientific advisory boards and committees, including for the National Cancer Institute, the American Association for Cancer Research, Genome Canada and many private foundations. Maris has received several prestigious awards, including election into the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Oski award for outstanding pediatric oncologists, the Berwick award at the University of Pennsylvania for melding basic and clinical teaching, and the William Osler Patient-Oriented Research Award at the University of Pennsylvania.
Crystal L. Mackall, M.D., is chief of the pediatric oncology branch and head of the immunology section of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Mackall graduated summa cum laude from the University of Akron in Ohio and received her medical degree from Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine in Rootstown. After completing clinical training in pediatrics and internal medicine, she undertook subspecialty training in pediatric hematology/oncology at the NCI. There, she made pioneering discoveries regarding thymic function in humans and received international recognition for her work on immune reconstitution. Since 1998, she has led a cutting-edge clinical-translational research program focused on developing new immune-based therapies for childhood cancer. Mackall is credited with discovering an essential role for interleukin-7 in T-cell homeostasis and has led the clinical development of recombinant human interleukin-7, a novel immunorestorative agent. Her program also conducts translational studies of tumor vaccines, immunomodulators, experimental bone marrow transplantation and cell-based therapy for childhood cancer.
Mackall has published more than 130 manuscripts and numerous book chapters on immunology and immunotherapy. She serves as editor-in-chief of Frontiers in Pediatric Oncology and associate editor of Blood. She is chair of the Scientific Subcommittee on Immunology and Host Defense for the American Society of Hematology and serves on numerous advisory boards. Mackall is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and has been recognized with several NCI Director’s Awards for her achievements. In addition to her scientific research, Mackall is internationally recognized as an expert in the treatment of pediatric sarcomas and has been recognized annually since 2006 as a Best Doctor in America. She is board certified in internal medicine, pediatrics and pediatric hematology-oncology.
Immunologic Checkpoint Blockade and Adoptive Cell Transfer in Cancer Therapy
Dream Team Leaders
James P. Allison, Ph.D., chairman in the department of immunology, director of the immunotherapy platform and co-director of the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, surgery and molecular and medical pharmacology; director of the tumor immunology program area at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, Los Angeles
Dream Team Co-leaders
Drew M. Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D., director of the division of immunology and Abeloff professor in the departments of oncology, medicine, pathology and molecular biology and genetics at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.
Cassian Yee, M.D., member of the Clinical Research Division and Program in Immunology at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and an attending physician at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in Seattle, Wash.
James P. Allison, Ph.D., is professor and chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology in the Division of Basic Science Research. He directs MD Anderson’s Immunology Platform and is deputy director of the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research in Genitourinary Cancers, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology – Research. He also is a former Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Allison earned his doctorate at The University of Texas, Austin, and did his postdoctoral fellowship in molecular immunology at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, CA. He came to MD Anderson in 2012 from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Allison’s research focuses on the mechanisms that govern T cell responses and applying that basic understanding to overcome cancer’s evasion of attack by the immune system. His fundamental discoveries include the T cell antigen receptor used by T cells to recognize and bind to antigens; the co-stimulatory molecule CD28 that must signal the T cell to launch an immune response to a bound antigen; and the immune system inhibitory checkpoint molecule CTLA-4, which inhibits activated T cells from attacking. Allison developed an antibody against CTLA-4 that became ipilimumab, the first drug ever shown to increase survival for patients with metastatic melanoma. It was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2011. Additional checkpoints and co-stimulatory molecules also have been identified. Allison is exploring combinations of immunological therapies and targeted drugs in preclinical studies to more effectively treat a variety of cancers.
Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor with a double appointment in medicine (hematology-oncology) and surgery (surgical oncology) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also an assistant director for clinical programs at the UCLA Human Gene Medicine Program, director of the JCCC Cell and Gene Therapy Core Facility, General Clinical Research Center Advisory Board Member and faculty advisor to the UCLA Residency Program.
Ribas trained at the University of Barcelona in Spain, and has undergone postdoctoral training at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in San Diego and at UCLA. He joined the UCLA Hematology-Oncology Fellowship program and has been a faculty member since July of 2001.
Ribas and his colleagues are conducting studies aimed at understanding how the immune system can be effectively used to treat cancer. The work is focused on the ability to activate killer immune cells specifically targeted to the cancer. One line of research is the use of dendritic cells engineered to express tumor antigens, which have been shown to induce powerful responses against cancer. This approach has been taken from preclinical studies in mice to a phase I clinical trial for the treatment of patients with malignant melanoma. Assays with defined performance specifications determined in detailed methodology studies are being used for the immune monitoring of the human clinical trials. Another line of research is the stimulation of innate responses to tumors. Dendritic cells are very powerful in activating natural killer cells that lead to tumor regressions, and the immunobiology of these responses are being studied. Additional interests of the laboratory are the use of interventions that modify the regulation of tumor-specific lymphocytes, and the pharmacological modulation of the interaction between the lytic immune cells (cytotoxic T lymphocytes or natural killer cells) with the cancer cells, with the goal of further increasing their antitumor potential.
Drew M. Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D., is an Abeloff Professor of Oncology, Medicine, Pathology and Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine. He is director of the Cancer Immunology in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Pardoll completed his medical and doctorate degrees, and medical residency and oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.
Pardoll has published over 250 papers as well as over 20 book chapters on the subject of T cell immunology and cancer vaccines. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and Cancer Cell, and has served as a member of scientific advisory boards for the Cancer Research Institute, the University of Pennsylvania Human Gene Therapy Gene Institute, Biologic Resources Branch of the National Cancer Institute, Harvard-Dana Farber Cancer Center, Cerus Corporation, Global Medical Products Corporation, Genencor Corporation, CellGenesys Corporation, Mojave Therapeutics, the American Association of Clinical Oncology and the American Association of Cancer Research.
Pardoll has made a number of basic advances in cellular immunology, including the discovery of gamma - delta T cells, NKT cells and interferon-producing killer dendritic cells. Over the past two decades, he has studied molecular aspects of dendritic cell biology and immune regulation, particularly related to mechanisms by which cancer cells evade elimination by the immune system. He is an inventor of a number of immunotherapies, including GVAX cancer vaccines and Listeria monocytogenes based cancer vaccines. Pardoll’s basic immunology discoveries include the identification of γδ-T cells, NKT cells and IKDC. He elucidated the role of Stat3 signaling in tumor immune evasion and in Th17 development, leading to the discovery that Stat3-driven Th17 responses promote carcinogenesis. Pardoll discovered one of the two ligands for the PD-1 inhibitory receptor and leads the Hopkins cancer immunology program that developed PD-1 pathway-targeted antibodies, demonstrating their clinical activity in multiple cancer types. His more than 250 articles cover cancer vaccines, gene therapies, cancer prevention technologies, recombinant immune modulatory agents for specific pathways that regulate immunity to cancer and infectious diseases.
Cassian Yee, M.D., is a member of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, Wash.
Yee is developing a technique for treating cancer called adoptive T-cell therapy, which involves infusing a patient with immune cells that can recognize tumor cells and trigger the immune system to attack the cancer. His research focuses on using T-cell therapy to treat malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. Yee was one of the first to apply this type of immunotherapy to a solid tumor cancer, and in 2008, his team described the first successful use of a patient’s own T-cells as the sole therapy to put advanced melanoma into long-term remission. Recently, he demonstrated for the first time that human T cells can become long-lasting memory cells after infusion and, when combined with an immune boosting antibody, halt tumor growth in patients with metastatic disease. He is also applying this strategy to treat patients with sarcoma, ovarian cancer and gastrointestinal cancers, which are generally incurable in its advanced stages.
Yee received his medical degree from the University of Manitoba in Canada, trained as a research fellow at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto, completed a residency at Stanford University, and then a fellowship and postdoctoral research program in medical oncology at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
In addition to his laboratory work, Yee treats melanoma patients at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, the Hutchinson Center’s treatment arm. His goal is to move promising laboratory research into clinical trials and from there to patients in the clinical setting.
Yee was a recipient of the Cancer Research Institute Investigator Award and the Damon Runyon Walter Winchell Clinical Investigator Award. He was also a Burroughs Wellcome Fellow and Scientist in Translational Research and was elected a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Targeting Adaptive Pathways in Treatment-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Dream Team Leader:
Eric J. Small, M.D., professor of medicine; chief, division of hematology/oncology, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); deputy director, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Co-leader:
Owen N. Witte, M.D., investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; distinguished professor, microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics; director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Eric J. Small, M.D., is professor of medicine and urology and chief of the division of hematology and oncology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is also deputy director and director of clinical sciences in the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Small has served on the NCI Prostate Cancer Progress Review Group, and is associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, where he is responsible for genitourinary oncology. He served as the scientific program committee chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 2004. Additionally, he was a co-founder, and subsequently chaired the First Annual Multidisciplinary Clinical Prostate Cancer Symposium, jointly co-sponsored by ASCO, ASTRO, the SUO and the PCF, which has since evolved into the Multidisciplinary Genitourinary Oncology Symposium. Small has served as chair of the Genitourinary Committee of the alliance (formerly the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, CALGB), a NCI Cooperative Group since 2000.
Small has contributed a significant body of work to the understanding of advanced prostate cancer, with themes involving the transition from hormone-sensitive to treatment-resistant prostate cancer (TRPC), the development of androgen receptor-directed therapies, the development of risk assessment tools for patients with advanced prostate cancer, and prostate cancer immunotherapy. Small was directly involved in the FDA approval of three agents relevant to prostate cancer (from first-in-man studies, to completed phase III trials and FDA approval): sipuleucel T, abiraterone and ipilimumab — approved for melanoma.
Owen N. Witte, M.D., received his undergraduate degree from Cornell and his medical degree from Stanford University. He completed postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then joined the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he presently is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; distinguished professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, where he holds the president’s chair in developmental immunology; and distinguished professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is the director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.
His work has concentrated on connecting discoveries in basic science to new therapeutic advances in cancer therapy. 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, which is required for normal B-lymphocyte development, and when mutated leads to X-linked agammagloblulinemia, a form of immune deficiency. This has led to new targeted therapy for a class of B cell lymphomas. 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. This work has led to new monoclonal antibody therapies for prostate and other epithelial cancers now in late-stage clinical trials. His work utilizes advanced whole-body imaging techniques like positron emission tomography (PET) to monitor cancer growth and cellular immune functions.
Witte is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He has received recognition for his research including the Milken Foundation Award in Basic Cancer Research, the Rosenthal Award of the American Association for Cancer Research, the Dameshek Prize of the American Society of Hematology, the Alpert Foundation Prize, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society de Villiers International Achievement Award, the UCLA Faculty Research Lecture and the Nakahara Memorial Lecture Prize. He currently serves on several editorial and advisory boards. Witte was elected to the Board of Directors for the American Association for Cancer Research in 2010, and was recently appointed by President Obama to the President’s Cancer Panel.
Precision Therapy of Advanced Prostate Cancer
Dream Team Leader:
Arul M. Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., S.P. Hicks endowed professor of Pathology, University of Michigan Health System
Co-Leader:
Charles L. Sawyers, M.D., chair, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Arul M. Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., is a clinical pathologist, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, S.P. Hicks Endowed professor of pathology and professor of urology at the University of Michigan, and an American Cancer Society research professor. He also serves as the inaugural director of the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology (MCTP) which is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team of investigators focused on translating “-Omic” technologies to patient care in terms of biomarkers and novel therapeutics.
He has co-authored more than 250 manuscripts and is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians (AAP), American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors for the National Cancer Institute and serves on the Board of Directors for the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). In 2008 he received the AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research. In 2007, Dr. Chinnaiyan and his team were the recipients of the inaugural AACR Team Science Award. He has received a number of other prestigious awards including the 2009 Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, 2009 Philip Levine Award for Cancer Research, 2007 Ramzi Cotran Young Investigator Award from the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, 2006 Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Award for Clinical Translational Research, 2005 Benjamin Castleman Award, and the 2005 Amgen Outstanding Investigator by the American Society of Investigative Pathology.
Dr. Chinnaiyan received his undergraduate degree and M.D.-Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. He carried out his graduate work under the mentorship of Dr. Vishva Dixit. After completing his M.D.-Ph.D. training, Dr. Chinnaiyan pursued residency training in clinical pathology and subsequent board certification. He went on to establish his own independent lab without formal postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan.
The Chinnaiyan laboratory has focused on functional genomic, proteomic, metabolomic and bioinformatics approaches to study cancer for the purposes of understanding tumor biology as well as to discover clinical biomarkers. The landmark study thus far from Dr. Chinnaiyan’s laboratory is the finding of recurrent gene fusions in prostate cancer, which potentially redefines the molecular basis of this disease as well as other common epithelial cancers. The team involved with these studies was awarded the 2007 AACR Team Science Award. The Chinnaiyan lab is focused on translating the prostate cancer gene fusion discovery into better diagnostics and therapies for prostate cancer. His laboratory is also currently using an arsenal of “-Omics” based approaches, including next generation transcriptome sequencing, to decipher the underpinnings of breast cancer, prostate cancer and other common epithelial tumors. His laboratory developed the popular cancer profiling bioinformatics resource called Oncomine (www.oncomine.org) which is freely available to the academic community (hosting more than 15,000 registered users from more than 30 countries). He is a co-founder of Compendia Biosciences, which supports both the academic and commercial versions of Oncomine. In 2011, MCTP initiated an exploratory clinical sequencing initiative at the UMCCC, called MI-ONCOSEQ, which is attempting to evaluate the potential of high-throughput sequencing in personalized oncology.
Charles L. Sawyers, M.D., is a medical oncologist, investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and director of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program (HOPP) at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Dr. Sawyers’ career has focused on developing molecularly targeted therapies and played a key role in the development of imatinib and dasatinib for the treatment of CML for which he was a co-recipient of the 2009 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. More recently, Dr. Sawyers has focused his effort on targeting AR in prostate cancer. A drug that he co-developed, MDV3100, is an AR antagonist which completed phase III clinical trials in men with CRPC and demonstrated prolongation of survival (51, 54). He is also co-developer of the next AR antagonist, ARN509 (Aragon).
Dr. Sawyers received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his M.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies of Sciences. In addition to the 2009 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, Dr. Sawyers has received numerous other awards including a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award, the American Association for Cancer Research David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Dorothy P. Landon–AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research and the Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He recently served as co-chair of the NAS report on precision medicine.
In 1988, while a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Owen Witte at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Dr. Sawyers began his work with Gleevec. Building on the development of Gleevec as a model, Dr. Sawyers contributed to the design of a new cancer drug called Sprycel (dasatinib), which overcomes resistance to Gleevec in some patients. His approach combines genetic studies of patients' DNA with structural biology data. Collaborating with structural biologists, Dr. Sawyers and his team perform genetic studies involving the sequencing of each patient's resistance-enhancing mutation to understand how a drug responds to each mutation as it develops. Currently his team is focusing on developing new treatments for patients with prostate cancer who have developed androgen resistance.
Dr. Sawyers will serve as the Dream Team Co-Leader, be a member of the Executive Committee, perform work on the Pre-Clinical Models Team and serve as a member of the MSKCC Clinical Trials Sub-Team.
Personalized Medicine for Patients With BRAF Wild-Type (BRAFwt) Cancer
Dream Team Leader:
Jeffrey Trent, Ph.D., F.A.C.M.G., president and research director, The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen)
Co-Leader:
Patricia LoRusso, D.O., director, Eisenberg Center for Experimental Therapeutics; principal investigator, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute’s NCI-UO1-funded phase I program; and professor of medicine, Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University School of Medicine
Jeffrey Trent, Ph.D., F.A.C.M.G., is a recognized expert in the area of human cancer genetics. He has held numerous faculty appointments including at the University of Arizona, the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University and Arizona State University. He is a diplomat of the American College of Medical Genetics, and is a member of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research, and is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Human Genetics and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Trent is the author of more than 300 manuscripts in the medical literature, has received numerous honors and awards, and has served on the editorial boards of over a dozen medical journals.
Trent previously served as director of the Division of Intramural Research of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Under his guidance from 1993 to 2002, the division became an internationally recognized research center in the field of human genetics. Following his tenure at the NIH, Trent became the founding president and research director of The Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, Ariz., a position he holds today.
Patricia LoRusso, D.O., graduated from Michigan State University School of Osteopathic Medicine in 1981. After residency, she completed a fellowship in medical oncology in December of 1988, with a focus on developmental therapeutics. She joined the faculty at Wayne State University School of Medicine in January of 1989. As a result of her focus on early therapeutics, she has come to be recognized as an international expert in the field of phase I clinical research with a focus on novel trial design.
LoRusso currently serves as co-chair of the NCI Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) Investigational Drug Steering Committee. She has also served on the scientific committee of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the education and scientific committees of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and has served as a member on several NCI and other peer-reviewed granting committees. For several years she has served on the faculty of AACR-supported clinical trials workshops including the Vail and Flims courses.
Last year, LoRusso was awarded the American College of Osteopathic Internists Researcher of the Year Award. She was awarded the Hero of Breast Cancer award in 2009. In 2008, she was named one of Crain’s Detroit Business Health Care Heroes, was recognized with the 2008 Michaele C. Christian Oncology Drug Development Award and Lectureship from NCI CTEP, and received the Marygrove College Distinguished Alumni Award. LoRusso was also awarded the Bennett J. Cohen Educational Leadership Award for Medical Research in 2004.
Bringing Epigenetic Therapy to the Forefront of Cancer Management
Dream Team Leader:
Stephen B. Baylin, M.D., Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University
Co-Leader:
Peter A. Jones, Ph.D., D.Sc., Distinguished Professor of Urology and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Southern California
Stephen B. Baylin, M.D.
Stephen B. Baylin, M.D., is deputy director of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig professor of oncology and medicine. He is chief of the Cancer Biology Division and associate director for research of the center.
Baylin attended Duke University, where he earned his medical degree in 1968 and completed his internship and first year residency in internal medicine. He then worked for two years at the National Heart and Lung Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 1971, Baylin joined the departments of oncology and medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
His research interests include cellular biology and genetics of cancer, specifically epigenetics or genetic modifications other than those in DNA that can affect cell behavior, and silencing of tumor suppressor genes and tumor progression. His research has looked at the mechanisms through which variations in tumor cells derive, and cell differentiation in cancers such as medullary thyroid carcinoma and small cell lung carcinoma.
Baylin’s honors include the 2004 National Investigator of the Year Award from the NCI SPORE program; the 2005 Jack Gibson Visiting Professorship, University of Hong Kong Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong; the 2005 Shubitz Cancer Research Prize from the University of Chicago; the 2008 Raffaele Tecce Memorial Lecture, Rome, Italy; the 2008 David Workman Memorial Award from the Waxman Foundation; and the Kirk A. Landon-AACR Prize for Basic and Translational Cancer Research.
Baylin has served on the American Association for Cancer Research Board of Directors from 2004 through 2007, and is an associate editor of Cancer Research. He has also presented frequently at AACR conferences and chaired the special conference on "DNA Methylation, Imprinting and the Epigenetics of Cancer." Baylin has authored or co-authored more than 350 publications.
Peter A. Jones, Ph.D., D.Sc.
Peter A. Jones, Ph.D., D.Sc., is director of the University of Southern California/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, director of the Urological Research Laboratories and distinguished professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and urology at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. Jones also holds the H. Leslie and Elaine S. Hoffman cancer research chair at the University of Southern California.
Born, raised and educated in the former Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Jones received his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of London in 1973. He joined the University of Southern California in 1977, where he attained the rank of professor in 1985 and became director of the cancer center in 1993.
Jones’ research concerns how cancer-related genes become heritably silenced during carcinogenesis, resulting in functional inactivation. The primary focus of his research is on DNA cytosine methylation and how this process interacts with chromatin structure to ensure heritable silencing. He is also interested in translating basic scientific discoveries into clinical treatments, specifically for people with bladder cancer. He and his colleagues are working on drugs that can reverse silencing and turn genes back on again, and designing strategies where this kind of epigenetic therapy can be applied to the treatment of human cancers.
A past president of the AACR and deputy editor of Cancer Research, Jones is the author of more than 250 journal publications and book chapters and serves on several national and international committees, panels and editorial boards. He has received a variety of honors, including the University of Southern California Associates Award for Creativity in Research and Scholarship and the Outstanding Investigator Grant from the National Cancer Institute. Recently, Jones, along with his colleague Stephen B. Baylin, M.D., deputy director of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, received the Kirk A. Landon-AACR Prize for Basic and Translational Cancer Research.
Targeting the PI3K Pathway in Women’s Cancers
Dream Team Leader:
Lewis C. Cantley, Ph.D., Director, Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Co-Leader:
Gordon B. Mills, M.D., Ph.D., Chair, Department of Systems Biology, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Lewis C. Cantley, Ph.D., is a professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Signal Transduction at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston, and Director of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Cantley joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School in 1992, when he was also appointed to chief of the division of signal transduction in the department of medicine at the former Beth Israel Hospital. In 2007, he was appointed director of the cancer center.
A
summa cum laude graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College, Cantley obtained a doctorate in biophysical chemistry from Cornell University in 1975. He completed postdoctoral research at Harvard from 1975 through 1978 when he joined the department of biochemistry and molecular biology as an assistant professor. Prior, Cantley was professor of physiology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, and serves on the editorial boards of the journals
Cell and the
Journal of Cell Biology. He is the recipient of the 2005 Pezcoller Foundation-American Association for Cancer Research International Award for Cancer Research, for his leadership in the field of signal transduction, including the discovery of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K).
In addition, research from Cantley’s laboratory has revealed that PI3K is also a significant factor in insulin signaling and in immune cell signaling. As a result, pharmaceutical intervention in the PI3K pathway is being explored in a variety of diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and immune diseases.
Gordon B. Mills, M.D., Ph.D.
Gordon B. Mills, M.D., Ph.D., is the Ann Rife Cox chair of gynecology, chair of the department of systems biology in the Division of Cancer Medicine and co-head of the Kleberg Center for Molecular Markers of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Mills received his doctoral degree in biochemistry and his medical degree from the University of Alberta. In 1985, he joined the faculty of the University of Toronto where he became associate professor in the obstetrics and gynecology, immunology, and clinical biochemistry departments; he also served as director of oncology research at the Toronto Hospital. Mills joined the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in 1994 where he is a professor in the departments of medicine, immunology and tumor biology, as well as chair for the newly created department of systems biology. He also co-directs the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. & Helen C. Kleberg Center for Molecular Markers.
Mills’ research focuses on the PI3K pathway, lysophospholipids, the genomics and genetics of women’s cancers, and identifying and characterizing a number of potential oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. He holds more than 20 patents in novel technologies and molecular biomarkers, was the founding head of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Technology Review Committee, and has contributed more than 400 papers to Nature, Cell, Oncogene, Cancer Research and Clinical Cancer Research, among others.
An Integrated Approach to Targeting Breast Cancer Molecular Subtypes and Their Resistance Phenotypes
Dream Team Leaders:
Joe W. Gray, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Oregon Health and Science University
Dennis J. Slamon, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Clinical/Translational Research at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Joe W. Gray, Ph.D.
Joe W. Gray, Ph.D., is the chair, department of biomedical engineering at the Oregon Health and Science University. He is also an adjunct professor in the department of laboratory medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine; program co-leader of breast oncology at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center; and sits on the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors.
Gray received his engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines in 1968 and his doctorate in physics from Kansas State University in 1972. The same year, he began research in the Biomedical Sciences Division of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and became cytophysics section leader 10 years later. Gray joined UCSF as professor of laboratory medicine in 1991 and held that position until 2003. He also served as director of resource for molecular cytogenetics at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The Gray Laboratory explores mechanisms by which genomic, transcriptional and proteomic abnormalities occur in selected cancers, elucidates how these abnormalities contribute to cancer pathophysiology and assesses the ways in which these abnormalities influence responses to experimental therapies.
Gray has published his work in Cancer Research, Nature, Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Cell and Science, among others. He has received numerous awards for his research including the E. O. Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Curt Stern Award from the American Society for Human Genetics, a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Colorado School of Mines, an Alumni Fellow Award from Kansas State University, an honorary Doctor of Medicine from Tampere University, the Komen Foundation Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction and the 2008 Team Science Award from the American Association for Cancer Research.
Dennis J. Slamon, M.D., Ph.D.
Dennis J. Slamon, M.D., Ph.D., serves as director of clinical/translational research at University of California, Los Angeles Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and director of the Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program. He is a professor of medicine, chief of the division of hematology/oncology and executive vice chair for research in the UCLA Department of Medicine. Slamon is also the director of the medical advisory board for the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance.
In 1975, Slamon graduated with honors from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine with both his medical degree and his doctorate in cell biology. He completed his internship and residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics, and became chief resident in 1978. One year later, he became a fellow in the division of hematology/oncology at UCLA.
For more than 20 years, Slamon has devoted his life to research that has brought about a revolution in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. His clinical research led to the development of trastuzumab (Herceptin), a breakthrough drug that has been shown to extend the survival of women with a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer.
Slamon has won numerous research awards, including the Warren Alpert Foundation Scientific Prize, the 2007 Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Translational Medicine Award by the USCD-Salk Institute, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology Millennium Award, and the Dorothy P. Landon-AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research. In 2004, the American Cancer Society presented him with the Medal of Honor, the top award bestowed by the organization.
Bioengineering and Clinical Applications of Circulating Tumor Cell Chip
Dream Team Leader:
Daniel A. Haber, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Co-Leader:
Mehmet Toner, Ph.D., Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Harvard Medical School
Daniel A. Haber, M.D., Ph.D.
Daniel A. Haber, M.D., Ph.D., is director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and the Isselbacher/Schwartz professor of oncology at Harvard Medical School. Haber attended college at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his medical and doctoral degrees at Stanford in 1983, completed an internal medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, clinical oncology training at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and a postdoctoral research fellowship at MIT, joining the Harvard Medical School faculty in 1991 as assistant professor at the MGH Cancer Center.
Haber’s laboratory interests have focused on the area of cancer genetics, including the etiology of the pediatric kidney cancer Wilms tumor and genetic predisposition to breast cancer. In collaboration with MGH Bioengineering Professor Mehmet Toner, Ph.D., Haber’s group has recently established the application of a novel microfluidic technology for quantifying and purifying rare circulating tumor cells from the blood of patients with various epithelial cancers. The further development and clinical application of this nanotechnology constitutes the basis for the proposal supported by Stand Up To Cancer.
Haber is on the editorial boards of Cell and Cancer Cell, and has served as genetics editor for the New England Journal of Medicine. He has been elected to the American Association of Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the board of