Inaugural AACR D3 Opens With Insights From Leaders Across Drug Discovery and Development

July 24, 2026 by

The inaugural AACR Drug Discovery and Development (AACR D3) meeting, held July 21-24 in Boston, kicked off with an innovative opening session highlighting unique insights from leading voices across the drug development pipeline.

“This groundbreaking global conference aims to redefine the future of oncology drug development by challenging conventional paradigms in catalyzing innovation across disciplines,” said conference cochair and 2024-2025 AACR President Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, PhD (hc), FAACR, as she welcomed attendees to the opening session.

Joining LoRusso in opening the meeting were her fellow conference cochairs: 2026-2027 AACR President Keith T. Flaherty, MD, FAACR; 2025-2026 AACR President Lillian L. Siu, MD, FAACR; and AACR Board of Directors member and editor-in-chief of the AACR journal Clinical Cancer Research Timothy A. Yap, MBBS, PhD.

Timothy A. Yap, MBBS, PhD; Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, PhD (hc), FAACR; AACR CEO Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc); Lillian L. Siu, MD, FAACR; and Keith T. Flaherty, MD, FAACR.

Organized by these four trailblazers in drug discovery and development, the meeting was thoughtfully designed to bring together experts from academia, traditional pharma, biopharma, biotech, regulatory agencies, and venture capital to accelerate progress in cancer treatment.

“The AACR D3 conference is more than a meeting—it is a catalyst for transforming bold scientific ideas into innovative new treatments for patients with cancer,” said Yap in an interview with AACR. “By bringing together the world’s leading cancer researchers, clinicians, innovators, and industry leaders, D3 fosters collaborations that accelerate discovery and inspire the next generation of breakthroughs.”

“Having the entire spectrum from end to end is the best way to make the whole process of drug discovery and development most efficient,” Siu noted in an interview with AACR. “If we can learn from each other and share data, we can get to the final goal much faster, which is to bring effective treatments and cures to our patients.”

For the opening session, which was formatted as a panel discussion, the cochairs invited three speakers—Alexis Borisy, MS, cofounder and chairman of the venture capital firm Curie.Bio; Chris Boshoff, MD, PhD, chief scientific officer and president of research and development at Pfizer; and David Schenkein, MD, general partner of the venture capital firm Google Ventures—to share wisdom from their respective fields.

“The most appropriate way of trying to kick off this meeting and reflect what it is that we’re trying to capture [is to] invite into this conversation people who have really—through generations of new therapies and diagnostic technologies—helped unlock therapeutic advances,” said Flaherty, referring to the collective contributions of the invited speakers in the drug development space.

The three invited speakers first shared with the attendees the paths they took in their careers to their current positions and their motivations for pursuing these roles.

Borisy, who has helped launch several companies in his role as a venture capitalist, explained that his work “has always been driven by hope” and the desire to help people live longer, healthier lives. “It’s a very privileged place for all of us to be.”

Boshoff shared the journey of his career, which began in virology research and now involves leading research and development in multiple therapeutic areas, before commenting on the global impacts of the pharmaceutical industry. He pointed to vaccine development as one example, noting that one vaccine can impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Schenkein explained that his career has similarly been motivated by accelerating progress for patients. After conducting research in the academic and biotech sectors, Schenkein transitioned to his current role at Google Ventures, which invests in technology or life sciences companies. “I get up every morning saying, ‘How can I help a company bring a new medicine forward to help all the patients out there—not just in oncology but across all therapeutic areas—to make an impact?’”

During a discussion that featured robust audience participation, the speakers and cochairs—together, representing academia, industry, and venture capital—offered their unique perspectives on the various aspects of drug discovery and development, including how investment decisions are made, the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), the role of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and other biomarkers, current challenges facing the biotech sector, the impact of geopolitical uncertainties, and more.

Panelists noted that the biotech sector is coming out of a difficult few years, during which rising interest rates and lower investments led to many companies folding. Now, there is much more investment funding available, they said, but the selection of funding recipients has become more selective. Part of the reason is that there has been increasing resistance to funding new, risky ideas. Instead, panelists said, many venture capitalists are opting to support companies that already have an asset or are pursuing next-generation “me-better” versions of existing therapeutics. They voiced concern about this trend, cautioning that continuing this approach would ultimately stifle innovation.

Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, PhD (hc), FAACR; Lillian L. Siu, MD, FAACR; David Schenkein, MD; Alexis Borisy, MS; Chris Boshoff, MD, PhD; Timothy A. Yap, MBBS, PhD; and Keith T. Flaherty, MD, FAACR.

In response to the growing contributions of China to drug development, panelists emphasized the importance of finding ways to collaborate with Chinese researchers and to learn from their successes, rather than seeing them as a threat. At the same time, they explained that some elements of the Chinese research infrastructure may not work in the United States.

The panelists also discussed the need to continue to share data and communicate, even in the face of increasing global competition, and encouraged companies to form consortiums to conduct “precompetitive validation” of candidate targets. This would allow researchers and investors to focus their resources on validated targets, rather than each company separately validating targets.

To accelerate progress, many noted the importance of incorporating AI into research labs to make drug discovery and development more efficient and cost-effective, pointing to the successes of AI-native labs in China.

Despite challenges facing the field, the panelists agreed that the state of drug development and discovery is strong, and that embracing new technologies, supporting innovation, improving efficiency, and promoting collaboration are key to enduring success.

Follow the blog for more coverage from the inaugural AACR D3 meeting, including innovative therapeutic approaches under exploration.