NextGen Stars
AACR Annual Meeting 2024 NextGen Stars Program
The NextGen Stars program provided an exciting opportunity to increase the visibility of early-career scientists at the AACR Annual Meeting and to support their professional development and advancement.
Congratulations to the 2024 NextGen Stars!
Israel Canadas, PhD
Assistant Professor
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Targeting DHX9 to trigger viral mimicry and immunotherapy responsiveness in small cell lung cancer
Major Symposium SY46
Communication between DNA Damage and Immune Responses in Cancer
Monday, April 8, 2024
Gabriele Casirati, MD, PhD
Research Fellow
Boston Children’s Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
Epitope editing enables targeted immunotherapy of acute myeloid leukemia
Advances in Hematologic Malignancies AHM04
Basic, Translational, and Clinical Advances in ALL and AML
Monday, April 8, 2024
Kathleen Houlahan, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Stanford University, Stanford, California
Germline-mediated immunoediting sculpts breast cancer subtypes and metastatic proclivity
Major Symposium SY02
Understanding and Predicting Tumor Evolution
Monday, April 8, 2024
Kara N. Maxwell, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Distinct genomic and immunologic tumor evolution in germline TP53-driven breast cancers
Advances in the Science of Cancer Disparities ASD01
Molecular Profiling in Breast Cancer and Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Monday, April 8, 2024
Arnav Mehta, MD, PhD
Assistant in Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Dissecting and quantifying pancreatic cancer plasticity using single-cell multiomics, lineage tracing and functional genomics reveals novel mediators of therapy resistance
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS06
Impact of Tumor Heterogeneity on the Evolution of Pancreatic Cancer
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Abhijit Parolia, MS, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
NSD2 is a requisite subunit of the AR/FOXA1 neo-enhanceosome in promoting prostate tumorigenesis
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS07
Androgen Receptor as a Pro-Differentiation and Oncogenic Transcription Factor in Prostate Cancer
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Olivier Saulnier, PhD
Junior Group Leader
Institut Curie, Paris, France
Tracing the developmental origins of group 3 medulloblastoma
Major Symposium SY27
Targeting Aberrant Transcription in Pediatric Cancer
Monday, April 8, 2024
Alison M. Taylor, PhD
Assistant Professor
Columbia University, New York, New York
Functional and computational approaches to uncover selection advantages of cancer aneuploidy
Advances in Technologies AT06
Next Generation Functional Genomics for Target Discovery
Monday, April 8, 2024
Claire E. Thomas, PhD, MPH
Postdoctoral Fellow
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington
Association between somatic microsatellite instability, hypermutation status, and specific T-cell subsets in colorectal cancer tumors
Major Symposium SY32
Crosstalk within the Tumor Ecosystem
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Ignacio Vazquez-Garcia, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York
Evolutionary dynamics of whole-genome doubling in ovarian cancer
Advances in Technologies AT04
Mutational Processes in Cancer: From Replication Stress to Complex Genomic Rearrangements
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
View the abstracts of the NextGen Stars’ presentations from the AACR Annual Meeting 2023:
Timour Baslan, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York
Ordered and selective patterns of cancer genome evolution revealed by lineage tracing of sporadic p53 loss
Major Symposium SY28
New Insights into Cancer Initiation, Progression, and Therapy through Big Data Resources
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Doratha A. Byrd, MPH, PhD
Assistant Member
Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida
A biobank of Fecal Immunochemical Tests (FIT) for gut microbiome measurement: A paradigm for studying the microbiome and cancer
Major Symposium SY22
Microbiome and Cancer Immunotherapy
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Katelyn T. Byrne, PhD
Assistant Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology
Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon
Agonistic anti-CD40 converts regulatory T cells in to Type 1 effector cells within the tumor microenvironment
Major Symposium SY12
Monday, April 17, 2023
Michael Chiorazzi, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine (Medical Oncology)
Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
Autologous humanized PDX modeling for immuno-oncology recapitulates the human tumor microenvironment
Major Symposium SY09
Cancer Ecosystem and the Microenvironment
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Courtney L. Jones, PhD
Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Targeting polyamine metabolism in acute myeloid leukemia stem cells
Major Symposium SY03
Stress, Stemness, and Drug Resistance
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Brittany D. Lord, PhD, MPH
Cancer Prevention Fellow, Division of Cancer Prevention
National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
The impact of neighborhood deprivation on DNA methylation in breast cancer from a diverse cohort
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS08
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Alvin P. Makohon-Moore, PhD
Assistant Member
Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation, Nutley, New Hampshire
Transcriptional and metabolic dynamics of cancer cells under nutrient deprivation
Major Symposium SY07
Metabolic Influence on the Cancer Cell State
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Rachel N. Martini, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York
Multiomics in disparities research: Identifying African ancestry-specific mechanisms in the triple negative breast cancer tumor microenvironment
Advances in the Science of Cancer Disparities ASD01
The Biology Driving Cancer Disparities
Monday, April 17, 2023
Chemtai Mungo, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Feasibility of topical self-administered therapies to improve cervical precancer treatment outcomes among women living with HIV in low-and middle-income countries
Major Symposium SY36
Global Cancer Burden: Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Jason R. Pitarresi, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts
Altered calcium signaling in cancer: PTHrP-KRAS collateral amplification governs pancreatic cancer metastasis, cachexia, and immunosuppression
Major Symposium SY20
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Alvaro Quintanal-Villalonga, PhD
Assistant Attending Biologist and Codirector, Rudin Lab
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York
Multi-omic approaches to study the role of plasticity in therapy resistance and metastasis in lung cancer
Advances in Diagnostics and Therapeutics ADT06
Multiomics in Diagnosis and Care Management
Monday, April 17, 2023
Megan K. Ruhland, PhD
Assistant Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, and Dermatology
Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon
Dendritic cell intrinsic androgen receptor signaling reduces dendritic cell function and anti-tumor immunity
Major Symposium SY15
Clinical Strategies for Myeloid Cell Modulation in Cancer
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Anastasia N. Tikhonova, PhD
Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Delineating the developmental hierarchy and immune microenvironment of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS05
Advances in Leukemia Research and Treatment
Monday, April 17, 2023
Duo Xu, PhD
Research Associate
Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York
Chromatin profiles classify castration-resistant prostate cancers suggesting therapeutic targets
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS06
Wednesday, April 19, 2023