In This Section

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

T Cells and the Tumor

Monday, April 17, 2023

Michael Chiorazzi, MD, PhD

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

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

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

Advances in Breast Cancer

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Alvin P. Makohon-Moore, PhD

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

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

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

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

Systemic Effects of Cancer

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Alvaro Quintanal-Villalonga, PhD

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

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

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

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

Advances in Prostate Cancer

Wednesday, April 19, 2023