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NextGen Stars

AACR Annual Meeting 2026 NextGen Stars Program

The AACR Annual Meeting 2026 marks the 12th anniversary of the prestigious and competitive AACR NextGen Stars program. The Annual Meeting Program Committee invited AACR Associate Members and early-career and early-stage Active members to apply for the opportunity to give a talk in a major session at the meeting. 

Information for selected presenters

  • Selected talks will be added to existing Major Symposia and Advances sessions, based on the subject matter of the abstract. Most talks will be 15 minutes in length plus 5 minutes for discussion, but the assigned length of the talk may vary depending on the session. 
  • Applicants who are selected to give talks at the Annual Meeting will receive travel support and complimentary registration for the meeting. 

Congratulations to the 2026 NextGen Stars!

CheukMan Cherie Au, PHD

CheukMan Cherie Au, PHD

Assistant Professor 
Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York
First-in-class dual AR/AR-V7 molecular glue degraders targeting the undruggable N-terminal domain to overcome therapeutic resistance in prostate cancer  

Daniel D. Azorín, PhD

Daniel D. Azorín, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher
ETH Zurich, Basel, Switzerland
Screening for tumor microtube-targeting drugs identifies PKC modulators as multipotent inhibitors of glioblastoma progression

Jian Carrot-Zhang, PhD

Jian Carrot-Zhang, PhD

Assistant Professor
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York
Understand germline determinants of cancer progression using multi-ancestral real-world data

Steven Corsello, MD

Steven Corsello, MD

Assistant Professor
Stanford University, Stanford, California
Discovery of TRIM21 molecular glues that drive potent anti-tumor efficacy via nuclear pore complex degradation

Alvaro Curiel Garcia, PhD

Alvaro Curiel Garcia, PhD

Associate Research Scientist
Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York
BMAL2 is a KRAS-driven master regulator of hypoxic adaptation and EMT in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

William Freed-Pastor, MD, PhD

William Freed-Pastor, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
Cancer-restricted cryptic antigens: Novel targets for next-generation T cell-based therapies

Adam Grippin, MD, PhD

Adam Grippin, MD, PhD

Resident/Post-doctoral candidate
UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Mechanisms by which mRNA vaccines augment responses to immune checkpoint blockade

Long Nguyen, MD, PhD

Long Nguyen, MD, PhD

Instructor, Pathway-to-Independence
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
BACH1 drives hypoxia-induced stem-like transition states and immune evasion in breast cancer

Ray Pillai, MD

Ray Pillai, MD

Instructor
NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York
Autocrine LIF signaling: A novel therapeutic target to eliminate inflammatory and immunosuppressive cancer stem cells in LKB1 mutant lung adenocarcinoma

Amulya Sreekumar, PhD

Amulya Sreekumar, PhD

Research Associate
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Residual breast cancer cells co-opt SOX5-driven endochondral ossification to maintain dormancy

Daniel Zabransky, MD, PhD

Daniel Zabransky, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
Overcoming aging-driven barriers to effective immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer