Philip Awadalla, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Montreal; Executive Scientific Director, Cartagene Project; Co-Director, Centre for Child Health Genomics of Montreal, Ste-Justine Hospital
Dr. Philip Awadalla is an Associate Professor at the University of Montreal, Ste Justine Hospital Research Centre, Department of Pediatrics. He obtained his doctorate in population and statistical genetics from the University of Edinburgh and was awarded NSERC and Killam Postdoctoral fellowships to attend the University of British Columbia and was then awarded a Wellcome Trust Fellowship (UK) to pursue his research at the University of California Davis before moving to the University of Montreal. His research utilizes population and integrative genomics approaches to capturing genetic and environmental factors associated with a number of hematological, oncological, and infectious diseases including malaria. Since 2009, he has been the lead Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of the CARTaGENE program. CARTaGENE is the Quebec health survey and an open source program that has recruited and deeply phenotyped 20,000 participants to facilitate research in the development of chronic and aging related diseases. Dr. Awadalla is a teaching faculty at a international institutions including the NIH-funded U. of Washington Institute of Statistical Genetics and sits on the advisory board of a number of international companies and Genome Centres. His team is currently part of the analytical and functional analysis groups of the 1000 Genomes Program, and have also been developing computational tools that have been used in this program as well programs like the HapMap project. Ongoing projects include next-generation programs to study the role of genetic variants responsible for neurological, hematological and cancers, particularly in children; determining rates of mutations and recombination in human pedigrees; model-based approaches to identify genetic and environmental control points to malaria infection and sickle cell disease in Africa; genetic and environmental factors associated with cardiovascular traits in Canada. Dr. Awadalla is the recipient of a Sigma Xi faculty award and the 2012 Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation’s Joe Doupe Young Investigator Award.
Victoria M. Blanc, Ph.D., Director, University of Michigan Health System Central Biorepository
Victoria Blanc is the Director of the University of Michigan Health System Central Biorepository. In that role, she is tasked with the de novo development and implementation of an enterprise-wide resource for the secure storage and quality controlled processing of human biological materials for research purposes. She has over 12 years experience in biorepository operations. Prior to joining U of M, Dr. Blanc was Vice President and General Manager of the Asterand Biorepository in Detroit, MI. She also serves the College of American Pathologists as a Committee member for the Biorepository Accreditation Program.
Chad R. Borges, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Biodesign Institute – Center for Personalized Diagnostics,
Arizona State University
Chad Borges received a B.S. in Chemistry from Walla Walla College (WA) in 1997. He went on to complete a Ph.D. in Analytical
Toxicology (2001) at the University of Utah under Prof. Douglas Rollins, the medical director in charge of doping control for the 2002 Olympic Games.
Borges’s dissertation research focused on the role of hair pigments and cellular transport in drug incorporation into hair. He continued his education as
a postdoctoral fellow at Michigan State University under pioneering mass spectrometrist J. Throck Watson, where he studied protein mass spectrometry with
an emphasis on characterizing protein posttranslational modifications. In 2003 he returned to Utah where he helped establish the Olympic-level certified
Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory. Following successful laboratory accreditation he transitioned to The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State
University in 2007, where he worked for several years as a research faculty member before joining the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry as an
Assistant Professor in 2013.
Michael Bouvet, M.D., Professor, Surgery; Director, Endocrine Surgery; Co-Director, GI Cancer Unit, Moores Cancer Center, University of
California San Diego
Dr. Michael Bouvet specializes in Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). His
clinical interests are the surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer and thyroid cancer. His research focuses on the development of
clinically-relevant mouse models of cancer and fluorescence-guided surgery using fluorophore-conjugated antibodies. Dr. Bouvet received his M.D. from the
University of Washington and did his surgical residency training at UCSD. He completed a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center
and has been on the faculty of UCSD since 1998.
Pia M. Challita-Eid, Ph.D., Director, Applied Molecular Biology, Agensys, Inc.
Dr. Challita-Eid is Director, Applied Molecular Biology at Agensys, Inc. (2010-present), where she was also previously Senior
Scientist (2007-2010) and Scientist (2000-2007). From 1998-2000, she was Assistant Professor in Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology at the University of
Rochester in New York, after working there as Senior Instructor (1996-1998).
Ken C. N. Chang, Ph.D., Clinical Assay Development and Outsourcing Lead, Clinical Biomarkers and Diagnostics, Merck & Co., Inc.
Ken Chang is Senior Principal Scientist in Clinical Biomarkers and Diagnostics Department, Merck & Co. He is the scientific lead for many clinical
genomics assay development and validation projects. Prior to Merck, he worked at Wyeth Research and Pfizer, Inc. for more than 17 years as principal
investigator/drug discovery team leader in various disease areas, and as genomics core lab manager. His research interests and expertise include clinical
biomarker assay development and validation, DNA sequencing, chemical carcinogenesis and mutagenesis, DNA structure conformation, DNA replication and
repair mechanisms, anti-cancer/anti-viral drug discovery, as well as target identification/target validation using gene expression profiling
technologies.
Colin Collins, Ph.D., Professor, Urologic Sciences, University of British Columbia and Senior Research Scientist and Director, Laboratory for Advanced Genome Analysis, Vancouver Prostate Centre
Carolyn Compton, M.D., Ph.D., CMO, National Biomarkers Development Alliance; CMO, Complex Adaptive Systems Institute; Adjunct Professor, Pathology, Mayo Medical School; Professor, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
Dr. Compton is an academic pathologist who received her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard Medical School. She a Professor of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, the Chief Medical Officer of the National Biomarkers Development Alliance, a member of the BioDesign Institute and the Chief Medical Officer of the Complex Adaptive Systems Institute. She is an Adjunct Professor of Pathology at the University of Arizona, Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Medical School. She was a Professor of Pathology at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital for many years, the Chair of Pathology at McGill University from 2000-2005 and the Director of the Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research at the National Cancer Institute until 2012. She is the past CEO and President of the Critical Path Institute. Her primary research interests are related to colon cancer, biobanking and biomarkers development.
Walter C. Darbonne, Group Leader, Clinical Assays and Technologies Group, Oncology Biomarker Development, Genentech, Inc.
As a group leader in Genentech’s Clinical Assays and Technologies Group in the Oncology Biomarker Development department, Walter is responsible for the implementation of all protein and cell-based (including CTCs) clinical oncology biomarker assays and leads the gene expression technology team. In addition to overseeing this clinical assay group, Walter has been responsible for the discovery, preclinical validation and clinical implementation of pharmacodynamic biomarker strategies on a number of clinical projects targeting modulation of reactivated embryonic genes and apoptotic pathways in the oncology setting. Walter has been with Genentech for 27 years in both the Research and Development Sciences organizations, has a BS in Biochemistry from California Polytechnic State University and an MS in Cell and Molecular Biology from San Francisco State University.
Mayumi Fujita, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine
Dr. Mayumi Fujita is Associate Professor in Dermatology at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. She has investigated
melanoma biology, melanoma immunology and skin immunology for over 20 years. She completed her dermatology residency training at Kyoto University in Japan
and obtained the Ph.D. degree in skin immunology in 1992. After finishing her postdoc fellowships at the University of Colorado and University of
Washington, Dr. Fujita repeated clinical training (a year of internship and 3 years of dermatology residency) at the University of Washington to pursue an
academic career in the U.S. In 2002, Dr. Fujita started a career as a physician scientist at her current institute. Her laboratory has established various
animal models of melanoma, including syngeneic models, genetically-engineered mouse models and xenograft models with human melanoma cells and patient-
derived tumor xenograft (PDTX). In particular, PDTX model of human melanoma was established in her lab in 2008 and has been used for cancer stem cell
projects. Dr. Fujita’s research is currently funded by VA Merit Awards and NIH grant. She has collaborated with many researchers and produced 65 peer-
reviewed publications. In the University and VA Dermatology Clinic, Dr. Fujita has taken care of patients with skin diseases including skin cancer,
melanoma and psoriasis.
William M. Grady, M.D., Director, Translational Research and Rodger C. Haggitt Professor, Gastroenterology, School of Medicine,
University of Washington Medical Center; Medical
Director, GI Cancer Prevention Program, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance; Member, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center
Dr. William M. Grady’s lab, in general, studies the molecular pathogenesis of gastrointestinal cancer, especially colorectal cancer
and esophageal cancer. His scientific research and clinical activities also include Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) projects (novel biomarkers for
early detection of colorectal cancer); the Barrett’s Esophagus Translational Research Network (BTRNet) (investigation of use of methylated genes as
biomarkers for Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma); and mouse models of colorectal cancer (signal network deregulation). In addition to his
laboratory research, Dr. Grady devotes time to patient care at the University of Washington Medical Center and SCCA. He serves as the Medical Director for
the SCCA’s Gastrointestinal Cancer Prevention Program, the region’s only dedicated clinic for individuals at high risk for developing gastrointestinal
cancers. Dr. Grady earned his M.D. from the University of Michigan in 1990. He did an Internal Medicine residency at the University of Washington
(Seattle, WA), followed by a gastroenterology fellowship at Case Western Reserve Medical School, and a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular and cell
biology at Case Western Medical School. Dr. Grady’s many awards include the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research,
the John Walsh Memorial GIDH Award in Basic Research and the Damon-Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator Award. In 2005 he won the prestigious Presidential
Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the nation’s highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. He has
also been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation.
Sui Huang, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Institute for Systems Biology
Sui Huang, M.D., Ph.D., obtained his degrees from the University of Zurich for work on interferon and did postdoctoral research at the
Children’s Hospital, Boston on tumor angiogenesis. He was faculty at Harvard Medical School and University of Calgary before joining the Institute for
Systems Biology (Seattle). Dr. Huang has championed the study of gene regulatory network dynamics in cell and cancer biology. In his quest for a formal
theory of multi-cellularity, from which the natural inevitability of cancer and the time-asymmetry of its inexorable progression may be derived, he has
demonstrated that cell types are attractor states of gene regulatory networks and that the non-genetic plasticity in (tumor) cells is a central driving
force of cell phenotype changes. Dr. Huang’s lab currently investigates cell fate decisions and transitions between cell states in terms of first
principles of complex dynamical systems and embedded in cell population dynamics – a much neglected level in the study of tumor progression.
Noah Hoffman, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington
Noah Hoffman is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Laboratory Medicine where he is Associate
Director of the Informatics division. His clinical responsibilities include both oversight of laboratory informatics and development of software and
infrastructure for clinical next-generation sequence assays in molecular genetics and microbiology.
Sylvia M. Lee, M.D., Research Associate, Immunology Program, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and
Medical Oncologist, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Dr. Sylvia Lee is a research associate in the Immunology Program of the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Center, as well as a medical oncologist at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance who specializes in melanoma and lung cancer. She is the lead
investigator for the Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TIL) clinical trial for melanoma patients at Fred Hutch.
Michael Liebman, Ph.D., Managing Director, IPQ Analytics, LLC
Michael N. Liebman, Ph.D., is the Managing Director of IPQ Analytics, LLC and of Strategic Medicine, Inc., and Strategic Medicine, BV (the Hague, NL) after serving as the Executive Director of the Windber Research Institute from 2003-2007. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at Drexel College of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Drug Discovery, First Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University. Previously, he was Director, Computational Biology and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center 2000-2003. He served as Global Head of Computational Genomics at Roche Pharmaceuticals and Director, Bioinformatics and Pharmacogenomics at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Director of Genomics for Vysis, Inc. He is a co-founder of Prosanos, Inc. (2000). He was on the faculty of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Pharmacology and Physiology/Biophysics. He serves on 14 scientific advisory boards and is on the Board of Directors and chairs the Science Committee of the Nathaniel Adamczyk Foundation for Pediatric ARDS and is an Advisor to the American Heart Association Science and Technology Accelerator. Michael is Chair of the Informatics Program of the PhRMA Foundation and also Chair of its new program in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics and is a member of the PhRMA Scientific Advisory Board. He is on the Advisory Board of the International Society for Translational Medicine and on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Translational Medicine, for Clinical and Translational Medicine and for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the International Park for Translational Biomedicine (Shanghai). He is an Invited Professor at the Shanghai Center for Bioinformatics Technology. His research focuses on computational models of disease progression stressing risk detection, disease process and pathway modeling and analysis of lifestyle interactions and causal biomarker discovery and focuses on moving bedside problems into the research laboratory to improve patient care and quality of life. Recent activities also include computational approaches to disease modeling, patient and disease stratification, drug safety, reduction of animal testing and both qualitative and quantitative risk assessment in health care and the life sciences.
Angen Liu, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Specimen Accessioning Core, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Angen Liu is the Director of Specimen Accessioning Core at Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University. He received his
medical degree from Anhui Medical University in China in 1995 and his Ph.D. from Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan in 2005. During his
Ph.D. program and postdoctoral training, he carried out studies in cancer biology and molecular pathology. Dr. Liu is a trained M.D. pathologist and
worked for many years as an anatomic pathologist. He is experienced in the operation of biorepositories.
Geoffrey P. Lomax, Ph.D., Senior Officer, Standards Working Group, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Dr. Geoffrey Lomax is the Senior Officer for the Medical and Ethical Standards at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He develops the CIRM’s medical and ethical standards, performs compliance-related activities and facilitates the implementation of CIRM’s Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Banking Initiative. He worked previously as the Research Director with the California Environmental Health Investigations Branch to publish and implement a strategic plan for the development of an Environmental Health Surveillance System in California. Through his professional career, Dr. Lomax has continually worked to bridge issues of scientific, policy and ethics in the development and implementation of research programs. His DrPH research and M.P.H. work were performed within the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley and his BS in Environmental Toxicology was conferred by the University of California at Davis.
James M. Olson, M.D., Ph.D., Member, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Professor, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University of Washington; Attending Physician, Seattle Children’s Hospital; Founder, Presage Biosciences and Blaze Bioscience
Dr. Olson discovers and develops promising new drugs for cancer patients. He cares for children with brain cancer, and much of his
work is focused on them. He found that a vitamin A derivative could be used to treat medulloblastoma, the most common form of childhood brain cancer,
without causing the harmful side effects associated with standard chemotherapy and radiation treatment. He now leads a clinical trial being conducted
across 250 centers to determine whether this drug improves survival for children with this high-risk medulloblastoma. Dr. Olson led the creation of a
molecular imaging agent derived from scorpion venom that illuminates cancer cells. The “Tumor Paint” can identify tumors with as few as 200 cancer cells
making it 500 times more sensitive than magnetic resonance imaging. Although Dr. Olson originally developed Tumor Paint for brain cancer, it could
revolutionize the treatment of other tumors by helping surgeons distinguish between cancerous and normal tissue. He founded Blaze Bioscience, which is now
advancing Tumor Paint to patients. Building on the success of Tumor Paint, Dr. Olson is now developing a new class of drugs called optide therapeutics.
Inspired by nature, optide drug candidates can be better engineered to fit like a key in a lock, where the lock is a disease-causing protein and the drug
“key” specifically blocks its activity. They have the potential to be far more effective and easier on the body than current cancer treatments, and they
may also be effective for other diseases, such as autism, mental health disorders, atrial fibrillation and stroke in the elderly. In addition to
developing optides for human patients, Dr. Olson is collaborating with the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine to design and test
optides for dogs and cats with cancer. Dr. Olson also invented a technology that permits, for the first time, the comparison of multiple drug therapies in
a single tumor. He founded a spin-off company, Presage Biosciences, that is using this technology to help major pharmaceutical companies develop more
effective cancer drugs. Eventually, the strategy could enable oncologists to tailor treatment by matching each patient with the best therapies for his or
her disease. Dr. Olson earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology in 1989 and an M.D. in 1991, both from the University of Michigan. He completed his residency in
pediatrics in 1994 and his fellowship in pediatric oncology in 1997, both at the University of Washington. He became an attending physician at Seattle
Children’s in 1998. He joined the Fred Hutch and UW faculties in 2000. Dr. Olson has received awards from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the
Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Child Health Research Center and the American Academy of Pediatrics. He was also an Emily Dorfman Fellow of the American
Brain Tumor Association.
Nasrin Perskvist, Ph.D., Director and National Coordinator, Cervical Cytology Biobank, Pathology and Cytology, Karolinska Institute and BBMRI.se
Nasrin Perskvist, Ph.D., Director and National Coordinator, Cervical Cytology Biobank, Pathology and Cytology, Karolinska Institute and BBMRI.se
Nasrin Perskvist is Director and National Coordinator of Cervical Cytology Biobank of Sweden, where she leads the effort to harmonize biobanking practices nationwide. Prior to joining to Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University hospital , Nasrin worked as a pathologist at the National Board of Forensic Medicine, and as microbiologist and molecular biologist at Public Health Agency of Sweden. She gained her Ph.D. as microbiologist and hosted Queensland University in Brisbane, Australian as a postdoc. Nasrin has invented the high-throughput handling and storage process for biopreservation of liquid-based cervical cell samples. This method was then incorporated into a robotic system and the process was moved from a regionally based Cervical Cytology Biobank to a national infrastructure.
Nathan D. Price, Ph.D., Associate Director, Institute for Systems Biology
Nathan Price is Associate Director of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, WA. Dr. Price is the recipient of numerous awards,
including the Howard Temin Pathway to Independence Award in Cancer Research from the National Institutes of Health, a National Science Foundation CAREER
Award, a Young Investigator Award from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, and was named as one of the inaugural “Tomorrow’s Principal Investigators” by
Genome Technology and, most recently, as a Camille-Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar. Dr. Price served on the National Academies-Institute of Medicine committee to
set best practice guidelines to identify Omics-Based Tests for Predicting Patient Outcomes in Clinical Trials. Dr. Price has served on the scientific
advisory boards of a number of companies, including TetraVitae Bioscience, Global Genomics Group and Trelys. He serves on the editorial boards of Science
Translational Medicine, BMC Systems Biology, Industrial Biotechnology and Biotechnology Journal, and was Deputy Editor of PLOS Computational Biology from
2011-2014. He has served for several years on the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board of the P4 Medicine Institute. Dr. Price is also Co-PI
of ISB’s 100K Wellness study, which is a pioneering effort to predict and prevent disease before it happens.
Colin C. Pritchard, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Associate Director, Genetics and Solid Tumors Laboratory, Laboratory Medicine,
University of Washington
Dr. Pritchard is an Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine, as well as the associate director of the genetics and solid tumors
laboratory at the University of Washington Medical Center that services the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA). Dr. Pritchard undertook his undergraduate
and graduate training at the University of Washington in Seattle in the United States. He completed his medical training at the University of Washington
School of Medicine. The Pritchard laboratory focuses on oncology molecular diagnostics, particularly the source and utility of miRNA biomarkers in blood,
and the development of innovative molecular diagnostics for the identification of mutations that can guide therapeutic decision-making. His clinical work
focuses on applications of next-generation sequencing gene panels for cancer risk assessment and precision treatment. He has led the development and
implementation of the ColoSeq™ Lynch and Polyposis Syndrome Panel and UW-OncoPlex™ Cancer Gene Panel in current clinical use for cancer patients and their
families.
Vinagolu K. Rajasekhar, MSc, MPhil, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. V.K. Rajasekhar is a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Medicine at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York. Dr. Rajasekhar has been an invited speaker and chaired sessions in various international conferences and also researched at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. Dr. Rajasekhar has received prestigious research awards and support grants from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, to the Robert A Welch Foundation, Texas, USA, etc. He is the senior editor of a well-received book, Regulatory Networks in Stem Cells with Humana/Springer Press. Dr. Rajasekhar has been the reviewer of many peer-reviewed journals such as Stem Cells, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences-USA, Journal of Cell Biology, Neoplasia, PLOS ONE, etc. He has also taught undergraduate courses at the University of California, Irvine, and delivered graduate lecture course at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dr. Rajasekhar’s current research focus is on developing patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of cancer and the identification and isolation of cancer stem cells from clinical specimens, discovery of biomarkers and understanding cellular reprogramming mechanisms. Dr. Rajasekhar and collaborating oncologists, pathologists and surgeons including Dr. John Healey and others at MSKCC have identified a rare population of human patient cancer stem cells with a new set of biomarkers and a targetable novel signaling pathway distinct from that of total cells in bulk tumors (e.g., http://www.Genomeweb.com). This approach has opened up novel possibilities for biobanking of cancer stem cells and has a potential for upgrading the techniques into industrial-grade screening. Dr. Rajasekhar’s accomplishments on the basic research front have challenged the accepted textbook wisdom of gene expression during cancer initiation and have the potential to unveil novel therapeutics against cancer. Dr. Rajasekhar’s research accomplishments mark an impressive number of citations, previews by lead journals, exceptional post-publication peer reviews by Faculty of 1000, etc. Dr. Rajasekhar’s latest focus is on developing humanized PDX models of cancer to understand the cells conferring therapy resistance in the human patients’ context.
Sanford M. Simon, Ph.D., Professor, Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics, The Rockefeller University
Dr. Simon graduated with a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Princeton University in 1977. He received his Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics in 1984 from New York University Medical Center, where he studied with Rodolfo LlinaÅLs. He came to Rockefeller as a postdoc in Günter Blobel’s lab and was promoted to research associate in 1986. He was named assistant professor in 1989, head of the Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics in 1992, associate professor in 1994 and professor in 2000. Dr. Simon was a 2004 recipient of the John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science.
Stephen Schmechel, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, UW Medicine Pathology and Director, NWBioTrust, University of Washington
Dr. Schmechel is Director of Northwest (NW) BioTrust, a core facility established by the University of Washington (UW) and Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for patient consenting, research biospecimen procurement and research pathology services including diagnostic pathology,
IHC assay optimization, TMA manufacture and digital pathology. He is additionally Chief of Pathology at Harborview Medical Center (HMC). HMC, UW Medical
Center, Northwest Hospital and Medical Center, Valley Medical Center, UW Neighborhood Clinics, UW Physicians, Airlift Northwest and UW School of Medicine
comprise the patient care, research and educational enterprise known as UW Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Schmechel is Chief of Cytopathology and staff
surgical pathologist, UW Medicine.
W. Troy Shelton, M.S., P.M.P., Vice President, Operations, International Genomics Consortium
Troy Shelton, M.S., P.M.P., is the Vice President of Operations and oversees all aspects of operations, research studies, client services, and logistics. Troy has over 18 years of heath care and project management experience. In addition to his leadership role at IGC, he is also the Vice President of Program Management at Paradigm Diagnostics. He served as the Project Manager for The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Biospecimen Core Resource (BCR) and oversaw: BCR day to day operations; BCR financial oversight; facilitation of communications. He is also currently the project manager for the University of Michigan Biorepository Implementation and is the co-Principle Investigator for the IGC expO Tissues Source Site Network.
John T. Slattery, Ph.D., Vice Dean, Research and Graduate Education, School of Medicine and Professor, Pharmacology and Medicine,
University of Washington School of Medicine
John Slattery is Vice Dean for Research and Graduate Education and Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine in the School of Medicine at
the University of Washington. His academic background has included appointments in the School of Pharmacy at UW, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center and the School of Medicine and the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University. His research addressed toxicities accrued by exposure to
electrophiles as such or as generated from chemically stable molecules. These compounds can cause injury to the liver, other organs and the developing
fetus. Their chemical reactivity underlies the mechanism of action of many cancer chemotherapeutic agents (the class known as alkylators). The work has
had practical applications in responding to and avoiding drug toxicity and improving mortality and morbidity following Hematopoietic stem cell
transplantation.
Suzanne Vercauteren, M.D., Ph.D., FRCPC, Head, Division of Hematopathology, BC Children’s Hospital and Clinical Assistant Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia
Suzanne Vercauteren is the Head of the Division of Hematopathology at BC Children’s Hospital and is Director of the BC Children’s Hospital BioBank. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Suzanne is also on the board of the management committee of the Canadian Tumour Repository Network.
Kai Wang, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Computational Biology and Precision Medicine, Pfizer Oncology
Dr. Kai Wang holds a Principal Scientist position at Pfizer Oncology Research Unit located in La Jolla, CA. Since joining Pfizer in
2009, Dr. Wang has led the integrative data analysis of several large-scale clinical genomics studies, combining data from genomic profiling and cancer
genome sequencing to identify next-generation cancer drug targets, align preclinical models and reposition existing Pfizer programs. Dr. Wang earned his
B.S. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Peking University and obtained his Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University in the
city of New York.
Yuzhuo Wang, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Urologic Sciences, University of British Columbia
Dr. Yuzhuo Wang (王玉琢) has a dual appointment as a Senior Scientist at Vancouver Prostate Centre and BC Cancer Agency. He is also the
Founder of the Living Tumor Laboratory (www.livingtumorlab.com) and a tenured faculty member in the Department of Urologic Sciences at UBC. Dr. Wang did
his Ph.D. at the University of Hong Kong, and joined Dr. Gerald R. Cunha at University of California, San Francisco as a postdoctoral fellow in 1997.
Since then, he has authored/co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed original articles and review papers, including publications in Cancer Research, PNAS,
Cancer Cell, Clinical Cancer Research, The EMBO Journal, Oncogene, and The FASEB journal. In addition, he has proposed novel hypotheses on “prostate stem
cells,” “epithelial-immune cell transition (EIT)” and “cancer-generated lactic acid is critical, immunosuppressive metabolite rather than a ‘waste
product’ (which has been thought for more than 90 years)”. Dr. Wang is recognized for his pioneering work in the field of prostate cancer modeling. He was
the first to establish tissue recombination model of hormonal prostatic carcinogenesis. He also developed the first model of hormonal carcinogenesis in
human prostatic epithelium. Moreover, he is responsible for a novel method for establishing transplantable, patient-derived xenograft models that closely
resemble patients’ malignancies. Dr. Wang has received numerous awards for his academic achievements in cancer research, such as a Prostate Cancer
Foundation Research Award, U.S. (2007), the Translation Research Award from Roche, Canada (2009), an Overseas Chinese Scholars Award (Distinguished Young
Scholar Award, Category B) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2009), the Innovative Scholar Award from the International Cancer
Alliance for Research and Education (ICARE), U.S. (2010), a UBC Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Award, Canada (2011) and a UBC Department of
Urologic Sciences Outstanding Academic Performance Award (2013).
Wendell G. Yarbrough, M.D., MMHC, FACS, Professor of Surgery, Otolaryngology and Pathology; Section Chief, Otolaryngology; Co-Director, Molecular Virology Research Program; Director, Head and Neck Cancer Program, Smilow Cancer Hospital, Yale University
Dr. Yarbrough is a surgeon-scientist who has been active in head and neck cancer research for more than two decades. Recently, he assumed the position of Chief of Otolaryngology, Director of the Head and Neck Disease Center and Co-Director of the Molecular Virology Program at Yale. Previously, Dr. Yarbrough served as the co-leader of the Thoracic/Head and Neck program at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center where his lab developed human-in-mouse models to explore treatment of head and neck tumors. More recently, the Yarbrough lab has focused on characterization of molecular defects that drive behavior of human head and neck squamous cell carcinomas and salivary cancers so that defects can be rationally targeted to advance therapy.