Nelson Alexander, PhD
Research Leader, Roche Sequencing Solutions
Nelson Alexander, PhD
Research Leader, Roche Sequencing Solutions
Nelson Alexander received his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the University of Arizona, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University. Looking to have a more direct impact on patient care, he joined Roche Diagnostics in 2007 where he has held multiple roles in R&D, as well as Research & Early Development. Nelson became very interested in the interface between tumor heterogeneity and sampling bias. He currently leads a research team within Roche Diagnostics that is pioneering a new sampling process that enables the evaluation and quantification of tumor diversity at the genomic, transcriptomic, and cellular levels from entire solid tumors.
Steve Anderson, PhD
Chief Science Officer, Covance; Senior Vice President, LabCorp Drug Development
Steve Anderson, PhD
Chief Science Officer, Covance; Senior Vice President, LabCorp Drug Development
Dr Anderson is a senior vice president at Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp), and the Chief Scientific Officer for the Covance Drug Development business of LabCorp. He has been with the LabCorp organization for 26 years and has held a variety of positions including director of operations for ViroMed Laboratories, director of operations for Monogram Biosciences, director of operations for the Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology, director of operations for Integrated Oncology and Genetics, national director of Research and Development, and global head of LabCorp Clinical Trials. Dr Anderson is a member of a variety of professional societies including the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Association for Molecular Pathology.
Dr Anderson’s research interests are in the development and applications for molecular diagnostics, including several examples of companion diagnostics and pharmacogenomics assays. He has authored more than 175 articles and abstracts published in such journals as Genetics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Clinical Chemistry, the Journal of Infectious Disease, Human Pathology, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oncogene, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Clinical Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Research, BMC Cancer, the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Investigation and Expert Reviews in Molecular Diagnostics.
He has a PhD in genetics from Iowa State University, and was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at the Waksman Institute of Rutgers University.
R. Michael Barlow
Senior Advisor, ADVI
R. Michael Barlow
Senior Advisor, ADVI
Michael Barlow is the Former Palmetto MolDx Vice President. He advises ADVI clients on diagnostics and personalized medicine issues leveraging his experience in both the provider and payer environments.
Suzanne Belinson, PhD, MPH
Vice President, Commercial Markets, Tempus
Suzanne Belinson, PhD, MPH
Vice President, Commercial Markets, Tempus
In her current role, Suzanne focuses on commercial strategy and growth for Tempus developing and executing partnerships with organizations to improve healthcare value and outcomes by leveraging molecular and clinical data. Value creation for commercial payers, benefit managers and group purchasing organizations is where she focuses. Dr. Belinson is especially interested in applications of data to power solutions for the transition to and management of value based care. Prior to Tempus, Dr. Belinson served as Executive Director, Clinical Markets, at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association where she led the sales and market development as well as day to day operations of Evidence Street. Dr. Belinson received her bachelor’s degree from Cleveland State University, a Masters in Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh, and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Adrian Bot, MD, PhD
Vice President, Translational Medicine, Kite, a Gilead Company
Adrian Bot, MD, PhD
Vice President, Translational Medicine, Kite, a Gilead Company
Adrian Bot, M.D., Ph.D. is the Vice President of Translational Medicine at Kite, a Gilead Company, developing genetically engineered cell products for oncology indications. Dr. Bot has more than two decades of experience in biopharmaceutical industry with focus on discovery and development of immunotherapies. He obtained his M.D. in Romania in 1993 and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York in 1998. Subsequently, he was a Guest Scientist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Prior to his appointment as Chief Scientific Officer at Kite Pharma in 2011 and then Vice President of Translational Medicine where he contributed to the development of first-in-class cell therapies for cancer, Dr. Bot served in various senior R&D leadership positions at MannKind Corp and Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp, La Jolla, California. His present or prior activities and appointments include scientific advisory boards (Elicio Therapeutics), editorial boards (Journal of Immunology, Journal of Translational Medicine, International Reviews of Immunology) and leadership appointments in global professional societies (Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer).
Lisa H. Butterfield, PhD
Vice President, PICI Research and Development, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Adjunct Professor, Microbiology and Immunology, University California San Francisco
Lisa H. Butterfield, PhD
Vice President, PICI Research and Development, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Adjunct Professor, Microbiology and Immunology, University California San Francisco
Lisa H. Butterfield, Ph.D. is the Vice President, PICI Research and Development at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, and an Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, University California San Francisco. She is focused on cancer vaccines and cellular therapies for melanoma, hepatocellular cancer and other tumor types. Dr. Butterfield was most recently Professor of Medicine, Surgery, Immunology and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh (2003-2018) and Director of the Hillman Cancer Center Immunologic Monitoring and Cellular Products Laboratory. She has a PhD in Biology from UCLA, followed by postdoctoral fellowships in Cellular Immunology and Cancer Gene Therapy also at UCLA. She was the President of the Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC, 2017-2018) and a member of the SITC Executive Committee (2015-2020). She led the Immunology Reference Lab for the ECOG-ACRIN NCI cooperative group (2006-2018) and collaborates on biomarker studies in many clinical trials. She investigates immunotherapy for hepatocellular cancer and melanoma, involving peptides, dendritic cells and adenoviruses, and effector responses to tumor antigens. She has published over 170 peer-reviewed manuscripts, reviews and book chapters, and mentored over 20 students and postdocs.
Alessandra Cesano, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer, ESSA
Alessandra Cesano, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer, ESSA
Alessandra Cesano, MD, PhD is Chief Medical Officer at ESSA. Prior to joining ESSA, Dr. Cesano was the Chief Medical Officer of NanoString Inc from July 2015 until June 2019 where she focused in the development of translational and diagnostic multi-plexed assays for the characterization and measurement of mechanisms of immune response/resistance.
Prior to joining NanoString, Dr. Cesano was Chief Medical Officer at Cleave Biosciences, Inc. and before then she served as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operations Officer at Nodality, Inc., where she built and led the R and D group, while providing the overall clinical vision for the organization. Between 1998 and 2008, Dr. Cesano held various management positions at Amgen, Biogen Idec and SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where she helped to advance various oncology drugs through late stage development and FDA approvals.
Early in her professional career Dr. Cesano spent 12 years conducting research in tumor immunology, including nine years at the Wistar Institute, an NCI Basic Cancer Center connected with the University of Pennsylvania.
Jim Christian, MD
Pathologist, Companion Diagnostics, Agilent Technologies
Jim Christian, MD
Pathologist, Companion Diagnostics, Agilent Technologies
Jim Christian, MD is a Staff Pathologist within the Companion Diagnostics Division of Agilent Technologies, involved in multiple projects focusing on the development of biomarker assays for specific oncologic indications and their corresponding therapeutic products. Dr. Christian graduated from Wake Forest University and obtained an MS in Anatomy and medical degree from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Jim completed Pathology residency training at Wake Forest University Medical Center and is board certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. Dr. Christian also completed a Urologic Pathology Fellowship at Bostwick Laboratories in Richmond, Virginia and a Surgical Pathology Fellowship at the University of California, San Diego. Prior to joining Agilent Technologies, Dr. Christian practiced pathology in multiple hospital and laboratory settings, including performing oncologic diagnosis and diagnostic histopathology as well as medical directorship responsibilities for multiple divisions of the laboratory (microbiology, hematology, clinical chemistry, and transfusion medicine). Jim is also a member of the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP).
Radu Dobrin, PhD
Executive Director, Head of Bioinformatics Immunology and Immuno-Oncology, Thematic Research Center, Bristol Myers Squibb; Adjunct Associate Professor, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Radu Dobrin, PhD
Executive Director, Head of Bioinformatics Immunology and Immuno-Oncology, Thematic Research Center, Bristol Myers Squibb; Adjunct Associate Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Dr. Radu Dobrin serves as Head of Bioinformatics Immunology & Immuno-Oncology, for the Thematic Research Centers at Bristol-Myers Squibb and holds an Adjunct Professor position at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. His team is responsible for advancing Bristol-Myers Squibb’s pipeline through the application of cutting-edge bioinformatics approaches. The group is engaged with all bioinformatic aspects of immunology and immuno-oncology at BMS including early discovery, translational research, and clinical development. His goal is to leverage machine learning algorithms and predictive models for understanding disease and drug interventions. Dr. Dobrin has a dual Ph.D. in Physics and M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Michigan State University. research funding from CRUK, Rosetrees Trust, the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, and the RMH/ICR Biomedical Research Centre, among others.
Joel Dudley, PhD, MS
Chief Scientific Officer, Tempus
Joel Dudley, PhD, MS
Chief Scientific Officer, Tempus
Dr. Joel Dudley serves as the Chief Scientific Officer at Tempus. Dr. Dudley was Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and founding Director of the Institute for Next Generation Healthcare at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He also served as Executive Vice President for Precision Health for the Mount Sinai Health System. Prior to Mount Sinai, he held positions as co-founder of NuMedii, Inc. developing machine learning technologies for drug discovery and Consulting Professor of Systems Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. His more than 200 peer-reviewed research publications established novel precision medicine paradigms at the nexus of -omics, digital health, artificial intelligence (AI), scientific wellness, and healthcare delivery. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, CNBC, and other popular media outlets. He was named in 2014 as one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company magazine. He is co-author of the book Exploring Personal Genomics from Oxford University Press. Dr. Dudley received a BS in Microbiology from Arizona State University and an MS and PhD in Biomedical Informatics from Stanford University School of Medicine.
Maryland Franklin, PhD
Vice President, Enterprise Head of Cell and Gene Therapy, LabCorp Drug Development
Maryland Franklin, PhD
Vice President, Enterprise Head of Cell and Gene Therapy, LabCorp Drug Development
Dr. Maryland Franklin has over 20 years of experience with preclinical pharmacology models with most of that time spent in biotech, pharma and the CRO industry. Dr. Franklin worked as a member of numerous multi-disciplinary teams to deliver therapeutic candidates from Research into Development and was a key leader in bringing four drugs into Phase I clinical trials. She worked in the Preclinical Development Group at ZymoGenetics, working on animal models of lung fibrosis, anti-virals and psoriasis and at OSI Pharmaceuticals where she supervised the internal and external placement of oncology-focused in vivo pharmacology studies and established and managed external collaborations around target identification, biomarkers, animal models and imaging. In 2014, Dr. Franklin joined MI Bioresearch which was acquired by Covance in 2019. She was previously the Executive Director, Scientific Development for the Covance Ann Arbor facility that focuses on preclinical oncology where she led efforts to establish immuno-oncology capabilities and services, including a focus on the models and assays supporting the early development of cell therapies.
Dr. Franklin is currently Vice President and Enterprise Head of Cell and Gene Therapy. She has a PhD in Medical Genetics and is the co-author of more than two dozen peer-reviewed publications.
Mark D. Hiatt, MD, MBA, MS
Vice President, Medical Affairs, Guardant Health
Mark D. Hiatt, MD, MBA, MS
Vice President, Medical Affairs, Guardant Health
Mark Hiatt, currently Vice President for a precision oncology company, has served as the chief medical executive for a multi-state Blues plan and a national medical benefits manager, and departmental leader and board member for a regional health system. Dr. Hiatt completed a fellowship in cardiovascular imaging at Stanford University, residency in radiology and master’s in Health Evaluation Sciences at the University of Virginia, and MD and MBA with academic distinction at Wake Forest University. He is the recent chair of the Greater Salt Lake Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Michael Kolodziej, MD
Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, ADVI Health
Michael Kolodziej, MD
Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, ADVI Health
Michael Kolodziej M.D. is Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, ADVI Health. Dr. Kolodziej attended college and medical school at Washington University in St. Louis where he was Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed internal medicine and hematology-oncology training at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. After completing training, Dr. Kolodziej joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine where he was an associate professor. He joined New York Oncology in the winter of 1998, and was a partner in the practice until December 2012. He was an active member of the US Oncology Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee, on the executive committee from 2002-2011, and chairman from 2004-2011. He served as Medical Director for Oncology Services for US Oncology from 2007-2011. In this role, he helped direct the implementation of the USON clinical pathways initiative, the integration of the USON EMR into this program, and the development of the USON disease management and advanced care planning programs, now known as Innovent Oncology. He joined Aetna in January, 2013 as National Medical Director, Oncology Solutions. While at Aetna, he directed Aetna’s oncology delivery reform pilots and was the architect of the Aetna Oncology Medical Home program. He was also active in Aetna’s pharmacy policy, condition analysis, and genetics subcommittees. Dr. Kolodziej joined Flatiron Health in July, 2016 as National Medical Director, Managed Care Strategy where he applied the core tech and data capabilities of Flatiron to facilitate practice transformation and success in alternative payment models. He joined ADVI in October, 2017. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He has published and spoken extensively on payment reform, personalized medicine, and practice care delivery transformation in oncology.
Francesco Marincola, MD
Global Head, Research, Kite, a Gilead Company
Francesco Marincola, MD
Global Head, Research, Kite, a Gilead Company
Dr. Marincola received his MD, summa cum laude from the University of Milan, Italy and Surgery training at Stanford University, California. His research interest lies in translational medicine and focuses on the development of strategies for the dynamic study of patients’ response to immunotherapy. His approach has brought seminal observations regarding the mechanisms leading to rejection of tumors, allograft rejection, graft-versus-host disease and autoimmunity.
Dr. Marincola is currently Global Head of Research at Kite Pharma, Santa Monica, California. He previously was President and Chief Scientific Officer at Refuge Biotechnologies, Menlo Park, California, Distinguished Research Fellow at AbbVie Corporation in Redwood City, California, Chief Research Officer at Sidra Medical and Research Center in Doha Qatar and Tenured Investigator at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda Maryland. Dr. Marincola founded in 2003 the Journal of Translational Medicine of which he is currently the Editor-in-Chief. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Translational Medicine Communications and Clinical and Translational Medicine. He is past-president of the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and of the International Society for Translational Medicine. Dr. Marincola is editor of several biomedical books including the SITC-affiliated Cancer Immunotherapy Principles and Practice Textbook. Dr. Marincola is an award winning fiction writer author of The Wise Men of Pizzo and the Cat Behind the Window.
Amanda Paulovich, MD, PhD
Professor and Aven Foundation, Endowed Chair; Director, CLIA Targeted Proteomic Laboratory Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Director, Clinical Research Proteomics Platform Brotman Baty, Institute for Precision Medicine; Professor, Department of Medicine / Division of Oncology, University of Washington School of Medicine
Amanda Paulovich, MD, PhD
Professor and Aven Foundation, Endowed Chair, Director, CLIA Targeted Proteomic Laboratory Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Director, Clinical Research Proteomics Platform, Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine
Dr. Paulovich received her M.D. and Ph.D. (with Dr. Lee Hartwell) at the University of Washington. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in Oncology at Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Center in Boston. She completed postdoctoral training at MIT-Whitehead Center for Genomics Research working with Dr. Eric Lander. As an oncologist, Dr. Paulovich was struck by the paucity of quantitative assays for measuring clinically relevant phenotypes in her patients, and the limitations that this put on her ability to practice “personalized medicine.” Out of these experiences, she became passionate about developing technologies and strategies for translation of novel diagnostics and therapeutics to enable precision medicine. Over the past 17+ years, Dr. Paulovich’s research has focused on relieving a roadblock in biomedical research: a lack of validated and standardized tools for reliably quantifying human proteins. She was inducted to American Society for Clinical Investigation, received the 2014 Life Science Innovation Northwest Women to Watch in Life Science Award, received the 2015 Distinguished Achievement in Proteomic Sciences Award from the Human Proteome Organization, was awarded the Aven Foundation Endowed Chair in 2018, and was appointed Director of the Clinical Research Proteomics Platform of the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine in 2019.
Suso Platero, PhD
Vice President, Global Leader Precision Medicine, Head Biomarker Solution Center, Companion Diagnostics, Labcorp Drug Development
Suso Platero, PhD
Vice President, Global Leader Precision Medicine, Head Biomarker Solution Center, Companion Diagnostics, LabCorp Drug Development
Suso Platero is Vice President Global Precision Medicine and Head Biomarker Solutions Center and Companion Diagnostics at LabCorp Drug Development. He leads teams to develop the strategies to implement biomarkers in clinical trials, and when appropriate, advance those biomarkers into companion diagnostics. In partnership with several clients the companion diagnostic group works closely with Health authorities to fulfill all the clinical, manufacturing and regulatory requirements for the development of the products. Prior to joining Labcorp he was Sr Director and Head of Translational Research for Lung Diseases at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, where he created several groups for the discovery and translation of biomarkers into the clinic. His past experience also includes working at BMS, where he lead assay development and validation of biomarkers in clinical trials from Phase I to registrational trials. He has worked with small molecules, antibodies, vaccines and bi specific antibodies. Prior to his experience in Pharmaceutical industry, he worked at Becton Dickinson developing diagnostic and prognostic tests in the areas of breast, prostate and cervical cancers. He was a Howard Hughes Postdoctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and received his PhD from St Louis University, his masters from Columbia University and his Bachelor of Science from the University of Pittsburgh. He has multiple peer reviewed publications, patents and reviews. He has collaborated with key opinion leaders and funding their research for the discovery of new targets for pharmaceutical development. He is an active speaker in international conferences and is ad hoc reviewer for Clinical Cancer Research. He participates in the board of Directors of SARC, the sarcoma alliance for research and collaboration, where he is the secretary of the Board.
Cynthia Pointer, MA
Senior Vice President, Global Payer Strategy & Relations, Invitae
Cynthia Pointer, MA
Senior Vice President, Global Payer Strategy & Relations, Invitae
Cynthia Pointer is the Senior Vice President of Global Payer Strategy and Relations for Invitae. In this role, she is responsible for the strategy development, launch, and execution of global reimbursement and payer access in support of molecular pathology products and services. Cynthia has spent over 25 years in senior positions in the healthcare and pharmaceutical space. She brings immense experience and demonstrated success within the biotech industry, specifically the start-up sector. The specialties she brings to the company include vast knowledge in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid policy, commercial payers, infused products, oncology, hematology, genetics, medical devices, and rare diseases.
Prior to joining Invitae, Cynthia served in major roles as the Vice President of Market Access at Recro Pharma, Vice President of Market Access and Reimbursement at Osiris Therapeutics, and various leadership positions at Advanced BioHealing, Genzyme, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Cynthia is uniquely qualified to achieve Invitae’s goal to transform care for cancer patients and expand access to best-in-class and personalized oncology across the globe. Cynthia holds a Master of Arts degree specializing in clinical psychology from Marymount University.
Samra Turajlic, PhD, MBBS, MRCP
Independent Group Leader, Francis Crick Institute; Consultant Medical Oncologist, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Samra Turajlic, PhD, MBBS, MRCP
Independent Group Leader, Francis Crick Institute; Consultant Medical Oncologist, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Samra Turajlic completed her undergraduate studies at Oxford University and her clinical training at UCL medical school. She gained a PhD in 2013 from Institute of Cancer Research in the field of melanoma genetics and targeted therapy resistance. In 2014, she was awarded a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellowship to study cancer evolution at the Francis Crick Institute. She completed her training in medical oncology in 2015 and was appointed a Consultant Medical Oncologist on the Skin and Urology Units at the Royal Marsden. She became an independent Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute in 2019, and divides her time between the clinic and her lab. Dr Turajlic is the Chief Investigator of translational studies into melanoma and kidney cancer, and her research goal is to develop an evolutionary understanding of cancer for patient benefit. She is a member of the NCRI Bladder and Renal Cancer Clinical Studies Group, ESMO Faculty member for genitourinary cancers; and Scientific Committee member for ESMO, Molecular Analysis for Personalised Therapy, Kidney Cancer Association, and EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposia. She is a Trustee of the Kidney Cancer Support Network and a Senior Editor at Macmillan Cancer Support. Dr Turajlic receives research funding from CRUK, Rosetrees Trust, the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, and the RMH/ICR Biomedical Research Centre, among others.
Mark Verardo, PhD
Senior Scientific Program Manager, Companion Diagnostics, Agilent Technologies, Inc
Mark Verardo, PhD
Senior Scientific Program Manager, Companion Diagnostics, Agilent Technologies, Inc
Dr. Verardo has 14 years of experience in both pharmaceutical and medical device companies developing biomarker assays for research through clinical stage programs, including multiplex assays. In his current role at Agilent Technologies he is part of Companion Diagnostics with a focus on strategic and technical alignment of diagnostic and therapeutic programs. He earned his Ph.D. from UCLA and received post-doctoral training from UCSB.