AACR Grantee Summit: Igniting Innovation in Cancer Research

October 7-8, 2024
Hilton Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing
Philadelphia, PA 19106

DAY 1

Monday, October 7, 2024

7:00 – 8:00 am	Check-In and Breakfast (Location: Grand Ballroom D)
8:00 – 8:15 am	Welcome and Opening Remarks Margaret Foti, PhD, American Association for Cancer Research Sheila Stewart, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine Manuel Hidalgo, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine
8:15 – 8:45 am	Keynote by Co-Chair Sheila Stewart, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine
8:45 – 10:05 am	Grantee Presentations Session I: Innovative Insights into Tumor Biology (Moderator: Sheila Stewart, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine) (Location: Grand Ballroom ABC) Format: 15-minute presentation followed by 5-minute Q&A
	8:45 – 9:05	Endogenous Retroviruses Mediate the Estrogen-Transcriptional Network by Providing Motifs for Several Transcription Factors (Rafael Loch Batista, MD, PhD, University of Sao Paulo Medical School)
	9:05 – 9:25	Delineating the Oncogenic Mechanisms of NAT10 (Daniel Arango, PhD, Northwestern University)
	9:25 – 9:45	MYC and TGFβ Promotes Aggressive and Metastatic Group 3 Medulloblastoma through Remodeling of the Chromatin Landscape (Zulekha A. Qadeer, PhD, University of California, San Francisco)
	9:45 – 10:05	WRAD Core Perturbation Impairs DNA Replication Fidelity Promoting Immunoediting in Pancreatic Cancer (Francesca Citron, PharmD, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center)
10:05 – 10:25 am	Break
10:25 – 11:25 pm	Panel Session: Scientist, Industry Representative, and Patient Advocate – Views on Drug Development (Moderator: Manuel Hidalgo MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine) (Location: Grand Ballroom ABC) Scientist: Patrick Ma, MD, MSc, Penn State Cancer Institute Industry Representative: Jeffrey Engelman, MD, PhD, Treeline Biosciences Advocate: Kris Graham, MEd
11:25 am – 1:00 pm	Lunch and Learn Session: Communication and Engagement Skills (Moderator: Sheila Stewart, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine) (Location: Grand Ballroom D) Format: 10-minute talks followed by lunch roundtables. Building Connections: Networking for Career and Scientific Advancement (Wafik El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, Boston University) Leveraging Social Media for Professional Growth and Networking (Vivek Subbiah, MD, Sarah Cannon Research Institute) Engaging the Public: Communicating your Science Effectively (Ben Stanger, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania)
1:00 – 1:30 pm	Distinguished Speaker (Introduced by Sheila Stewart, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine) Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, University of Pennsylvania
1:30 – 2:30 pm	Bridging Academia and Industry: Exploring Collaborative Opportunities and Entrepreneurship (Introduced by Manuel Hidalgo, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine) Jeffrey Engelman, MD, PhD, Treeline Biosciences
2:30 – 2:55 pm	Break
2:55 – 4:15 pm	Grantee Presentations Session II: Novel Approaches to Preventing and Treating Cancer (Moderator: Manuel Hidalgo, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine) (Location: Grand Ballroom ABC) Format: 15-minute presentation followed by 5-minute Q&A
	2:55 – 3:15	Development and Evaluation of Mobile App to Promote Breast Cancer Screening (Adwoa Bemah Boamah Mensah, PhD, Kwame Nkrumah University)
	3:15 – 3:35	R-Loop Accumulation in Spliceosome Mutant Leukemias Confers Sensitivity to PARP1 Inhibition by Triggering Transcription–Replication Conflicts (Hai Dang Nguyen, PhD, University of Minnesota)
	3:35 – 3:55	Preclinical Evaluation of Novel Vesiculovirus Mediated Expression of Stroma Depleting Proteolytic Enzymes in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (Bolni Marius Nagalo, PhD, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences)
	3:55 – 4:15	A Brain-Body Feedback Loop Driving Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal-Axis Dysfunction in Breast Cancer (Jeremy C. Borniger, PhD, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
4:15 – 5:30 pm	Opportunities in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Elana Fertig, PhD, John Hopkins University School of Medicine Vivek Subbiah, MD, Sarah Cannon Research Institute
5:30 – 7:00 pm	Poster Session (Location: Columbus AB)
7:00 – 8:30 pm	Reception with Remarks John Zhang, PhD, American Association for Cancer Research Mitch Stoller, American Association for Cancer Research John Kincade, Philadelphia Sports Broadcaster and Cancer Survivor

DAY 2

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

7:25 – 8:25 am	Breakfast (Location: Grand Ballroom D)
8:25 – 8:30 am	Video Remarks (Introduced by Sheila Stewart, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine) Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, National Cancer Institute
8:30 – 9:00 am	Keynote by Co-Chair (Introduced by Sheila Stewart, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine) Manuel Hidalgo, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine
9:00 – 10:20 am	Grantee Presentations Session III: Innovative Insights into Tumor Biology II (Moderator: Sheila Stewart, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine) (Location: Grand Ballroom ABC) Format: 15-minute presentation followed by 5-minute Q&A
	9:00 – 9:20	Identification of Splicing Factor U1A as a Key Regulator of Aggressive Subtypes in Pancreatic Cancer (Mari Nakamura, PhD, Columbia University)
	9:20 – 9:40	Understanding How Age-Associated Changes in Immune Function Impact Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (Milos Spasic, PhD, Brigham & Women’s Hospital)
	9:40 – 10:00	Obesity-Driven Plasticity of Adipocyte Progenitors in the Mammary Gland (Purna Joshi, PhD, University of Texas at Dallas)
	10:00 – 10:20	Glioblastoma Cell State Plasticity and Therapeutic Resistance is Mediated by BRD2 (Raghavendra Vadla, PhD, University of California San Diego)
10:20 – 10:45 am	Break
10:45 – 11:45 am	Fireside Chat Lillian Siu, MD, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Mitch Stoller, American Association for Cancer Research
11:45 am – 1:00 pm	Lunch with Roundtable Discussions (Location: Grand Ballroom D) Honing your Career Advancement Skills (Lillian Siu, MD, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre) Choosing a Career Path Beyond Academia (Camilla Oxley, PhD, Johnson & Johnson) How to Get a Paper Published (Elizabeth McKenna, PhD, American Association for Cancer Research) How to Write a Grant (Manuel Hidalgo, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine) Designing and Developing Effective Presentations (Richard Aplenc, MD, PhD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) Management of Resources and Personnel (Sheila Stewart PhD, Washington University School of Medicine) Building Effective Collaborations (Edna Cukierman, PhD, Fox Chase Cancer Center)
1:00 – 2:20 pm	Grantee Presentations Session IV: Innovative Solutions to Cancer Treatment Challenges (Moderator: Manuel Hidalgo, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine) (Location: Grand Ballroom ABC) Format: 15-minute presentation followed by 5-minute Q&A
	1:00 – 1:20	Pancreatitis-Induced Resistance to KRAS Targeted Therapy: The Role of Cellular Plasticity and Underlying Mechanisms (Pingping Hou, PhD, Rutgers University)
	1:00 – 1:40	The Role of the NLRP3-HSP70 Signaling Axis in Gastric Cancer Immunotherapy Resistance (Brent Allen Hanks, MD, PhD, Duke University)
	1:40 – 2:00	3D Morphological and Molecular Profiling of Pancreatic Cancer Liver Metastases (Ashley Kiemen, PhD, Johns Hopkins University)
	2:00 – 2:20	Targeted Salivary Gland Regeneration Without Encouraging Cancer Growth (Qiwen Gan, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
2:20 – 2:40 pm	Break
2:40 – 3:40 pm	Poster Session Winners Presentations (Moderator: Manuel Hidalgo, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine) (Location: Columbus AB) Format: 10-minutes presentation followed by 5-minute Q&A
3:40 – 3:45 pm	Announcement for Oral Session Winners (Manuel Hidalgo, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine)
3:45 – 4:00 pm	Summary and Closing Remarks Manuel Hidalgo, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine

About this Event:

The two-day summit serves as a dynamic gathering tailored for grantees, esteemed funding partners, distinguished special guests, and AACR staff. The gathering promises to showcase impactful research funded by AACR grants and foster collaborations, partnerships, and networking opportunities.

You may anticipate fully engaging in intellectual and social exchanges through a number of enriching activities such as scientific sessions, a poster session, roundtables, workshops, welcoming reception, and more!