Speaker Biographies

Scientific Programme Committee

Scientific Programme Committee Members for Stem Cell Biology, Cancer Plasticity and Therapeutic Potential

Mohamed Bentires-Alj, University of Basel, Switzerland
Michaela Frye, DKFZ, Germany
Meritxell Huch, Max Plank Institute, Germany
Ilaria Malanchi, The Francis Crick Institute, UK
Tuomas Tammela, SKI, USA

Tuomas Tammela, SKI, New York, USA

Dr. Tammela earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki, Finland, where he worked in the laboratory of Prof. Kari Alitalo, studying molecular mechanisms that control blood and lymphatic vessels growth.

Dr. Tammela then moved to MIT for postdoctoral training with Prof. Tyler Jacks. During this time, he became interested in cellular heterogeneity in cancer and identified cancer-derived niches as drivers of stem-like cells in lung cancer .

Dr. Tammela joined the Sloan Kettering Institute as an Assistant Member in the Cancer Biology & Genetics Program in 2017. The Tammela Lab studies phenotypic heterogeneity of cancer cells within tumors using genetically engineered mouse models, single cell approaches, tracing and ablation of distinct tumor cell lineages, CRISPR-mediated gene regulation, and advanced imaging techniques. The overarching goal of these efforts is to discover pathways that drive distinct cellular phenotypes and to develop new therapeutic concepts aimed at reducing cellular heterogeneity in tumors. In addition, emerging efforts in the Tammela laboratory focus on how aging impacts tumor evolution.

Dr. Tammela holds scholarships from the American Cancer Society, the Josie Robertson Foundation, the Rita Allen Foundation and the V Foundation. He is a recipient of a Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Award, an NIH-NCI R37 MERIT Award, an AACR Next Generation Transformative Research Award, and the Werner Risau Prize.

Richard White, University of Oxford and Ludwig Cancer Research, UK

I am a physician-scientist who trained in medical oncology and cancer genetics.  
 
Whilst my clinical training gave me important insights into patient care, interests over time have shifted to more basic mechanisms of cancer biology. During my postdoctoral training, I became interested in the zebrafish as a model, since it has a unique set of genetic and imaging tools to interrogate cancer.  To better understand each step in tumour progression, I developed a transparent strain of zebrafish called casper which has greatly facilitated imaging. One advantage of using the zebrafish is that it allows the research group to study tumour development in an intact microenvironment, with all the various cells that contribute to the tumour ecosystem. Work has centred on understanding how cancer cells co-opt and use programmes commonly deployed during embryonic development.
 
My research group has made fundamental discoveries about how neural crest programmes in melanoma affect response to oncogenes, how the anatomic position of the cell determines which oncogenes the cell responds to, and how microenvironmental cells such as adipocytes can promote metastasis.
 
I believe that a deeper understanding of basic cancer biology is central to eventual translation to the clinic, and support trainees who are driven by curiosity-based research.

Dana Ishay-Ronen, SHEBA Academic School of Nursing, Israel

Dana Ishay-Ronen received her MD from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. She then moved to the University of Basel in Switzerland for a PhD in Cell Biology (with a Botnar Stiftung PhD fellowship) under the supervision of Professor G. Christofori. During her PhD she developed a novel therapeutic approach to target aggressive breast cancer cells by forcing their trans-differentiation into non-dividing fat cells. She is currently a resident in medical Oncology and a junior PI supported by the physician-scientist program at Sheba medical center in Israel. Her research focuses on establishing trans-differentiation as a therapeutic approach applied to solid tumors. Her work, supported by competitive grants, was recently acknowledged by the TEMTIA “Betty Hay Award” for Early Career female scientists.

Direna Alonso-Curbelo, IRB Barcelona, Spain

Direna Alonso-Curbelo Ph.D. is a Junior Group Leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).

Dr. Alonso-Curbelo graduated in Pharmacy at the University Complutense de Madrid and pursued her Ph.D. at the Spanish National Cancer Center (CNIO), studying lineage-specific mechanisms of cell plasticity.

During her postdoc at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), she combined innovative mouse models, functional genomics tools, and genomics methods to understand how genetic mutations and tissue cues shape cell identity programs in cancer. As examples, her work identified that tissue damage cooperates with oncogenic KRAS to produce cancer-associated chromatin states in pre-malignant pancreatic cells that drive cancer development; and identified epigenetic mechanisms of senescence immunosurveillance.

Since January 2022, Dr. Alonso-Curbelo leads the ´Inflammation, Tissue Plasticity & Cancer´ group at the IRB Barcelona, integrating single-cell (epi)genomics, in vivo modeling, and CRISPR/RNA approaches to understand the molecular, cellular and tissue determinants of neoplastic transformation and tumor immune evasion in pancreatic and liver cancers.

During her trajectory to date, Dr. Alonso-Curbelo has received several national and international recognitions, including the  AACR  Scholar-In-Training  Award and the prestigious Blavatnik Regional Award for Young  Scientists. In addition to her scientific production, Dr. Alonso-Curbelo is committed to training the next generation of cancer scientists and bringing scientific discovery closer to society. 

Kamil Kranc, Barts Cancer Institute, London, UK

Kamil Kranc is a Full Professor of Haematology and Deputy Lead of the Centre for Haemato-Oncology at Barts Cancer Institute in London.

The central aim of Kamil’s laboratory is to understand the biology of leukaemic stem cells and identify therapeutic targets to specifically eradicate them, thus discovering novel and efficient therapies. His laboratory also focuses on understanding haematopoietic stem cell biology with the hope to harness this knowledge to expand these stem cells for therapeutic purposes. Kamil's current research focuses on the significance of RNA modifications and hypoxia pathways in normal and malignant haematopoiesis.

Kamil completed his medical degree in Poland (1994-2000), a DPhil (PhD) in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford (2000-2003) and postdoctoral training in immunology and stem cell biology also in Oxford (2003-2007). He was a group leader at Oxford (2007-2010) and Glasgow (2010-2013), before becoming a Professor and a CRUK Senior Fellow at the University of Edinburgh (2013-2018). In 2018, he was appointed Professor of Haematology at Barts Cancer Institute.

Jane Visvader, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Adelaide, Australia

Jane Visvader is Joint Head of the Breast Cancer Laboratory and the Division of Cancer Biology and Stem Cells at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) and holds a professorial appointment at the University of Melbourne. She carried out PhD studies at the University of Adelaide and held postdoctoral positions at the Salk Institute, San Diego and the Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston.

She was appointed as a Laboratory Head at WEHI to lead studies on breast development and cancer. Her primary research interests are directed towards understanding the breast epithelial hierarchy and elucidating cells susceptible to breast oncogenesis. Her laboratory’s contributions to the mammary gland field include: the prospective isolation of mouse and human mammary stem cells; the definition of key regulators of lineage commitment and differentiation; and the identification of luminal progenitors as the ‘cell of origin’ in BRCA1 mutation carriers.

Dr Visvader is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Science.