Confirmed Speakers

Keynote Lectures

Carlos Caldas

Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, UK

Carlos Caldas is Professor of Cancer Medicine, University of Cambridge, and Head, Breast Cancer Functional Genomics Laboratory, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. He is an Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist and Breast Cancer Programme Director at the Cambridge Cancer Centre. He is Fellow of the Academy of the Medical Sciences, Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, and EMBO Member. His research focus is the functional genomics of breast cancer and its biological and clinical implications. He has published over 300 manuscripts, including in Nature, Cell, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics, Science Translational Medicine and Nature Communications. 

His research focus is the functional genomics of breast cancer and its biological and clinical implications. His laboratory redefined the molecular taxonomy of breast cancer, revealing novel subtypes and their respective drivers [Curtis et al, Nature 2012; Dawson et al, EMBO J 2013; Pereira et al, Nature Communications 2016], and robustly validated this new breast cancer molecular taxonomy [Ali et al, Genome Biology 2014]. His group also completed miRNA profiling of 1,300 of the same tumors and this uncovered a new role for miRNAs as modulators of the immune response in a subset of breast cancers [Dvinge et al, Nature 2013]. He also co-lead seminal studies that define the clonal heterogeneity of triple negative breast cancers [Shah et al, Nature 2012] and the patterns of whole-genome ER binding in primary tumors [Ross-Ines, Nature 2012]. His group led the studies that established ctDNA as a monitoring biomarker [Dawson et al, NEJM 2013] and as a liquid biopsy to unravel therapy resistance [Murtaza et al, Nature 2013; Murtaza el al, Nature Communications 2015]. More recently his laboratory has developed and pioneered the use of patient-derived tumor explants as a model system for breast cancer, in particular as a pre-clinical pharmacogenomics platform [Eirew et al, Nature 2015; Bruna et al, Cell 2016].

Richard Marais

CRUK Manchester Institute, UK

Richard Marais is Director of the CRUK Manchester Institute and Professor of Molecular Biology at The University of Manchester, UK.  His studies on BRAF and cell signalling have significantly advanced our understanding of melanoma biology and aetiology.  He has translated his basic research discoveries into clinical implementation, improving patient outcomes, elucidating mechanisms of drug resistance and developing new drugs against BRAF and other cancer targets.  His research informs innovative clinical trial designs using signal-seeking biomarkers to monitor therapy responses and optimise patient treatment. His research also highlights the importance of combining sunscreen with other sun avoidance strategies to reduce population melanoma risk. 

Robert Weinberg

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical research, USA

Robert A. Weinberg is a Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Weinberg and his colleagues isolated the first human cancer-causing gene, the RAS oncogene, and the first known tumor suppressor gene, RB, the retinoblastoma gene. Dr. Weinberg is the author of almost 400 publications.   He received his PhD in 1969 at MIT and undertook postdoctoral studies at the Weizmann Institute and the Salk Institute. He is the author of two editions of the Biology of Cancer, a textbook written for predoctoral and doctoral students.

Gerard Evan

University of Cambridge, UK

Gerard Evan received his BA in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and his Ph.D. in Molecular Immunology from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge. He was then a Medical
Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow and, later, a Science and Engineering Research Council Fellow in the laboratory of J. Michael Bishop at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He then returned to the UK to become an Assistant Member of the Cambridge Branch of the Ludwig
Institute for Cancer Research and a Research Fellow of Downing College, University of Cambridge. In 1988 he joined the Imperial Cancer Research
Fund (ICRF) Laboratories in London as a Senior Scientist (1988-90) and then
Principal Scientist from 1990-1999. In 1996 he was awarded the Royal
Society’s Napier Professor of Cancer Research. He was appointed to the
Gerson and Barbara Bass Bakar Distinguished Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of California, San Francisco in 1999 and in 2009 moved to the
UK to take up the Sir William Dunn chair of Biochemistry in the University of
Cambridge. Gerard is a member of EMBO, a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.

Moshe Oren

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Moshe Oren received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute (WIS) in 1978. Upon completing post-doctoral training with Arnold Levine in Princeton and SUNY-StonyBrook in 1981, he returned to the WIS as group leader. Subsequent work by the Oren group contributed to identifying p53 as a key tumor suppressor and elaborating its mode of action and dysfunction in cancer, as well as elucidation of Hippo pathway deregulation in cancer. Since 2015 he is Director of the WIS Moross Integrated Cancer Center. Moshe is married to Rachel, and is father to four and grandfather to seven.

Zena Werb

University of California, USA

Dr. Zena Werb received her B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto, and her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Rockefeller University and did postdoctoral studies at Strangeways Research Laboratory, Cambridge England. She is Professor of Anatomy and Associate Director for Basic Science, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Werb is recognized internationally for fundamental discoveries about the role of matrix metalloproteinases, the cellular microenvironment and intercellular communication in the normal functioning and pathogenesis of tissues. Her honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Carlos Caldas

Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, UK

Carlos Caldas is Professor of Cancer Medicine, University of Cambridge, and Head, Breast Cancer Functional Genomics Laboratory, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. He is an Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist and Breast Cancer Programme Director at the Cambridge Cancer Centre. He is Fellow of the Academy of the Medical Sciences, Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, and EMBO Member. His research focus is the functional genomics of breast cancer and its biological and clinical implications. He has published over 300 manuscripts, including in Nature, Cell, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics, Science Translational Medicine and Nature Communications. 

His research focus is the functional genomics of breast cancer and its biological and clinical implications. His laboratory redefined the molecular taxonomy of breast cancer, revealing novel subtypes and their respective drivers [Curtis et al, Nature 2012; Dawson et al, EMBO J 2013; Pereira et al, Nature Communications 2016], and robustly validated this new breast cancer molecular taxonomy [Ali et al, Genome Biology 2014]. His group also completed miRNA profiling of 1,300 of the same tumors and this uncovered a new role for miRNAs as modulators of the immune response in a subset of breast cancers [Dvinge et al, Nature 2013]. He also co-lead seminal studies that define the clonal heterogeneity of triple negative breast cancers [Shah et al, Nature 2012] and the patterns of whole-genome ER binding in primary tumors [Ross-Ines, Nature 2012]. His group led the studies that established ctDNA as a monitoring biomarker [Dawson et al, NEJM 2013] and as a liquid biopsy to unravel therapy resistance [Murtaza et al, Nature 2013; Murtaza el al, Nature Communications 2015]. More recently his laboratory has developed and pioneered the use of patient-derived tumor explants as a model system for breast cancer, in particular as a pre-clinical pharmacogenomics platform [Eirew et al, Nature 2015; Bruna et al, Cell 2016].

Gerard Evan

University of Cambridge, UK

Gerard Evan received his BA in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and his Ph.D. in Molecular Immunology from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge. He was then a Medical
Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow and, later, a Science and Engineering Research Council Fellow in the laboratory of J. Michael Bishop at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He then returned to the UK to become an Assistant Member of the Cambridge Branch of the Ludwig
Institute for Cancer Research and a Research Fellow of Downing College, University of Cambridge. In 1988 he joined the Imperial Cancer Research
Fund (ICRF) Laboratories in London as a Senior Scientist (1988-90) and then
Principal Scientist from 1990-1999. In 1996 he was awarded the Royal
Society’s Napier Professor of Cancer Research. He was appointed to the
Gerson and Barbara Bass Bakar Distinguished Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of California, San Francisco in 1999 and in 2009 moved to the
UK to take up the Sir William Dunn chair of Biochemistry in the University of
Cambridge. Gerard is a member of EMBO, a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.

Richard Marais

CRUK Manchester Institute, UK

Richard Marais is Director of the CRUK Manchester Institute and Professor of Molecular Biology at The University of Manchester, UK.  His studies on BRAF and cell signalling have significantly advanced our understanding of melanoma biology and aetiology.  He has translated his basic research discoveries into clinical implementation, improving patient outcomes, elucidating mechanisms of drug resistance and developing new drugs against BRAF and other cancer targets.  His research informs innovative clinical trial designs using signal-seeking biomarkers to monitor therapy responses and optimise patient treatment. His research also highlights the importance of combining sunscreen with other sun avoidance strategies to reduce population melanoma risk. 

Moshe Oren

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Moshe Oren received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute (WIS) in 1978. Upon completing post-doctoral training with Arnold Levine in Princeton and SUNY-StonyBrook in 1981, he returned to the WIS as group leader. Subsequent work by the Oren group contributed to identifying p53 as a key tumor suppressor and elaborating its mode of action and dysfunction in cancer, as well as elucidation of Hippo pathway deregulation in cancer. Since 2015 he is Director of the WIS Moross Integrated Cancer Center. Moshe is married to Rachel, and is father to four and grandfather to seven.

Robert Weinberg

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical research, USA

Robert A. Weinberg is a Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Weinberg and his colleagues isolated the first human cancer-causing gene, the RAS oncogene, and the first known tumor suppressor gene, RB, the retinoblastoma gene. Dr. Weinberg is the author of almost 400 publications.   He received his PhD in 1969 at MIT and undertook postdoctoral studies at the Weizmann Institute and the Salk Institute. He is the author of two editions of the Biology of Cancer, a textbook written for predoctoral and doctoral students.

Zena Werb

University of California, USA

Dr. Zena Werb received her B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto, and her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Rockefeller University and did postdoctoral studies at Strangeways Research Laboratory, Cambridge England. She is Professor of Anatomy and Associate Director for Basic Science, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Werb is recognized internationally for fundamental discoveries about the role of matrix metalloproteinases, the cellular microenvironment and intercellular communication in the normal functioning and pathogenesis of tissues. Her honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Confirmed Lectures

Yinon Ben-Neriah

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Dr. Ben-Neriah received his MD from Tel Aviv University and PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science, spent his postdoc with Prof. David Baltimore at the Whitehead Institute and serves as a professor and a group leader in the Lautenberg Center of Immunology and Cancer Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 
His major interest is in studying mouse models of inflammation and cancer. Among his main scientific contributions are elucidating key mechanisms of regulating the NF-B and the Wnt signaling pathway, identifying tumor suppressor functions of p53, linking inflammation to cancer and revealing new types of inflammatory responses.  

Anton Berns

Netherlands Cancer Institute, the Netherlands

Anton Berns is senior Group Leader in the Division of Molecular Genetics, The Netherlands Cancer Institute. 
He studied biochemistry at the University of Nijmegen and received his PhD in 1972. He did his postdoctoral training in the group of Rudolf Jaenisch at the Salk Institute. In 1976 he returned to the Netherlands. In 1986 he became head of the Division of Molecular Genetics of the Netherland Cancer Institute and in 1999 its director. He retired from that position at the end of 2011. He is elected member of several academies. His work focuses on mouse models of thoracic cancers.

Neta Erez

Tel Aviv University, Israe

Prof. Erez began her academic career at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She performed her PhD in the field of molecular cell biology with Prof. Varda Rotter. Supported by a fellowship from the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), Prof. Erez carried out her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Doug Hanahan at UCSF, working in the field of tumor biology (2005-2010). During her postdoctoral fellowship she demonstrated a novel role for cancer-associated fibroblasts in mediating tumorpromoting inflammation. She joined the Department of Pathology at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in October 2010. The research of Dr. Erez is focused on the tumor microenvironment, cancer-related inflammation and the role of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs) in facilitating tumor progression and metastasis. Prof. Erez studies these crucial aspects of cancer using genetically engineered mouse models of breast carcinoma. Additionally, Prof. Erez is studying the role of neuroinflammation in melanoma brain metastasis. Her goals are to identify key molecular pathways in the communication between tumor cells and their microenvironment that can be targeted by novel therapeutics.
Prof. Erez published 30 articles and 6 review articles in prestigious biological journals. Since joining the Tel Aviv University in October 2010 she was awarded with grants from the Tel Aviv University, Israel Cancer Association (Outstanding Grant Award), ICRF, IRG (EU, Marie Currie), MOST-DKFZ, Israel Science Foundation (ISF), Worldwide Cancer Research, The Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA), DFG, and an ERC starter grant.

Michael Karin

University of California, USA

Dr. Karin is a Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine and is an associate member of the European Molecular Biology Association. His research focus is on understanding the relationship between inflammation, cancer, and metabolic disease. His work has discovered some of the most important stress- and inflammation-responsive signal transduction pathways, established molecular links between obesity, inflammation and cancer, and revealed new targets for cancer prevention and therapy as well as treatment of metabolic diseases.

Ilaria Malanchi

The Francis Crick Institute, UK

Ilaria has a long-standing interest in understanding the cancer cells functional heterogeneity driving their tumourigenic potential. After a PhD at the DKFZ in Heidelberg with Dr Tommasino, she began her animal studies in Prof Joerg Huelsken lab in 2004 at the ISREC, Federal University (EPFL) of Lausanne, Switzerland. During these Postdoc years she began to investigate the importance of tumour microenvironment during metastatic progression. Building on this expertise in mouse tumour models, Ilaria set up her laboratory at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute in 2011 (now part of the Francis Crick Institute) and has since focused the scope of investigation on the interaction that cancer cells have with the surrounding tissue cells during tumorigenesis and metastatic progression.

Jordan Raff

University of Oxford, UK

Jordan Raff studied Biochemistry at Bristol University. He did his PhD with David Glover at Imperial College London, where he studied centrosomes and cell division in fruit flies. He has continued to work on this problem throughout his scientific career, first as a post-doctoral fellow with Bruce Alberts at the University of California, San Francisco, then as a Welcome Trust and Cancer Research UK funded Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge. He moved to Oxford in 2009 to take up the César Milstein Chair of Cancer Cell Biology. He was President of the BSCB from 2011-2017.

Neal Rosen

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA

Yardena Samuels

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Prof. Yardena Samuels received her BSc from Cambridge University, UK in 1993, and earned an MSc in immunology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 1997. She completed a PhD at Imperial College, London in 2002. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Prof Vogelstein’s laboratory at Johns Hopkins University from 2003 to 2006. She served as an Assistant Professor at NIH before joining the Weizmann Institute in 2012. Today she is the director of the EKARD Institute for Cancer Diagnosis Research and is the incumbent of the Knell Family Professorial Chair. Prof Samuels’ lab focuses on the characterization of the functional-genomic and immunogenomic landscapes of melanoma patients.

Maria Sibilia

Medical University of Vienna, Austria

Maria’s laboratory is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms leading to inflammatory diseases and cancer using the mouse as a model system. The lab investigate the cell-specific role of EGFR signaling in cancer and tumor stromal cells and their complex interaction. Moreover, the aim is to understand how inflammatory cells affect tumor development and regression and exploit novel concepts to modulate tumors to become more sensitive to current anti-cancer treatments. The ultimate goal is to translate this knowledge to patients to develop more effective personalized treatments for human cancer.

Andreas Trumpp

Deutschen Krebsforschungszentrum DKFZ, Germany

Professor and Head of the Division “Stem Cells and Cancer” and Coordinator of the Research Program “Cell and Tumor Biology” at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Managing Director of the “Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine” (HI--‐STEM gGmbH) Im Neuenheimer Feld 280 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
The Trumpp team has contributed to a better understanding ofthe molecular and cellular basis of normal and malignant ste cell self-renewal and differentiation as well as the role of MYC in stem cells and cancer. They uncovered the concept of reversible dormancy in hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and pluripotent stem cells as well as identified critical pathways in human leukemic stem cells (Cell 2008, 2016 and 2017; Nature 2009, 2017, 2018). They also characterized blood circulating metastasis stem cells in breast cancer patients and identified mechanisms mediating drug resistance in pancreatic tumors (Nature Biotech 2013; Nature Medicine 2016).

René Bernards

Netherlands Cancer Institute, the Netherlands

René Bernards’ laboratory at the Netherlands Cancer Institute uses functional genomic approaches to find vulnerabilities of cancers that can be exploited therapeutically. Using the concept of synthetic lethality, his laboratory searches for combinations of drugs that are lethal for cancer cells and for vulnerabilities of cancer cells of a defined genotype. As one example, his laboratory identified the combination of a BRAF inhibitor and an EGFR inhibitor as effective for the treatment of BRAF mutant colon cancer. There are currently eleven clinical trials ongoing that test the efficacy of the cancer therapies suggested by genetic screens from his laboratory. He also developed the first clinically used gene expression test for early breast cancer: MammaPrint.

Caroline Dive

Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, UK

After completing her PhD studies in Cambridge, Caroline moved to Aston University's School of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Birmingham where she started her own group studying mechanisms of drug induced tumour cell death. She then moved as a Cancer Research Campaign fellow to the Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Manchester to continue this research. Caroline was awarded a Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine Research Fellowship before moving to the CRUK Manchester Institute in 2003. Here she set up the Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology Group and began to develop biomarkers, and notably liquid biopsies to support personalised medicine interfacing with The Christie Hospital's Phase I Clinical Trials Unit. Her biomarker research has continued to expand and she is now directing the Manchester Centre for Cancer Biomarker Sciences where a flagship project is using a patient's circulating tumour DNA profile to support Phase I trial selection.  Her team is also well known for their work on Small Cell Lung Cancer and notably for Circulating Tumour Cell derived preclinical models that faithfully mimic SCLC donor patients that are now being used to test novel therapies and discover new drug targets for aggressive tumour type.  A current priority for Caroline's research is the use of liquid biopsies (blood tests) for the earlier detection of lung cancers. Caroline is currently Senior Group Leader and Deputy Director of the CRUK Manchester Institute and Professor of Cancer Pharmacology at The University of Manchester. She also co-leads the CRUK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence and is Manchester's non-clinical lead of their Experimental Cancer Medicines Centre. Caroline was awarded the Pasteur-Weizmann/Servier International Prize in 2012 for her Biomarker Research and the AstraZeneca Prize for Women in Pharmacology in 2016. She is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2015), Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society (2012) and Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences (2011). In 2017, Caroline was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her services to cancer research.

Phil Greenberg

University of Washington. USA

Phil Greenberg is Professor at the University of Washington, and Head of the Program in Immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His career has focused on: elucidating fundamental principles underlying the abilities of T cells to recognize and eliminate tumor cells, developing cellular and molecular approaches to manipulate cellular immunity, and translating insights from laboratory studies to treatment of cancer patients, with a particular emphasis on adoptive therapy with genetically engineered T cells. He has received multiple honors, and currently is on the Board of Directors of the AACR and serves as an Editor-In-Chief of Cancer Immunology Research.

Michal Lotem

Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Centre, Israel

Michal Lotem, MD, is a Professor of clinical and radiation oncology and the head of the Center for Melanoma and Cancer Immunotherapy at the Sharett Institute of Oncology, Hadassah Hebrew University Hospital. She spent her research fellowship at the Surgery Branch, NCI, NIH. In the clinic, Dr Lotem focuses on melanoma immunotherapy, costimulation-enhanced vaccines and adoptive cell therapy of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. The Lotem lab studies the SLAM family of immune receptors and regulatory splicing of checkpoints. 

Zvi Ram

Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel
(Satellite Speaker)

Professor Zvi Ram`s over 30 years clinical experience has made him one of the world's leading experts in neurosurgery and brain pathology, conducting unique, complex and minimally invasive neurosurgical operations for the removal of brain tumors. 

Professor Ram is the former Chairman of the Tumor Section of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies. He is a scientific advisor of a number of biotechnological companies, member of editorial boards and reviewer of leading scientific magazines on neurosurgery. He has also won the Borenstein Neurological and Goldhirsh awards.

Zeev Ronai

Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC), Israel

Dr. Ze’ev Ronai is Professor and Co-Director of the Technion Integrated Cancer Center at the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and trained further at Columbia University, before holding faculty positions at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC, and Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla CA. He is recipient of life time achievement award from the Society of Melanoma Research, and a scientific leader at the Melanoma Research Foundation. The Ronai lab studies the regulation and function of ubiquitin ligases in cancer, with focus on their biochemical, biological and physiological role in cancer development and progression. Recent studies from the Ronai lab have reached clinical trials in breast cancer and melanoma.

Julien Sage

Stanford School of Medicine, USA

Dr. Sage is a Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics at Stanford University. He initially trained at the École Normale Supérieure of Paris and at the University of Nice, and then moved to the laboratory of Dr. Tyler Jacks at MIT for his post-doctoral studies. At MIT he developed genetic models to study the mechanisms of action of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor gene. At Stanford, the research program in his laboratory has focused on the mechanisms that control the proliferation of mammalian cells under normal and pathological conditions with a particular emphasis on stem cells and gene regulatory networks during cancer development.

Yosef Shiloh

Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Dr. Yosef Shiloh is Myers Professor of Cancer Genetics at the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. He obtained his Ph.D. at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and trained further at Harvard Medical School, the University of Michigan, New York University and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He is a member of The Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities and won the EMET Prize in Life Sciences, the American Association of Cancer Research G.H.A. Clowes Award, the Israel Prize and the Olav Thon Prize in Natural Sciences and Medicine (Oslo, Norway). The Shiloh lab studies the ATM-mediated DNA damage response, the molecular basis of the cerebellar atrophy in the genome instability disorder, ataxia-telangiectasia and the association between perturbation of genome stability and premature aging. 

Yosef Yarden

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Yosef Yarden received his BSc in biological and geological sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1980), and a PhD in molecular biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science (1985). His postdoctoral training was undertaken at Genentech, Inc., in San Francisco and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1988, he joined the Weizmann Institute of Science’s faculty. Yarden is the new director of the Dwek Institute for Cancer Therapy Research of the Moross Integrated Cancer Centre. Prof. Yarden’s research is helping to shed light on the role played by growth factors in tumor progression.

Yinon Ben-Neriah

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Dr. Ben-Neriah received his MD from Tel Aviv University and PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science, spent his postdoc with Prof. David Baltimore at the Whitehead Institute and serves as a professor and a group leader in the Lautenberg Center of Immunology and Cancer Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 
His major interest is in studying mouse models of inflammation and cancer. Among his main scientific contributions are elucidating key mechanisms of regulating the NF-B and the Wnt signaling pathway, identifying tumor suppressor functions of p53, linking inflammation to cancer and revealing new types of inflammatory responses.  

René Bernards

Netherlands Cancer Institute, the Netherlands

René Bernards’ laboratory at the Netherlands Cancer Institute uses functional genomic approaches to find vulnerabilities of cancers that can be exploited therapeutically. Using the concept of synthetic lethality, his laboratory searches for combinations of drugs that are lethal for cancer cells and for vulnerabilities of cancer cells of a defined genotype. As one example, his laboratory identified the combination of a BRAF inhibitor and an EGFR inhibitor as effective for the treatment of BRAF mutant colon cancer. There are currently eleven clinical trials ongoing that test the efficacy of the cancer therapies suggested by genetic screens from his laboratory. He also developed the first clinically used gene expression test for early breast cancer: MammaPrint.

Anton Berns

Netherlands Cancer Institute, the Netherlands

Anton Berns is senior Group Leader in the Division of Molecular Genetics, The Netherlands Cancer Institute. 
He studied biochemistry at the University of Nijmegen and received his PhD in 1972. He did his postdoctoral training in the group of Rudolf Jaenisch at the Salk Institute. In 1976 he returned to the Netherlands. In 1986 he became head of the Division of Molecular Genetics of the Netherland Cancer Institute and in 1999 its director. He retired from that position at the end of 2011. He is elected member of several academies. His work focuses on mouse models of thoracic cancers.

Caroline Dive

Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, UK

After completing her PhD studies in Cambridge, Caroline moved to Aston University's School of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Birmingham where she started her own group studying mechanisms of drug induced tumour cell death. She then moved as a Cancer Research Campaign fellow to the Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Manchester to continue this research. Caroline was awarded a Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine Research Fellowship before moving to the CRUK Manchester Institute in 2003. Here she set up the Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology Group and began to develop biomarkers, and notably liquid biopsies to support personalised medicine interfacing with The Christie Hospital's Phase I Clinical Trials Unit. Her biomarker research has continued to expand and she is now directing the Manchester Centre for Cancer Biomarker Sciences where a flagship project is using a patient's circulating tumour DNA profile to support Phase I trial selection.  Her team is also well known for their work on Small Cell Lung Cancer and notably for Circulating Tumour Cell derived preclinical models that faithfully mimic SCLC donor patients that are now being used to test novel therapies and discover new drug targets for aggressive tumour type.  A current priority for Caroline's research is the use of liquid biopsies (blood tests) for the earlier detection of lung cancers. Caroline is currently Senior Group Leader and Deputy Director of the CRUK Manchester Institute and Professor of Cancer Pharmacology at The University of Manchester. She also co-leads the CRUK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence and is Manchester's non-clinical lead of their Experimental Cancer Medicines Centre. Caroline was awarded the Pasteur-Weizmann/Servier International Prize in 2012 for her Biomarker Research and the AstraZeneca Prize for Women in Pharmacology in 2016. She is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2015), Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society (2012) and Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences (2011). In 2017, Caroline was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her services to cancer research.

Neta Erez

Tel Aviv University, Israe

Prof. Erez began her academic career at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She performed her PhD in the field of molecular cell biology with Prof. Varda Rotter. Supported by a fellowship from the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), Prof. Erez carried out her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Doug Hanahan at UCSF, working in the field of tumor biology (2005-2010). During her postdoctoral fellowship she demonstrated a novel role for cancer-associated fibroblasts in mediating tumorpromoting inflammation. She joined the Department of Pathology at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in October 2010. The research of Dr. Erez is focused on the tumor microenvironment, cancer-related inflammation and the role of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs) in facilitating tumor progression and metastasis. Prof. Erez studies these crucial aspects of cancer using genetically engineered mouse models of breast carcinoma. Additionally, Prof. Erez is studying the role of neuroinflammation in melanoma brain metastasis. Her goals are to identify key molecular pathways in the communication between tumor cells and their microenvironment that can be targeted by novel therapeutics.
Prof. Erez published 30 articles and 6 review articles in prestigious biological journals. Since joining the Tel Aviv University in October 2010 she was awarded with grants from the Tel Aviv University, Israel Cancer Association (Outstanding Grant Award), ICRF, IRG (EU, Marie Currie), MOST-DKFZ, Israel Science Foundation (ISF), Worldwide Cancer Research, The Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA), DFG, and an ERC starter grant.

Phil Greenberg

University of Washington. USA

Phil Greenberg is Professor at the University of Washington, and Head of the Program in Immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His career has focused on: elucidating fundamental principles underlying the abilities of T cells to recognize and eliminate tumor cells, developing cellular and molecular approaches to manipulate cellular immunity, and translating insights from laboratory studies to treatment of cancer patients, with a particular emphasis on adoptive therapy with genetically engineered T cells. He has received multiple honors, and currently is on the Board of Directors of the AACR and serves as an Editor-In-Chief of Cancer Immunology Research.

Michael Karin

University of California, USA

Dr. Karin is a Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine and is an associate member of the European Molecular Biology Association. His research focus is on understanding the relationship between inflammation, cancer, and metabolic disease. His work has discovered some of the most important stress- and inflammation-responsive signal transduction pathways, established molecular links between obesity, inflammation and cancer, and revealed new targets for cancer prevention and therapy as well as treatment of metabolic diseases.

Michal Lotem

Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Centre, Israel

Michal Lotem, MD, is a Professor of clinical and radiation oncology and the head of the Center for Melanoma and Cancer Immunotherapy at the Sharett Institute of Oncology, Hadassah Hebrew University Hospital. She spent her research fellowship at the Surgery Branch, NCI, NIH. In the clinic, Dr Lotem focuses on melanoma immunotherapy, costimulation-enhanced vaccines and adoptive cell therapy of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. The Lotem lab studies the SLAM family of immune receptors and regulatory splicing of checkpoints. 

Ilaria Malanchi

The Francis Crick Institute, UK

Ilaria has a long-standing interest in understanding the cancer cells functional heterogeneity driving their tumourigenic potential. After a PhD at the DKFZ in Heidelberg with Dr Tommasino, she began her animal studies in Prof Joerg Huelsken lab in 2004 at the ISREC, Federal University (EPFL) of Lausanne, Switzerland. During these Postdoc years she began to investigate the importance of tumour microenvironment during metastatic progression. Building on this expertise in mouse tumour models, Ilaria set up her laboratory at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute in 2011 (now part of the Francis Crick Institute) and has since focused the scope of investigation on the interaction that cancer cells have with the surrounding tissue cells during tumorigenesis and metastatic progression.

Zvi Ram

Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel
(Satellite Speaker)

Professor Zvi Ram`s over 30 years clinical experience has made him one of the world's leading experts in neurosurgery and brain pathology, conducting unique, complex and minimally invasive neurosurgical operations for the removal of brain tumors. 

Professor Ram is the former Chairman of the Tumor Section of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies. He is a scientific advisor of a number of biotechnological companies, member of editorial boards and reviewer of leading scientific magazines on neurosurgery. He has also won the Borenstein Neurological and Goldhirsh awards.

Jordan Raff

University of Oxford, UK

Jordan Raff studied Biochemistry at Bristol University. He did his PhD with David Glover at Imperial College London, where he studied centrosomes and cell division in fruit flies. He has continued to work on this problem throughout his scientific career, first as a post-doctoral fellow with Bruce Alberts at the University of California, San Francisco, then as a Welcome Trust and Cancer Research UK funded Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge. He moved to Oxford in 2009 to take up the César Milstein Chair of Cancer Cell Biology. He was President of the BSCB from 2011-2017.

Zeev Ronai

Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC), Israel

Dr. Ze’ev Ronai is Professor and Co-Director of the Technion Integrated Cancer Center at the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and trained further at Columbia University, before holding faculty positions at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC, and Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla CA. He is recipient of life time achievement award from the Society of Melanoma Research, and a scientific leader at the Melanoma Research Foundation. The Ronai lab studies the regulation and function of ubiquitin ligases in cancer, with focus on their biochemical, biological and physiological role in cancer development and progression. Recent studies from the Ronai lab have reached clinical trials in breast cancer and melanoma.

Neal Rosen

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA

Julien Sage

Stanford School of Medicine, USA

Dr. Sage is a Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics at Stanford University. He initially trained at the École Normale Supérieure of Paris and at the University of Nice, and then moved to the laboratory of Dr. Tyler Jacks at MIT for his post-doctoral studies. At MIT he developed genetic models to study the mechanisms of action of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor gene. At Stanford, the research program in his laboratory has focused on the mechanisms that control the proliferation of mammalian cells under normal and pathological conditions with a particular emphasis on stem cells and gene regulatory networks during cancer development.

Yardena Samuels

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Prof. Yardena Samuels received her BSc from Cambridge University, UK in 1993, and earned an MSc in immunology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 1997. She completed a PhD at Imperial College, London in 2002. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Prof Vogelstein’s laboratory at Johns Hopkins University from 2003 to 2006. She served as an Assistant Professor at NIH before joining the Weizmann Institute in 2012. Today she is the director of the EKARD Institute for Cancer Diagnosis Research and is the incumbent of the Knell Family Professorial Chair. Prof Samuels’ lab focuses on the characterization of the functional-genomic and immunogenomic landscapes of melanoma patients.

Yosef Shiloh

Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Dr. Yosef Shiloh is Myers Professor of Cancer Genetics at the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. He obtained his Ph.D. at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and trained further at Harvard Medical School, the University of Michigan, New York University and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He is a member of The Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities and won the EMET Prize in Life Sciences, the American Association of Cancer Research G.H.A. Clowes Award, the Israel Prize and the Olav Thon Prize in Natural Sciences and Medicine (Oslo, Norway). The Shiloh lab studies the ATM-mediated DNA damage response, the molecular basis of the cerebellar atrophy in the genome instability disorder, ataxia-telangiectasia and the association between perturbation of genome stability and premature aging. 

Maria Sibilia

Medical University of Vienna, Austria

Maria’s laboratory is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms leading to inflammatory diseases and cancer using the mouse as a model system. The lab investigate the cell-specific role of EGFR signaling in cancer and tumor stromal cells and their complex interaction. Moreover, the aim is to understand how inflammatory cells affect tumor development and regression and exploit novel concepts to modulate tumors to become more sensitive to current anti-cancer treatments. The ultimate goal is to translate this knowledge to patients to develop more effective personalized treatments for human cancer.

Andreas Trumpp

Deutschen Krebsforschungszentrum DKFZ, Germany

Professor and Head of the Division “Stem Cells and Cancer” and Coordinator of the Research Program “Cell and Tumor Biology” at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Managing Director of the “Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine” (HI--‐STEM gGmbH) Im Neuenheimer Feld 280 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
The Trumpp team has contributed to a better understanding ofthe molecular and cellular basis of normal and malignant ste cell self-renewal and differentiation as well as the role of MYC in stem cells and cancer. They uncovered the concept of reversible dormancy in hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and pluripotent stem cells as well as identified critical pathways in human leukemic stem cells (Cell 2008, 2016 and 2017; Nature 2009, 2017, 2018). They also characterized blood circulating metastasis stem cells in breast cancer patients and identified mechanisms mediating drug resistance in pancreatic tumors (Nature Biotech 2013; Nature Medicine 2016).

Yosef Yarden

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Yosef Yarden received his BSc in biological and geological sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1980), and a PhD in molecular biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science (1985). His postdoctoral training was undertaken at Genentech, Inc., in San Francisco and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1988, he joined the Weizmann Institute of Science’s faculty. Yarden is the new director of the Dwek Institute for Cancer Therapy Research of the Moross Integrated Cancer Centre. Prof. Yarden’s research is helping to shed light on the role played by growth factors in tumor progression.