Dr. Brian Wolpin is the Robert T. & Judith B. Hale Chair in Pancreatic Cancer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He obtained his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and completed a residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He completed fellowship training in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and returned to Brigham and Women’s hospital to serve as chief medical resident. Subsequently, he received a M.P.H. from Harvard School of Public Health. His wet and dry lab research program is dedicated to understanding the factors that promote initiation and progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, with a focus on defining early detection strategies and personalized treatment approaches. At Dana-Farber, Dr. Wolpin serves as Chief of the Division of Gastrointestinal Oncology, Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center, and Director of the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research. His research team has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Lustgarten Foundation, ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Stand Up to Cancer, and U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Wolpin’s clinical practice involves the care of patients with gastrointestinal cancers, with a particular focus on pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Colin Weekes is a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal malignancies in the Tucker Gosnell Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, where he is also the Director of Medical Oncology Research for Pancreatic Cancer. He is the inaugural incumbent Christopher D. Horner Endowed Chair in Pancreatic Cancer. He is an Associate Professor at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Weekes’ translational research career has focused on early drug development in gastrointestinal malignancies with a focus on pancreas cancer. He has worked to translate laboratory findings into clinical strategies to improve the outcomes for patients with pancreas cancer. Much of his translational research has led to the development of strategies to target various components of the tumor microenvironment and the consequent cellular signal transduction as a therapeutic strategy. In addition, Dr. Weekes has a longstanding interest in the equitable participation of patients of diverse backgrounds in clinical trials.

Dr. David Tuveson is a physician scientist with a longstanding interest in understanding and treating pancreatic cancer. Dr. Tuveson is the Director of the Cancer Center and the Roy J. Zuckerberg Professor of Cancer Research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Additionally, he is the Chief Scientist of the Lustgarten Foundation, and served as the President of the American Association for Cancer Research from 2021-2022.  

Dr. Tuveson obtained a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at M.I.T., followed by M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Johns Hopkins, was a medical resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a medical oncology fellow at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. Dr. Tuveson is known for developing the first mouse and organoid models of pancreatic cancer, and identifying subtypes of cancer associated fibroblasts. Since developing the first mouse model of pancreatic cancer in 2002, the Tuveson lab has made a series of discoveries that shed light on the molecular drivers of this disease, and provide promising therapeutic avenues for a malignancy that is notoriously challenging to treat. Dr. Tuveson was awarded the Rita Allen Scholarship, the Jan Waldenström Award, the Hamdan Award, and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and is a Fellow of the Academy of the AACR.  

Dr. Kevan Shokat is currently an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California at San Francisco and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. He received his B.A. in Chemistry from Reed College in 1986, his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at UC Berkeley with Professor Peter Schultz and carried out post-doctoral work in cellular immunology at Stanford University with Professor Chris Goodnow. Kevan’s research group is focused on the discovery of new small molecule tools and drug candidates targeting protein/lipid kinases, GTPases, and RNA helicases. His laboratory utilizes the tools of synthetic organic chemistry, protein engineering, structural biology, biochemistry, and cell biology. He was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences (2010), the National Academy of Medicine (2011), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011). In 2023 he was awarded the Vollum Prize from Reed College, the National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Discovery and the Sjöberg Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for ‘discoveries that enable the inhibition of mutated K-Ras in cancer treatment’ and the Heath Memorial Award Lecture, from MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2024, he was awarded the Edward E. Smissman Award by the ACS Medicinal Chemistry division and also the Hope Funds Award of Excellence for Basic Science. He has commercialized discoveries from his laboratory through co-founding several biotechnology companies including Intellikine, Araxes, Wellspring Biosciences, Kura Oncology, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Mitokinin, Revolution Medicines, Erasca and Kumquat Biosciences.

Dr. Steven Rosen is the provost, Chief Scientific Officer and director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Beckman Research Institute, Irell & Manella Cancer Center Director’s Distinguished Chair for the City of Hope in Duarte, California. Following his graduation with distinction from Northwestern University Medical School’s Six-Year Honors Program in Chicago, Illinois, Dr Rosen completed his residency in internal medicine at Northwestern and a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland. He served as the Director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine from 1989-2014.  

Dr Rosen’s laboratory research focuses on experimental therapeutics and hematologic malignancies. He has received funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), American Cancer Society, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, Department of Defense and Rising Tide Foundation. Dr Rosen has received numerous grant awards and contracts and has published more than 400 scientific papers. He is editor-in-chief of Cancer Treatment and Research. Dr Rosen was the chair of the Medical Science Committee of the LLS and served on its Board. He also serves on the Board of American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Conquer Cancer Foundation. Dr Rosen has been an advisor to more than two dozen NCI Comprehensive Cancer Centers. 

Dr. Joshua Rabinowitz is the director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Princeton Branch and a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. After obtaining his M.D. and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Stanford University, Rabinowitz co-founded Alexza Pharmaceuticals and served as vice president for research until 2004, when he joined Princeton University. Rabinowitz has received several awards for his scientific contributions, including the Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, the NIH Pioneer Award, the CAREER Award of the National Science Foundation and the Beckman Young Investigator Award.

Dr. Rabinowitz focuses his research on two broad questions: What is the quantitative flow (flux) through different metabolic pathways? How is this flux controlled? These questions go to the essence of how metabolism functions. To answer them, the Rabinowitz laboratory develops methods and technologies that blend mass spectrometry and computational analysis and applies them to biological experimentation. His lab has dissected compensatory mechanisms that render both NADPH and folate metabolism robust and is working to rewire these pathways to treat cancer. To this end, the lab made small molecule inhibitors of the enzymes SHMT and G6PD, which are moving forward as potential cancer therapeutics. Dr. Rabinowitz is particularly excited by the prospect of quantitatively investigating the ties between diet and metabolism, including the metabolism of tumors and immune cells. His lab has recently found that the ketogenic diet synergizes in mice with classical chemotherapeutics for pancreatic cancer. These studies promise to open new approaches to the prevention and treatment of cancer. 

Dr. Eileen O’Reilly holds the Winthrop Rockefeller Endowed Chair in Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). She serves as the Section Head for Hepatopancreaticobiliary/ Neuroendocrine Cancers, Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Co-Director for Medical Initiatives at the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer and is an Attending Physician and Member at MSK and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. O’Reilly also serves as Chair of the Human Research Protection Program/IRB. Nationally Dr. O’Reilly is Co-Chair of the NCI Alliance Co-Operative Group Gastrointestinal Cancers Committee and serves on the NCI Gastrointestinal Cancers Steering Committee (GISC), Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Guidelines Committee and the Board of the National Pancreas Foundation. She is as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. O’Reilly received her medical degree at Trinity College (Dublin University) in Ireland. She completed her residency training in Ireland and Fellowship training at MSK. Dr. O’Reilly has pancreatic and hepatobiliary malignancies as the major focus of her research and clinical activities. Research directions include integration of molecular and genetic-based therapies for pancreas cancer along with development of adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapies and identification of biomarkers for therapy selection. She is the Principal Investigator of multiple trials. 

Dr. Allyson Ocean is professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, medical oncologist and attending physician in gastrointestinal oncology, Solid Tumor Division, at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and practices medical oncology at The Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health. Board certified in internal medicine, hematology, and medical oncology, Dr. Ocean’s primary interest is in the biology and treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies. She has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and abstracts and is an active member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, and the Pancreatic Cancer Research Team. Dr. Ocean is currently leading numerous clinical trials investigating radiolabeled antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, oncolytic viruses, and targeted therapies in pancreatic cancer. Dr. Ocean is co-founder and Scientific Advisory Board Chair of

Dr. Liz Jaffee is an internationally recognized expert in cancer immunology and pancreatic cancer. She is Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Co-Director of the Skip Viragh Pancreatic Cancer Center and Associate Director of the Bloomberg Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Her recent work has focused on developing novel biomarker driven immunotherapy clinical trials to dissect the complex inflammatory signals within the tumor microenvironment. Through collaborations with computational biologists, novel immune targets and developed new approaches for treating patients with pancreatic cancer. She is also developing new vaccines for preventing pancreatic cancer. Dr. Jaffee is a Past President of AACR. She has served on committees at the National Cancer Institute, including the co-chair of the Biden Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel which identified high impact research priorities for the NCI. She currently serves as Chief Medical Advisor to the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. She is the inaugural director of the Convergence Institute for Integrating Technologies and Computational Sciences at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Jaffee is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the SITC Academy of Immuno-Oncology and a Fellow of the AACR Academy. Most recently, she was appointed chair of President Biden’s Cancer Panel. 

Dr. Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue is a board-certified anatomic pathologist with specialty training in gastrointestinal pathology and cancer genetics. She currently serves as the Director of the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, NY and holds the David M. Rubenstein Chair in Pancreatic Cancer Research. Her laboratory focuses on the evolutionary biology of cancer with efforts ranging from translational pancreatic cancer research to cancer risk in association with human evolution, to fundamental studies of the relationship of multicellularity to carcinogenesis.