Scientific Advisory Board
Benjamin Besse, MD
Gustave Roussy, Grand-Paris, France
Professor of Medical Oncology, Paris-Saclay University
Director of Clinical Research, Gustave Roussy
A medical oncologist specializing in thoracic cancer, professor Benjamin Besse has been the director of the Research Clinique Gustave Roussy since September 2, 2021, having led the medical oncology department of the institute for three years prior.
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His main research areas are the application of molecular anomalies to personalize treatment, circulating biomarkers, early drug development in thoracic tumors and thymic malignancies.
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Benjamin Besse is the co-author of over 250 peer-reviewed articles. Over the past five years, he was the principal investigator in more than 30 phase I, II and III clinical trials.
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Professor Besse is the Chair of the EORTC Scientific Chairs Council and coordinator of RYTHMIC, the French network of malignant thymic tumors. He is listed in the Clarivate 2020 List of Highly Cited Researchers .
Trever Bivona, MD, PhD
University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, California, USA
Professor, Hematology & Oncology, USCF
Professor of Medicine and of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology
Principal Investigator of the NIH/NCI U54 Bay Area Drug Resistance and Sensitivity Center
Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub Senior Investigator
Elected member of the ASCI
Trever Bivona, M.D. Ph.D. is a cell and molecular biologist and a laboratory-based physician scientist at the University of California, San Francisco. As a medical oncologist and Professor of Medicine and of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Dr. Bivona leads a research program focused on signal transduction, cancer genetics and the molecular basis of tumor initiation, evolution, and drug resistance.
One of Bivona’s primary areas of interest is the function and therapeutic targeting of oncogenic receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) such as EGFR and ALK as well as RAS GTPase signaling. One recent discovery is the role of membraneless cytoplasmic biomolecular condensates formed by certain oncogenic RTKs in driving oncogenic signaling through RAS and other proteins to promote cancer. The overall goal of the research is to understand the regulatory principles underlying cancer cell signaling and tumor evolution to improve cancer therapy and patient survival and quality of life. Dr. Bivona received a NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Bivona is currently Principal Investigator of the NIH/NCI U54 Bay Area Drug Resistance and Sensitivity Center.
Bivona earned his doctorate in cell and molecular biology from New York University School of Medicine, where he also earned his medical degree. He then completed a residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a fellowship in medical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
D Ross Camidge, MD, PhD
University of Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, USA
Professor of Medicine, Medical Oncology
Joyce Zeff Chair in Lung Cancer Research
Director of Thoracic Oncology Clinical and Clinical Research Programs
Dr. Camidge has been the Director of the Thoracic Oncology Clinical and Clinical Research Programs at CU since 2007. Thoracic Oncology encompasses predominantly lung cancer (both small cell and non-small cell), mesothelioma and thymic cancers.
The standard treatment for many of these cancers have undergone a revolution in the last few years, particularly in relation to the use of personalized medicine – doing a series of specific tests to look for what is ‘driving’ the cancer and then trying to tailor drug treatments to each cancer’s specific genetic ‘Achilles heel.’ With multiple successes to its name, the CU program has really established itself as one of the premier sites for leading this approach. In addition, every physician in the Thoracic Oncology Program works as part of a highly functional multidisciplinary team, working very closely with colleagues in other relevant specialties – including thoracic surgery, radiation oncology and pulmonology – to deliver personalized medicine in a different way – developing a personal treatment plan for each patient.
This approach allows the optimal use of every possible modality, often pushing the envelope in terms of new developments, to maximize the chances of prolonging control or curing each person’s cancer.
Beyond the medicine, Dr. Camidge, believes in looking after every patient, and their friends and family, as he would want his own friends and family to be looked after - From the personal touch of highly informed and highly skilled schedulers and navigators, through to the honesty and expertise of the clinic nurses and faculty. Cancer is a tough diagnosis for everyone involved – so part of Camidge aims to make the day to day business of caring for it as positive an experience as possible.
Monika Davare, PhD
Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology and Oncology, School of Medicine
Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, School of Medicine
Cancer Biology Graduate Program, School of Medicine
The Davare laboratory’s research goals are directed towards overcoming the therapeutic bottleneck in rare but aggressive pediatric and adult cancers. Oncogenomics-driven big data approaches effectively identify lead drug targets for cancer, but bottlenecks arise from a lack or slower pace of functionally testing, vetting and optimizing leads for therapeutic development.
Using complementary in vitro and in vivo experimental model systems coupled with patient-derived genomic data, Dr. Davare’s lab has successfully identified driving kinase pathways and validated small-molecule inhibitor therapies for targeting distinct genomic subsets of glioblastoma, sarcoma, medulloblastoma and non-small cell lung cancer. She has active cross-institutional collaborations with clinical oncologists to facilitate transfer of bench discoveries into clinical trials and as needed, validate clinical findings back at the bench.
Dr. Davare combines expertise and experience in the areas of kinase biology, cell surface receptors, and ion channel physiology with her background in molecular pharmacology to lead the translational research program.
Alexander Drilon, MD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, New York, USA
Chief, Early Drug Development Service
Dr. Alexander Drilon is a medical oncologist. He is the Chief of the Early Drug Development Service and Associate Attending Physician of the Thoracic Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His research focuses on phase I/II clinical trials and translational work for all fusion-positive cancers, including ROS1 fusion-positive lung cancers.
In collaboration with other centers around the world, Dr. Drilon helped lead the clinical trials that led to the approval entrectinib for ROS1 fusion-positive lung cancers. In addition, he helped lead the repotrectinib program that resulted in the drug’s FDA Breakthrough Designation for ROS1 fusion-positive lung cancers. He is currently working on other treatments for ROS1 fusions, including the drugs NVL-520 and cabozantinib.
Along with these trials, Dr. Drilon has partnered with various scientists to identify mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapy for ROS1 fusion-positive cancers by studying samples such as tumor biopsies and circulating tumor DNA. The goal of these investigations is to identify new treatments for patients that work despite the development of these resistance mechanisms.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Attending Physician, Center for Thoracic Cancers, Massachusetts General Hospital
Attending Physician, Henri & Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies, Massachusetts General Hospital
Jessica J. Lin, MD, is an attending physician in the Center for Thoracic Cancers and Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
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Dr. Lin earned her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at Harvard College and medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, serving as Chief Medical Resident at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. She subsequently trained in the Dana-Farber/MGH joint hematology/oncology fellowship program.
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Dr. Lin cares for patients with lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies, and additionally performs clinical and translational research. Dr. Lin’s major research interests include studying driver oncogene alterations in non-small cell lung cancer and development of resistance to targeted therapies. She leads clinical trials of novel targeted therapy and immunotherapy agents in lung cancer. Her work has been recognized by awards and grants from organizations such as the Conquer Cancer Foundation/American Society of Clinical Oncology, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, and prIME Oncology.
Christine Lovly, MD, PhD
Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology
Ingram Associate Professor of Cancer Research
Co-Leader, Translational Research and Interventional Oncology Program
Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine with tenure at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. She received a B.A. in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University followed by M.D. and Ph.D. degrees as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She then completed internal medicine residency and medical oncology subspecialty training at Vanderbilt University. During her final year of fellowship, she was the Jim and Carol O'Hare Chief Fellow. She started on faculty at Vanderbilt in July 2013 as a physician scientist, splitting her time between clinical care and laboratory research. Her laboratory research is directed at understanding and developing improved therapeutic strategies for specific clinically relevant molecular subsets of lung cancer.
Dr. Lovly has received grant funding from NIH/NCI, the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Sarcoma Foundation of America, the American Cancer Society, the Damon Runyon foundation, the LUNGevity foundation, the V Foundation, the American Association for Cancer Research, and Lung Cancer Foundation of America / International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. She is an active member in the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Her team’s work has published in high impact journals, including Cancer Discovery, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and others.
Dr. Lovly is also an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and a member of the Editorial Board for Cancer Discovery and JCO Precision Oncology. She serves on the Scientific Leadership Boards for the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer Research (where she also serves as Scientific Leadership Board director), the LUNGevity Foundation, and the Lung Cancer Research Foundation. Dr. Lovly serves several roles within AACR, including being an invited member of the Science Policy and Government Affairs committee and s chair of the AACR Tobacco Products and Cancer Subcommittee. Dr. Lovly serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines panel for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and is co-chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Thoracic Translational Science Center Lung Biology Committee.
In 2021, Dr. Lovly was awarded the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group Young Investigator Award. In
2022, she was awarded the GO2 Foundation Asclepios Award honoring research pioneers in the fight to end lung cancer.
Professor Benjamin Solomon, MBBS, PhD, FRACP
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia
Medical Oncologist in the Lung and Head and Neck Service
Group Leader of the Molecular Therapeutics and Biomarkers Laboratory in the Research Dividion
Professor Benjamin Solomon is a medical oncologist focused on clinical and translational research for lung cancer. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado he returned to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 2006 where he heads the lung Medical Oncology Service and is a Group Leader of the Molecular Therapeutics and Biomarkers Laboratory in the Research Division. His clinical trial work focuses on the identification of novel therapies for lung cancer including novel targeted therapy and immunotherapy approaches. He has been involved in clinical trials with novel inhibitors of ALK, ROS1, NTRK, BRAF, cMET, RET and KRAS including the phase I though 3 trials with the ALK TKIs leading to approvals of crizotinib and lorlatinib. He is a founding board member of the Thoracic Oncology Group of Ausralasia and is a Board Member of the Cancer Council of Victoria.
University Medical Centre Groningen
Pulmonary Oncologist
Chair, Molecular Tumor Board
Assistant Professor Anthonie van der Wekken is a pulmonary oncologist (pulmonologist by training) focused on clinical and translational research for lung cancer. After a clinical and research fellowship at the University of Groningen, he got his PhD on resistance mechanisms in EGFR and ALK positive lung cancer in 2017.
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Thereafter he focused more on translational research on resistance in rare mutations including ALK and ROS1 at the University Medical Centre Groningen.
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His clinical trial work focuses on the identification of novel therapies for rare mutations in lung cancer. He has been involved in clinical trials with novel inhibitors of ALK, ROS1, NTRK, BRAF, MET, RET and KRAS including phase I and II trials with the most recent new ROS1 inhibitors.
He is chair of the molecular tumor board of the UMCG, co-chair of the Dutch guidelines committee and board member of the Dutch Thoracic Oncology Group.
UOMI Cancer Center. Clínicas MI. Barcelona and Lleida, Spain
Medical Oncologist
Medical Director of UOMI Cancer Center
I am a medical oncologist who earned both a medical degree and a specialized degree from the University of Navarra. Throughout my training, I learned to continually seek new choices and treatments for patients, as well as to build a sensitive and compassionate care approach.
My first job as a specialist was at the MateuOrfila Hospital in Menorca, where I worked for a year treating patients with various tumor types while dealing with resource limitations that required me to make the most of what I had.
I spent the past thirteen years working at the Dr. Rossell Oncology Institute, where I developed expertise in thoracic tumors, personalized medicine, cancer molecular biology, and clinical research. I initially served as a staff doctor but eventually took on management responsibilities. I was promoted to Clinical Director and put in charge of a group of 14 oncologists who cared for patients in four hospitals in the vicinity of Barcelona. Additionally, I have engaged in teaching activities, trained experts from Latin America and Europe, and delivered speeches at conferences and meetings held both domestically and abroad.
I established UOMI Cancer Center in August 2021 with the help of a first-rate group of experts. It is a stand-alone initiative whose goal is to offer patients and families complete, worldwide, and individualized cancer care.
Jürgen Wolf, Prof. Dr. med.
University Hospital Cologne
Medical Director Center for Integrated Oncology
Chair, Lung Cancer Program
Prof. Dr. med. Jürgen Wolf is the Medical Director, and Lead of the Lung Cancer Group Cologne (LCGC) Study Centre at the Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO) in the Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Cologne (Universitäts klinikum Köln), Germany. He is also a Professor of Interdisciplinary Translational Oncology at the University of Cologne, Germany. He serves as a Co-Founder and Head of the Network Genomic Medicine (NGM) Lung Cancer, Germany. He received his medical degree from the University of Freiburg, Germany (1978-1985). He then completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship in tumor virology at the German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, Germany (1986-1990), and his post graduate training in Haematology and Internal Medicine at University Hospital Cologne, Germany (1990).
His research interests focus on improving the systemic therapy of Lung Cancer through the development of personalized approaches, genomic analysis and processes of molecular imaging, and implementation of centralized genotyping. He is the investigator of various NSCLC clinical trials covering from phase I to phase III. He has published a significant number of scientific papers and articles on lymphoma and Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). He is a Reviewer for the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, and an Editorial Board member of Translational Lung Cancer Research.