Speakers
Maha Hussain
Maha Hussain, MD, FACP, FASCO, Genevieve Teuton Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Deputy Director, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University. Dr. Hussain received medical degree from Baghdad University College of Medicine and completed her residency and Hem-Onc fellowship at Wayne State University. She is a practicing oncologist, internationally renowned expert and clinical researcher in GU-oncology particularly prostate and bladder cancer. Her research, funded by grants and contracts, is focused on development of novel therapeutics integrating scientific advances into clinical trials and has contributed to significantly impacting standards of care for mHSPC and mCRPC.
Nationally she has served in a variety of scientific leadership roles including Chair of SWOG Advanced Prostate Cancer Subcommittee, member/Chair: Integration Panel of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command Prostate Cancer Research Program, member /Chair of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Oncology Drug Advisory Committee. Dr. Hussain has served as a member of the NCI-Cancer Biomarker Study Section and the NCI’s Prostate cancer task force. She serves as an EAB member of six NCI-designated cancer centers and the UCLA Prostate Cancer SPORE.
Dr. Hussain has served on numerous ASCO committees/boards and was an elected member of the ASCO Board of Directors (2016-2020). She is the author/coauthor of more than 286 scholarly articles and book chapters.
Nicolas Mottet
Dr. Nicolas Mottet is a Professor at University Hospital St. Etienne, Urology St. Etienne and Head of the Urology Department, University Hospital St. Etienne and University Jean Monnet, Saint-Etienne, France. He is board certified in surgery, urology and medical oncology. He is chairman of the EAU Working Group on Prostate Cancer Guidelines, board member of the Urology Group for the French Anti-Cancer Centre Federation, and member of the SIOG prostate cancer guidelines. He is the former coordinator the Testis and Penile Cancer Subgroup (French Urological Association 2000 – 2008). Prof. Mottet has published over 245 peer-reviewed papers and made numerous presentations and lectures; he is member of the Editorial Board of the European Urology Journal and a reviewer of more than a dozen of high-profile journals including the New England Journal of Medicine. He sits on the scientific advisory board of several multinational pharmaceutical companies. He coordinated or participated to more than 40 clinical trials and received several national grants. He is member of the AUA, EAU, AFU, ASCO, ESMO and SIOG.
Derya Tilki
Derya Tilki is a Professor of Urology at the Martini-Klinik Prostate Cancer Center, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. She obtained her medical degree at the University of Hamburg and received her urologic residency training in Munich, with research fellowships at Harvard Medical School in Boston and at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She completed a urooncology fellowship at UC Davis in Sacramento, USA. Dr. Tilki is a member of the EAU prostate cancer guideline panel and an associate editor of European Urology Focus. She has published more than 300 papers in international journals
Himisha Beltran
Dr. Himisha Beltran is Director of Translational Research, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and member of the Faculty of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Beltran's research is focused on understanding mechanisms of treatment resistance in advanced prostate cancer through integration of clinical and molecular features of patients combined with preclinical modeling. They have focused on understanding mechanisms underlying an emerging subclass of androgen-indifferent prostate cancers that develop neuroendocrine features as an adaptive response mechanism upon selective therapeutic pressure of the androgen receptor (AR). The lab has used genomics and epigenomics to elucidate the molecular mechanisms driving evolution towards an AR-low state. The lab develops tissue and circulating biomarkers and novel therapeutic strategies for clinical translation.
Jason M Alter
Dr. Jason M. Alter is the Head of Scientific Affairs for Exosome Diagnostics. He has extensive experience in prognostic and predictive testing in Urologic Oncology and has played key roles in the development of prostate cancer assays (biopsy and post-radical prostatectomy) at multiple companies. Dr. Alter has published on genomic and non-genomic risk assessment methods for prostate cancer, and he is very familiar with available molecular and genomic testing for the disease. Dr. Alter has a dual B.A. in Biology and History from Alfred University, an M.S. degree in Immuno-Parasitology from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Binghamton University. He did a postdoctoral fellowship at Schering Plough Pharmaceuticals.
Henrik Grönberg
Dr. Henrik Grønberg is a Professor of Oncology at Umeå University and a Professor of Cancer Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet. Dr. Grønberg is also acting as an oncologist at Capio S:t Göran Hospital and was responsible for the cancer genetics clinic and Umeå University Hospital until 2005. He has identified several prostate cancer susceptibility loci and was part of the team that identified the first susceptibility loci more than 20 years ago. Dr. Grønberg is PI for the STHLM3 trial aiming to evaluate new diagnostic tests for prostate cancer that include over 260.000 men and the recently opened ProBio trial aiming to identify biomarkers predicting treatment response among men with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer. He was the chairman of the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet between 2008 and 2013 including over 270 employees and served for a period as an Acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Karolinska Institutet.Prof. Grönberg has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Ian Mills
Dr. Ian Mills, PhD, is John Black Associate Professor of Prostate Cancer at University of Oxford and Interim Head of the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences. He is also Professor of Translational Prostate Cancer Biology at Queen’s University of Belfast and an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Cancer Biomarkers at the University of Bergen. From 2010 to 2015 he was group leader in the newly formed Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM) in Oslo. His work is focused on how cancer cell metabolism and microenvironmental stress synergize with treatment response pathways in the evolution of prostate cancer. He has made major contributions to the understanding of how transcriptional and chromatin dysregulation participate in this respect. From a start-point of cancer cell-intrinsic pathways driven by the androgen receptor, his team addresses the role of the unfolded protein response, glycosylation and innate immune signalling in the acquisition of genomic instability and in prostate cancer progression.
Rob G. Bristow
Dr. Bristow is the Director Manchester Cancer Research Centre, Co-Director CRUK Manchester Major Centre, Cancer Domain Lead and University Professor of Cancer Studies University of Manchester,Chief Academic Officer and Honorary Consultant The Christie NHS Trust. Professor Bristow joined University of Manchester as Director of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC) in August 2017 with a remit to developing a new cancer strategy for Manchester with a cancer team science approach. The MCRC is a unique partnership between CRUK, the University of Manchester and the Christie NHS Trust. His primary research interests are in tumour hypoxia, DNA damage signalling and repair in tumours, and the genomics of prostate cancer progression and cancer treatment response. He is particularly interested in novel clinical trials that intensify cancer therapy to prostate cancer patients whose tumours harbor aggressive genetic changes and hypoxic sub-regions. Professor Bristow is currently a senior group leader in Translational Oncogenomics at the CRUK Manchester Institute and was the lead PI for the Canadian component of the ICGC whole genome prostate cancer sequencing project (CPC-GENE). He has served on a number of senior Scientific Advisory Boards and committees for: Prostate Cancer Foundation (USA), the MOVEMBER Foundation, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the German Cancer Centre, Tuebingen Comprehensive Cancer Centre, NKI Amsterdam, the Danish Cancer Society and sits on the Scientific Executive Board for Cancer Research UK (CRUK). He has over 280 published papers and book chapters and is twice a Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) awardee. He was made a Canadian Cancer Society Research Scientist in 2004, an ESTRO Honorary Fellow in 2011 and a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences (UK) in 2019.
Wytske van Weerden
Dr. Ir. W. M. (Wytske) van Weerden, Associate Professor of Department of Urology at Erasmus MC Rotterdam, has established a unique set of patient derived xenograft models representing a wide range of prostate cancer subtypes. These xenograft models and derived cell lines have been used in a wide range of prostate cancer research topics and have contributed to identify, validate and optimize treatment regiments. Current efforts are directed towards establishing organoid cultures directly from patients as well as to transfer of the existing xenografts into an organoid platform for drug testing using high-content imaging. With the establishment of a spontaneous liver metastasis model, we are strongly focusing on metastatic disease, which includes the transition into a organoid system to study “circulating tumor cell” invasion into healthy human liver and bone.Ass. Prof. Wytske van Weerden authors over 100 articles.
Mark A. Rubin
Dr. Mark A. Rubin, is an MD, Professor, Principal Investigator, and Director of the Department for BioMedical Research (DBMR), University of Bern, Switzerland. Prof. Mark Rubin is a recognized world-renown leader in prostate cancer genomics and pathology, and precision medicine. Dr. Rubin’s laboratory led a series of landmark studies defining distinct molecular features of prostate cancer, revealing pathways that are perturbed and drive different types of this cancer. Furthermore, Prof. Rubin has translated many of his genomic discoveries into clinical tests that are currently patented and standardly used in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, and has authored more than 400 papers. Prof. Rubin has founded the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine and, more recently, the Bern Center for Precision Medicine (BCPM).
Olli Kallioniemi
Dr. Olli Kallioniemi Director of Science for Life Laboratory, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, Professor of Molecular Precision Medicine. He was previously the founding director of FIMM – the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, as part of the Nordic EMBL partnership in Molecular Medicine. Dr. Kallioniemi's research expertise is in systems medicine and translational cancer research. He is an inventor and co-inventor of a whole range of technologies in molecular cancer research. These include FISH, CGH, tissue microarrays, cell microarrays and bioinformatic methods. A current focus is to work towards precision medicine in cancer by the integration of spatial and functional cancer biology data, such as ex vivo drug efficacy testing on patient-derived cells.
Arul Chinnaiyan
Dr. Arul Chinnaiyan is the Director at Michigan Center for Translational Pathology; S.P. Hicks Endowed Professor of Pathology and Urology; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and American Cancer Society Research Professor. Dr. Chinnaiyan is a physician-scientist at the leading edge of translational cancer research and precision oncology. He and his group have focused on functional genomic and bioinformatic approaches to study cancer for the purposes of understanding tumor biology as well as to discover genetic drivers. The discovery of TMPRSS2-ETSgene fusions in a majority of prostate cancers was the first causative gene fusion in a common solid tumor. This discovery was made using a novel bioinformatics approach to detect outlier genes in an aggregated tumor gene expression database called ONCOMINE, developed by his group. Later, a number of other common solid tumors have been found to have subsets with recurrent gene fusions including lung, breast, and colon cancers. In 2011, he established the first integrative, comprehensive clinical sequencing approach for advanced cancer patients called MI-ONCOSEQ, which has served as a paradigm for cancer precision medicine. Dr. Chinnaiyan discovered a molecular subtype of metastatic prostate cancer that inactivates the CDK12gene, which leads to tandem duplications and gene-fusion induced neoantigens, making these patients potentially responsive to immune checkpoint therapies. Dr. Chinnaiyan has also been taking advantage of integrative sequencing efforts to understand the non-coding genome of cancer, especially for biomarker development. He has defined the landscape of long non-coding RNAs as well as circular RNAs in diverse cancer types. Recently, his group reported the discovery of FOXA1alterations, including structural alterations, and with a collective prevalence of 35% in metastatic prostate cancers.
Guido Jenster
Dr. Guido Jenster is Professor of Experimental Urological Oncology, Erasmus MC. Member of the Board of the European Association of Urology, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The research in Prof. Jenster’s group is focused on the discovery and analysis of (novel) genes and pathways that contribute to cancer progression using DNA and RNA sequencing. The discovery that cancer-associated transcripts are secreted by cancer cells via extracellular vesicles forms the basis for biomarker research in urine and blood. Assays are being designed to specifically capture and analyze these vesicles to improve diagnosis and prognosis of urogenital tumours. To support this research, new bioinformatics tools, in vitro/vivo model systems and nanobodies are being generated. He is a Board member of the EAU Research Foundation, Member Mrace committees ‘Equipment & Infrastructure’ and ‘Personal Subsidies’, Chair of Scientific Advisory Board of Movember GAP3 ‘Active surveillance’, Founding member of Netherlands Society for Extracellular Vesicles (NLSEV), Board member of the Postgraduate School Molecular Medicine and a previous Board member of the European Society for Urological Research (ESUR). Prof. Guido Jenster authors more than 153 articles.
Hege Russnes
Dr. Hege Russnes, MD, PhD, is heading the Molecular Pathology group in the Norwegian Association for Pathologists and the initiator of the Norwegian Association of Molecular Pathology, while holding a shared position as a consultant within the pathology department at Oslo University Hospital and a group leader within the department of Genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital. Her main research interest has been molecular based diagnostics with a particular focus on refining classification of breast cancer, including in-depth analyses of intra-tumor heterogeneity and epigenetic alterations in breast cancer, with more than 80 articles published. Her research group is part of several clinical trials (e.g EMIT and CARMA), while being the PI of the CANCAN (Cancer specific copynumber alteration analysis) study. A major focus is intra-tumor heterogeneity and tumor evolution, both for retrospective molecular analyses but also for providing molecular tests for patient inclusion and/or stratification.
Johanna Olweus
Dr. Johanna Olweus, MD, PhD is head of the Department of Cancer Immunology at the Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital Radiumhospitalet and Director of the K. G. Jebsen centre of Cancer Immunotherapy and holding a professorship at the University of Oslo. Her work focusses on the various modalities of donor-derived immunity (primarily T-cells) in cancer immunotherapy. The research aims to develop new T-cell based concepts for cancer immunotherapy that overcome the major challenge of self-tolerance in cancer by studying how the immune system from healthy donors can target patient cancer cells. This achieved both through developing novel technologies for high-throughput identification of targets for immune-directing therapeutics and a strong translational focus combined with penetrating mechanistic analyses in clinical trials together with clinical partners. This work has led to close to 40 published papers, among several high-impact journals.
Rolf Skotheim
Dr. Rolf Skotheim is Group leader in Genome Biology at Department of Molecular Oncology, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital-Radiumhospitalet and Professor at Department of Informatics, University of Oslo. His research group has a main translational focus on prostate cancer, and in particular on molecular heterogeneity in multifocal disease. With the largest whole-exome study of multifocal prostate cancer, they recently published that different foci within the same prostate only exceptionally share any somatic point mutations. This was followed up with supporting results demonstrating heterogeneous patterns of ETS overexpression. This heterogeneity has large implementations on how we can implement genomics-based precision medicine in prostate cancer.
Heidi Lyng
Dr. Heidi Lyng is leading the Clinical Radiation Biology Group at Department of Radiation Biology, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital and Professor at Department of Physics, University of Oslo. She is head of the regional research network in radiation oncology, NIRO. Her research group aims to develop biomarkers that can identify patients at risk of radiotherapy failure and to find targets for therapeutic intervention in combination with radiotherapy, mainly focusing on the tumor microenvironment in prostate and cervical cancer. In prostate cancer, they utilize unique material collected from patients receiving a hypoxia marker prior to prostatectomy to explore the role of tumor hypoxia in development of aggressive disease. Their work has led to candidate hypoxia biomarkers based on gene signatures and medical images and a better understanding of how intratumor heterogeneity in hypoxia influence biomarker performance.
Alicia Llorente
Dr. Alicia Llorente is a Senior scientist leading the project "Extracellular vesicles and prostate cancer" at the Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital, and Professor at Oslo Metropolitan University. Her research has focused on the identification of prostate cancer biomarkers in urinary extracellular vesicles. In particular, she has used different omics approaches for the identification of proteins, lipids and miRNAs in urinary extracellular vesicles. The molecular analysis of extracellular vesicles in liquid biopsies opens a new avenue for the identification of noninvasive biomarkers for prostate cancer.
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