David M. Ashley
MBBS (Hon), FRACP, PhD
Tudor Ciuleanu
MD, PhD
Z. Gunnur Dikmen
MD, PhD
Jerry W. Shay
PhD
Adam Yopp
PhD
Remus Vezan
MD, PhD
Saadettin Kiliçkap
M.D, M.Sc
David J. Pinato
MD, MRCP (UK) FRCPath, MRes, PhD
David M. Ashley
MBBS (Hon), FRACP, PhD
David M. Ashley, MBBS (Hon), FRACP, PhD, is Director, The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, Head, Preuss Laboratory, and Director, Pediatrics Neuro-Oncology, Duke University. Top key opinion leader (“KOL”) in pediatric and adult neuro-oncology.
Dr. Ashley’s career in cancer research dates back more than two decades. He is credentialed in both pediatric and adult neuro-oncology practices and they have been the focus of his efforts in translational research and leadership. As evident from his publication and grant support record, his primary academic focus has been on neurologic tumors, the development of innovative therapies and approaches to care. These efforts have included basic and translational laboratory research. Dr. Ashley’s experience includes moving laboratory findings in brain tumor immunology and epigenetics into early phase clinical trials. He has expertise in immuno-oncology, having developed and clinically tested dendritic cell vaccines and other immuno-therapeutics. His achievements in research have led to change in practice in the care of children and adults with brain tumors, including the introduction of new standards of practice for the delivery of systemic therapy.
Tudor Ciuleanu
MD, PhD
Tudor Ciuleanu, MD, PhD, Professor of Oncology Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy and Ion Chiricuta Institute of Oncology, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Dr. Ciuleanu is a leading KOL in non-small cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer in Eastern Europe and he is a key investigator in more than 90 phase 3 and phase 2 clinical trials, including most immune therapy agents. He is one of the most highly published clinical investigators in Eastern Europe and he is a former President and editor of Romanian Federation of Cancer Societies and former editor for the Romanian edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Z. Gunnur Dikmen
MD, PhD
Z. Gunnur Dikmen, MD, PhD, Professor at Hacettepe University Medical Faculty, Department of Medical Biochemistry, as well as the director of the hospital’s emergency laboratory.
Dr. Dikmen graduated from Ankara University Medical Faculty and subsequently completed her residency and received her PhD from Hacettepe University Medical Faculty, Department of Medical Biochemistry. She completed her doctoral research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Cell Biology in the Shay-Wright Lab. Her research has been focused on the discovery of novel molecules targeting telomeres and telomerase, mainly working on GRN163L (Imetelstat®) and 6-thio-2’-deoxyguanosine (6-thio-dG) to show their potent effects on different in vitro and in vivo cancer models. She has a broad range of experimental and clinical experience in molecular & cell biology and clinical biochemistry, translating research results from bench to bedside and from academia to clinical laboratory to mentor the next generation of multidisciplinary research projects by providing new therapeutic approaches for cancer and telomere related diseases. Dr. Dikmen has various international scientific publications as well as oral and poster presentations in national and international meetings. She has also published several book chapters in the fields of telomere-telomerase and clinical biochemistry. Her research was supported by the L’OREAL – Women In Science program in 2003 and received the Hacettepe University-Science Incentive Award in 2010.
Jerry W. Shay
PhD
Jerry W. Shay, PhD, Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Dr. Shay is one of the world leaders in the study of telomeres and telomerase. Professor Shay is the scientific co-founder of the research supporting THIO and is an integral advisor to the program. He has been a consultant and a member of multiple scientific advisory boards for companies such as the Procter & Gamble Company, Geron Corporation, Corixa Corporation, BioWhitaker, Inc., Clontech Laboratories, Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Sierra Science and Barricade Therapeutics. Dr. Shay has been noted as a highly influential biomedical researcher by the Institute for Scientific Research and Science Watch, with over 30 issued patents, more than 500 peer reviewed publications, and a citation h-index of 117. Dr. Shay holds the Southland Financial Corporation Distinguished Chair in Geriatric Research and is a Distinguish Professor at UT Southwestern having received the University of Texas Regent’s Outstanding Teaching Award, and the Minnie Steven Piper Foundation Professor Award. Dr. Shay was also awarded the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NIH Alliance Pioneer Award. Dr. Shay received his PhD from the University of Kansas and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Adam Yopp
PhD
Adam Yopp, PhD, Occidental Chemical Chair of Cancer Research and an Associate Professor and Division Chief of Surgical Oncology and Colorectal Surgery, at Harold C. Simmons National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Texas (“UT”) Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Dr. Yopp completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center focusing on upper gastrointestinal (“GI”) and hepato-pancreato-biliary (“HPB”) malignancy and joined UT Southwestern in 2009. At UT Southwestern, Dr. Yopp is the Director of the Liver Tumor Program, and both his research and clinical interests are focused on the delivery of care in patients with primary liver cancer. Specifically, he has National Institute of Health and Department of Defense funding examining the racial and ethnic disparities in outcome measures for patients newly diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma. In addition, as the Director of the UT Southwestern Biorepository he is focused on translational collaborations expanding our genomic characterizations of upper GI and HPB malignancies.
Remus Vezan
MD, PhD
Dr. Remus Vezan is a seasoned leader in drug development of novel therapeutic modalities, including cell and gene therapies, with over 20 years of academic and biopharmaceutical industry experience, and had a seminal contribution to the development and approval of multiple products, including TECARTUS®, YESCARTA® or IMBRUVICA®. Dr. Vezan currently serves as Vice President, Global Clinical Development at BeiGene where he is overseeing the global clinical development of the BTKi and BCL2i in B cell malignancies.
Prior to BeiGene, he served as Chief Medical Officer of CytoImmune Therapeutics, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company focused on advancing allogeneic cell therapies and other therapeutic agents into solid tumors. Prior to that, he held the positions of Chief Medical Officer of CERo Therapeutics and Executive Director of Clinical Development at Kite Pharma. At Kite Pharma, Remus was primarily responsible for managing and overseeing the clinical development of CAR T-cell products, including axi-cell/YESCARTA®, the first CART-cell therapy approved for relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphoma and brexu-cell/TECARTUS®, the first CART-cell therapy approved for mantle cell lymphoma and adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Earlier, Remus served as Medical Director at Pharmacyclics, an AbbVie Company, where he was the clinical lead for HDACi-abexinostat program and ibrutinib (IMBRUVICA®) in lymphoplasmacytic lymphomas (Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia). He completed his medical training (M.D. and Ph.D.) at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj, Romania and University of Bern, Switzerland.
Saadettin Kiliçkap
M.D, M.Sc
Professor Dr. Saadettin Kiliçkap is a renowned faculty member at İstinye University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine since 2021. Dr. Kiliçkap graduated from Gazi University Faculty of Medicine with honors in 1998, completed his Internal Medicine specialty training at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in 2003. In 2009, completed the education programme of Medical Oncology at Hacettepe University Oncology Institute and the Cancer Epidemiology Thesis Master's Program at Hacettepe University Oncology Institute Preventive Oncology Department, granting him the title of “Master of Science”.
His experience ranges from Department of Hematology-Oncology at the University of Regensburg in 2009, faculty member at Sivas Cumhuriyet University Faculty of Medicine in 2010, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the Preventive Oncology Department of Hacettepe University Cancer Institute in 2013, appointed Professor at the same University in 2016 and started to work as a faculty member at İstinye University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine in 2021.
Dr. Kiliçkap received more than 20 oral presentations or best work awards at national congresses, has more than 240 scientific articles published in international peer-reviewed journals and more than 50 papers presented at international congresses. He took part as principle or sub-investigator in more than 50 national and international multicenter phase 2 and phase 3 clinical studies. In addition, Dr. Kiliçkap serves as a referee in many national and international scientific journals. His special interests include the treatment of solid tumors such as lung cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, and the gastrointestinal tract, as well as targeted therapies and immunotherapy, cancer epidemiology, quality of life and nutrition in cancer patients.
David J. Pinato
MD, MRCP (UK) FRCPath, MRes, PhD
Dr David J. Pinato is a Clinician Scientist and Consultant Medical Oncologist working within the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College in London. Dr. Pinato is Director of Developmental Cancer Therapeutics at Imperial College, where he leads a translational research program focusing on the early clinical implementation of novel experimental anticancer therapies to the clinic, with particular emphasis on anti-cancer immunotherapy. He has led the inception of a portfolio of first-in-class studies of immune checkpoint inhibitors in liver cancer, which has represented David’s focus of research since graduation with highest honors at the University of Piemonte Orientale "A. Avogadro" in Novara, Italy.
David’s group has made significant contributions to the understanding of host mechanisms underpinning response to anti-cancer immunotherapy. David completed his research training being awarded a Masters of Research in Translational Medicine and a Ph.D. in Clinical and Experimental Medicine. David’s Ph.D. research focused on inflammation as a pathogenic and prognostic mechanism in liver cancer. Since his graduation, David matured his clinical skills attending several academic institutions in Europe including the University Hospital in Zürich, the Medical University in Vienna and the University of Ioannina in Greece. He completed his core medical training across some of the busiest acute hospitals in London, being elected member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) in 2014. He has trained in Medical Oncology as part of the Royal Marsden Hospital rotation, having migrated to Imperial College in April 2015 to take up a Clinical Lectureship funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
In 2018 David was awarded a Clinician Scientist fellowship funded by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Fund centered on the development of immunotherapy in liver cancer. Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is the most frequently occurring primary liver tumor that currently ranks 5th by incidence and 3rd by mortality on a global scale. David's studies, supported by international collaborations, have led to the qualification of novel prognostic and predictive biomarkers in HCC, which have been published in leading journals in the field including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, Hepatology and many others. In 2022 David was promoted Clinical Reader in Medical Oncology. David's research efforts in liver cancer have been recognized with the prestigious EASL Emerging Leader Award in 2023. David was a three-time recipient of a Merit Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 2016, 2017, 2019 as well as a fourth Merit Award jointly awarded by ASCO and by the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) in 2019. David is also a recipient of the ASCO Global Oncology Young Investigator Award 2019 in recognition of his research on HIV-associated hepatocellular cancer.
Dr. Pinato was also awarded a prize by the British Society of Pharmacology in 2018, the Sylvia Lawler Prize in Oncology from the Royal Society of Medicine in 2016, the European School of Oncology fellowship in 2008 and the Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar Fellowship for 2010/2011. David lectures internationally in the field of molecular oncology with a specific interest in HCC and acts as a reviewer for a number of peer-reviewed journals including The Lancet, Cancer Discovery, Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, Oncogene, gut and many others. He has acted as peer reviewer for a number of grant awarding bodies including the MRC, Breast Cancer Now and Cancer Research UK.
Claudia A.M. Fulgenzi
MD
Dr. Claudia A.M. Fulgenzi is a specialist in Medical Oncology at Imperial College London, with a dedicated professional interest in immuno-oncology and gastrointestinal malignancies. She graduated in Medicine from the University of Rome Tor Vergata in 2017 and subsequently specialized in Medical Oncology at the University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Italy. During her training, Dr. Fulgenzi developed a strong interest in gastrointestinal cancers, particularly hepatobiliary malignancies.
In 2021, she moved to London to join Imperial College as a research fellow and began a PhD program focused on cancer immunotherapy in October 2022.
Her contributions to the field have been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the ASCO Merit Award and the Young Investigator Award from the International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA) in 2022, followed by another Merit Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2023. Dr. Fulgenzi has also secured competitive research funding as Principal Investigator from prestigious national and international organizations, including the ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation and Sarcoma UK. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of adaptive anti-cancer immunity and strategies to overcome immune resistance in oncology.
Dr. Fulgenzi has co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications in the field of hepatobiliary oncology, in high-impact journals such as The Lancet Oncology, Annals of Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Gut, and the Journal of Hepatology.
She is actively engaged in clinical practice, serving as an Honorary Consultant in Oncology at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, and as a Specialty Doctor in the Early Phase Clinical Trials Unit at Hammersmith Hospital. In these roles, she conducts clinical and translational research, contributes to clinical trial design, and provides expert care to cancer patients. She is involved as investigator in several phase I and II oncology trials with a specific focus on immunotherapy. Dr. Fulgenzi is also involved in the teaching and supervision of junior doctors, master’s students, and medical students.
