Lung Cancer: Advances in Current Treatment Modalities and Patient Classification

Speakers

Organizers

Magdalena Alonso-Galicia, PhD

Forest Research Institute

Magdalena Alonso-Galicia, PhD, is a Senior Principal Scientist at the Forest Research Institute, a subsidiary of Forest Laboratories, Inc. in Jersey City, NJ. As a non-clinical pharmacologist, she is responsible for developing and directing pharmacology studies to support approved products and early & late-stage drug candidates in the respiratory and cardiovascular therapeutic areas. She is also the pharmacology reviewer of new licensing opportunities in multiple therapeutic areas such as cardiovascular, respiratory, renal and metabolic disorders. Prior to joining Forest in 2010, she worked in drug discovery at Boehringer Ingelheim and Merck & Co., Inc. in the areas of hypertension, heart failure and chronic kidney diseases. She holds a PhD in Physiology & Biophysics from the University of Mississippi and underwent post-doctoral training at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Shashidhar S. Jatiani , PhD

Forest Research Institute

Dr. Shashidhar S Jatiani has worked in preclinical anticancer drug discovery and development since 2005. He obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular from Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India. He currently works as a research scientist in the pharmacology group of Forest Research Institute. Dr. Jatiani has extensive preclinical experience in myeloproliferative neoplasms, leukemias, solid tumors and immuno-oncology.

Huiping Jiang, PhD

Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals

Dr. Huiping Jiang has a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a Ph.D. in molecular cell biology. Her postdoctoral research focus was in mammalian genetics and cellular signal transduction. Huiping started her pharmaceutical career at AstraZeneca as a research scientist and then principal scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BIPI) specializing in transgenic pharmacological models. Huiping’s current position is director, regulatory affairs at BIPI. Huiping has been an active steering committee member of BPDG and has contributed to multiple successful NYAS symposiums.

George Zavoico, PhD

HC Wainwright

George B. Zavoico, Ph.D., joined H.C. Wainwright & Co. (HCW), a boutique investment bank and institutional broker-dealer, as Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst in early 2014. He has over 10 years of experience as a life sciences equity analyst writing research on publicly traded equities. Before joining HCW, Dr. Zavoico was Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at MLV & Co., and an Equity Analyst at Westport Capital Markets and Cantor Fitzgerald. Before becoming an equity analyst, Dr. Zavoico established his own consulting company serving the biotech and pharmaceutical industries by providing competitive intelligence and marketing research, due diligence services, and guidance in regulatory affairs. He also wrote extensively on healthcare and the biotech and pharmaceutical industries for periodicals targeting the general public and industry executives. Dr. Zavoico began his career as a Senior Research Scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., moving on to management positions at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and T Cell Sciences, Inc. (now Celldex Therapeutics, Inc.). He has a B.S. in Biology from St. Lawrence University and a Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Virginia. He held post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and at Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women's Hospital. He has published over 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has co-authored four book chapters.

Jennifer Henry, PhD

The New York Academy of Sciences

Speakers

Rolf Brekken, PhD

UT Southwestern

Dr. Brekken grew up in Grapevine, TX, received his BA in Biology from Luther College in Decorah, IA and his PhD (Cell and Molecular Biology) from UT Southwestern Medical Center where he trained under Dr. Philip Thorpe. His graduate studies were focused on developing novel therapies that target the vascular compartment of tumors. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Vascular Biology at the Hope Heart Institute in Seattle, WA where he studied how the extracellular matrix contributes to vascular function and tumor progression. He joined the Department of Surgery at UT Southwestern as faculty in 2002 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2009. His laboratory is located in the Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research and he is also a member of the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. In broad terms Dr. Brekken’s laboratory studies the tumor microenvironment. His group is interested in how therapy affects the tumor microenvironment and how stromal elements influence response to therapy. Current studies in the laboratory focus on: the function of matricellular proteins (SPARC and fibulin-5) in cancer; the biology of anti-VEGF therapy; the contribution of macrophages and other immune cells to the metastatic cascade; and phosphatidylserine-mediated immune suppression in tumors. Dr. Brekken is the Effie Marie Cain Scholar in Angiogenesis Research and receives funding from the ACS, NCI, DOD, CPRIT, Mary Kay Foundation and biopharmaceutical companies. He is an author on over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers and is a senior editor for Cancer Research.

Jessica S. Donington, MD

NYU Langone Medical Center

Dr. Jessica Donington is a General Thoracic Surgeon at NYU School of Medicine.  She is an associate professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, the director of the NYU Thoracic Oncology Translational Laboratory and chief of the Thoracic Surgery Service at Bellevue Hospital.  Her laboratory work focuses on the discovery and validation of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for thoracic malignancies and on the role of osteopontin, a ubiquitous protein, in carcinogenesis. Her clinical and interests focus on the diagnosis and treatment of mesothelioma and non-small cell lung cancer. Areas of clinical expertise include the use of multimodality therapy for thoracic malignancies, treatment options for high risk patients with early stage lung cancer and cancer in women. 

Balazs Halmos, MD

Columbia University Medical Center

Balazs Halmos is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and Section Chief of Thoracic Oncology at New York Presbyterian Hospital- Columbia. Besides maintaining an active clinical practice focused on the management of patients with malignancies of the thoracic cavity, Dr. Halmos oversees the thoracic clinical trials program at Columbia. He also runs a translational research laboratory investigating novel ways of overcoming resistance to conventional as well as targeted therapeutics. In addition, he is Chair of the Cancer IRB of Columbia University.

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD

Yale School of Medicine

Dr. Roy S. Herbst is Ensign Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pharmacology, Chief of Medical Oncology, Director of the Thoracic Oncology Research Program, and Associate Director for Translational Research at Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center and Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. Dr. Herbst has led the Phase I development of several of the new generation of targeted agents for NSCLC, including gefitinib, erlotinib, cetuximab, and bevacizumab. He is co-lead for the BATTLE-1 effort, co-leads the subsequent BATTLE-2 clinical trial program, and serves as a Co-Program Leader of the Developmental Therapeutics Program for the YCC Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG). He is a member of the National Cancer Policy Forum for which he has organized an IOM meeting focused on policy issues in personalized medicine. His laboratory work is focused on angiogenesis and dual EGFR/VEGFR inhibition in NSCLC. Previously, Dr. Herbst served as the Barnhart Distinguished Professor and Chief of the Section of Thoracic Medical Oncology in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He also served as Professor in the Department of Cancer Biology and Co-Director of the Phase I Program. Dr. Herbst is author or co-author of more than 250 publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts, and book chapters. He has contributed his work to many prominent journals, such as Journal of Clinical Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Herbst is an active member of ASCO, AACR, IASLC (International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer), RTOG (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group), and SWOG (Southwest Oncology Group Lung Committee). 

Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD

Emory University

Dr. Suresh Ramalingam received his medical degree at Kilpauk Medical College, Madras, India. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, where he also served as a Chief Medical Resident. He then completed a fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology and is an active member of American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the International Association of Lung Cancer Study. Dr. Ramalingam plays an active role in the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group as the Chair of the Thoracic Malignancies Committee. He also serves on the editorial board of leading cancer journals such as Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer, Clinical Lung Cancer and Cancer, Chemotherapy and Pharmacology. Dr. Ramalingam is the recipient of several awards, including the ‘James Eckman Award for Excellence in Teaching’, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University, and the Distinguished Cancer Scholar Award, Georgia Cancer Coalition. In addition, he is also a recipient of the ‘ASCO Career Development Award’ (2006-09). Dr. Ramalingam serves on several international, national and Institutional Committees.