Dr. Saro currently works at AstraZeneca where he leads the ceralasertib post-PARP inhibitor early clinical development program in solid tumors. Prior to that, he worked at Avacta as Chief Medical Officer driving the development strategy of Affimer^® programs into the clinic. Before Avacta, Dr. Saro served as Senior Translational Medicine Leader at Roche where he ran three global immunotherapy programs – a targeted cytokine, and two T-cell bispecific antibodies in solid tumors – in collaboration with top academic institutions in the EU and US. Previously, he led global clinical programs at Bristol Myers Squibb including dasatinib, ipilimumab (anti-CTLA4), nivolumab (anti-PD1), anti-PDL1, anti-KIR, anti-LAG3, brivanib, a MEK inhibitor, and elotuzumab. While at Novartis he focused on biomarkers in the preclinical and clinical settings. Dr. Saro earned a medical degree from the University of Oviedo, Spain and a master’s degree in pharmaceutical medicine from Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.

As a professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine, professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and attending physician at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Dr. Gabriela Chiorean strives to improve the care for patients with pancreatic and other gastrointestinal cancers. She leads early-stage as well as Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of new therapies for these cancers, including new chemotherapies, immunotherapies and targeted drugs. She also aims to identify biomarkers of cancer, such as molecules in the blood, that could be developed into a minimally invasive test for the early detection of cancers or precancers. Dr. Chiorean works with collaborative groups of clinicians and researchers to implement cutting-edge clinical trials for pancreatic cancer patients. She chairs the Pancreatic Cancer Sub-Committee for the SWOG Cancer Research Network, is vice chair of the NCI Pancreatic Cancer Task Force, and chair of the Pancreatic Cancer Research Team.

Prof. Hegi’s research aims at identifying new molecular targets and predictive factors for response to therapy and outcome in brain tumor patients. She played a leading role in the groundbreaking translational clinical research, which resulted in the implementation of MGMT methylation status as the first predictive biomarker for the brain cancer glioblastoma. Prof. Hegi works at the interphase of clinical and basic cancer research, analyzing multidimensional molecular profiles of glioma from patients treated in clinical trials. She collaborates with local and international cooperative groups, in particular the Brain Tumor Group at the EORTC, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer.

Dr. Michael Lim is a world leader in immunotherapy for brain tumors. Dr. Lim’s a board-certified neurosurgeon specializing in brain tumors and trigeminal neuralgia, and his clinical interests include the treatment of benign and malignant brain tumors. His research interests focus on harnessing the immune system to fight cancer. His laboratory focuses on understanding mechanisms of immune evasion by cancer cells. He has successfully translated his findings from the laboratory to the clinics and has conducted and led several large national immunotherapy clinical trials for brain tumors. Dr. Lim has published over 200 articles that appeared in Science Translational Medicine, Clinical Cancer Research, Lancet Oncology, and Nature Immunology, among other prominent scientific publications.

Dr. O’Reilly is a medical oncologist whose research and clinical activities focus on treating pancreatic and hepatobiliary cancers. Her research initiatives include integrating molecular and genetic-based therapies into the treatment of pancreatic cancer, developing adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapies, and identifying biomarkers that may be used to select therapy. She is the principal investigator of multiple Phase 1, 2 and 3 pancreatic cancer clinical trials and has authored and co-authored more than 300 articles, editorials and book chapters.

Prof. Seufferlein has a particular interest in gastrointestinal (GI) oncology and the molecular basis of GI cancers, in particular pancreatic cancer, and pioneering the clinical use of novel treatments. He has been an active member of working and leading groups of the DKG and a spokesperson of the Certification Commission of Visceral Oncology Centers of the DKG for several years. His clinical and basic research interests include compartment specific signaling in cancer, regulation of cellular protein transport, tumor-host-interaction and the organization of the tumor cell cytoskeleton and biomarkers. Prof. Seufferlein was involved in setting up the German National Guidelines and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer. He has authored and co-authored more than 300 scientific articles, reviews and opinions.

Dr. Von Hoff’s major interest is in the development of new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory. He and his colleagues were involved in the beginning of the development of many FDA approved agents we now use routinely, including: mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, irinotecan, nelarabine, capecitabine, lapatinib, vismodegib, nab-paclitaxel, nal-IRI, pexidartinib and others. His clinical trial work has led to the approval of three of the four drugs approved by the FDA for treatment of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. At present, he and his colleagues are concentrating on the development of therapies for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.