PROMINENT

Allan Balmain was born in Wick, Scotland, studied Organic Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, and carried out post-doctoral work France and Germany. He subsequently worked in the University of Glasgow and Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, before moving to the United States in 1997.

Allan established a molecular link between chemical carcinogen exposure and initiation of tumour development in 1983, and showed that the types of mutations found in oncogenes depend on the causative chemical agent. A major focus has been the links between genetic and environmental factors and how they interact to cause cancer susceptibility. Allan is also a co-investigator on the Cancer Grand Challenges Mutographs team, taking on the Unusual Mutation Patterns challenge. 

Paul Brennan runs the Genetics Section at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon. The primary aim of the Genetics Section is to use genetics and genomics techniques to (i) understand the causes of cancer, and (ii) identify ways to detect and treat cancers at earlier stages. 

In the Mutograph Grand Challenge he will coordinate the large international effort of recruiting approximately 5000 cancers across 5 continents for 5 different cancers types. 

Nuria Lopez­-Bigas is a biologist with a PhD in molecular genetics of deafness. She transitioned into bioinformatics during her postdoc at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI). Since 2006, she leads a research group in Barcelona focused on the study of cancer from a genomics perspective. She is particularly interested in the identification of cancer driver mutations, genes and pathways across tumor types and in the study of their targeted opportunities. 

She is also interest in understanding the mutational processes leading to the accumulation of mutations in cancer cells. Her lab has done important contributions in the discovery of the variation of mutation rate along the genome. They have recently discovered that transcription factors (TF) and nucleosomes interfere with DNA damage and DNA repair producing variable mutation rate along TF binding sites and nucleosomes covered regions.

Professor Kim Rhoads, a board-certified general and colorectal surgeon, with additional training in basic cancer research, epidemiology, health services research, health policy and community-based participator research. Kim currently serves as the inaugural Associate Director for Community Engagement at the UC San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Kim is an innovator in disparities research and a national leader in community and stakeholder engagement. She was the first to highlight the correlation between care utilization patterns, quality of care and disparities in cancer survival. She was also the first investigator to validate National Comprehensive Cancer Network guideline base care at a population.   

Luke Gilbert is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urology, the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and an Investigator in the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. Luke was an early pioneer in repurposed CRISPR systems that are used to turn genes on (CRISPRa) and off (CRISPRi) by editing the epigenome. More recently, the Gilbert lab has developed new strategies for editing heritable epigenetic memories (CRISPRoff/on) and for systematically mapping human genetic interactions at very large scales or at single cell resolution. The Gilbert lab is focused on using CRISPR to tackle big problems in human biology with a special focus on cancer.  

Dr. Calvin Kuo MD, PhD is the Maureen Lyles D’Ambrogio Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.   His research interests include modeling of cancer, immunity and pathogens in 3D organoid cultures, biology of intestinal and lung stem cell populations, and molecular regulation of angiogenesis and the blood-brain barrier. He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians, American Society for Clinical Investigation and AAAS, has founded several biotechnology companies and serves on numerous foundation boards. 

Christopher M. Counter, Ph.D.  is the George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at Duke University, as well as the Associate Director of Basic Research for the Duke Cancer Institute.  Dr. Counter has a long history of defining the events that convert a normal cell into a tumor, beginning with identifying one of the original hallmarks of cancer, immortalization through activation of telomerase, as a steppingstone to recreate tumors from normal cells using defined genetic alterations.  This work led to a focus on the earliest events, namely how initiation mutations in RAS genes begin the process of tumorigenesis.  Dr. Counter thus brings a wealth of experience in culture and mouse models of early tumorigenesis as well as technologies for capturing and manipulating these events in an effort to understand how cells with initiating mutations are promoted towards more tumorigenic fates.

Dr Marc Gunter is Head of the Nutrition and Metabolism Branch at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialized cancer research agency of the World Health Organization. Dr Gunter holds a Ph.D in molecular epidemiology from the University of Cambridge and a degree in biochemistry from the University of Oxford. He completed his postdoctoral training at the U.S National Cancer Institute and has held faculty positions at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and Imperial College London.

Dr Gunter’s research focuses on the role of nutrition, diabetes and obesity in the natural history of cancer with an emphasis on metabolic dysfunction and in particular the insulin/IGF/mTOR pathway. He is principal investigator of a number of studies applying high dimensional metabolic profiling within the framework of large prospective and clinical cohorts, as well as intervention studies, to identify novel biochemical pathways involved in cancer development and prognosis. He is currently co-PI of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC) – a multinational cohort of over 520,000 Europeans. He has published more than 470 scientific articles and book chapters and serves on numerous committees and panels for international organizations such as the World Cancer Research Fund. 

Dr Emma Lundberg is Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Pathology at Stanford University, and Director of the Cell Atlas, of the Human Protein Atlas program. In the interface between bioimaging, proteomics and artificial intelligence her research aims to define the spatiotemporal subcellular architecture of the human proteome, to understand how variations in protein expression patterns contribute to cellular function and disease. Emma  has a keen interest in citizen science using computer games, and has engaged over 300,000 gamers to help her classify images in the first ever MMO citizen science computer game.