PROTECT

Stefan Pfister serves as Director of the Preclinical Research Program of the Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg in Germany, a joint venture between the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Heidelberg University Hospital. He is heading the Division Pediatric Neurooncology at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and is a Professor at Heidelberg University. Being a pediatrician by training, Pfister received his MD from Tübingen University, and his clinical education at Mannheim and Heidelberg University Hospitals. As a physician-scientist, he completed postdoctoral fellowships with Christopher Rudd at the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, and with Peter Lichter at the German Cancer Research Center, Division of Molecular Genetics.  

Pfister's research focuses on the genetic and epigenetic characterization of childhood brain tumors by applying next-generation profiling methods, the development of faithful models and functional validation of findings, and the preclinical testing of new treatment options using these models. In all his activities, translating novel findings into a clinical context is of highest priority. 

Stefan Pfister is co-founder of the international ITCC-P4 gGmbH, a non-for-profit preclinical testing platform which offers novel models for the development of more precise drugs specifically for pediatric patients. For his translational neurooncology projects, Pfister received amongst others the German Cancer Award in 2013 and the Leibniz Price in 2023. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and European Academy of Cancer Sciences. 

John Anderson is Professor of Experimental Paediatric Oncology at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Honorary consultant paediatric oncology at Great Ormond Street Hospital London. He graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and in Medicine from  the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He trained in paediatrics and paediatric oncology in London and completed his PhD in cancer biology at the Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton UK in 1998. Since then he has been a group leader at the UCL Institute of Child Health. Since around 2005, his research group’ focus has been on childhood solid cancer immunology and immunotherapy with a particular interest in translating early findings into clinical trials,, for example through T cell engineering and T cell adoptive immunotherapy. He works in several collaborative research and clinical collaborative groups including the SIOPEN neuroblastoma trials network, the UK Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group and the ITCC solid tumour committee. 

Dr. Scott A. Armstrong, MD, PhD, is President of Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Chairman of the Department of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the David G. Nathan Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Armstrong’s research group has made seminal discoveries into chromatin based epigenetic mechanisms in cancer and the biology of various childhood cancers. This work has spurred the development of several new classes of therapeutic agents that target epigenetic mechanisms and gene activity which are being tested in children and adults with cancer. Dr. Armstrong’s work has been recognized with awards such as the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the E. Mead Johnson Award from the Society for Pediatric Research, and the Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology. In addition, he is a member of the United States National Academy of Medicine.  

Ana Banito studied biology at the University of Lisbon before completing her PhD studies at the Imperial College of London. She performed her postdoctoral studies at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center working on epigenetic mechanisms underlying oncogene-induced senescence and cancer. There she developed a strong interest on sarcoma biology and mouse modelling, focusing on the molecular activity of an oncofusion protein driving synovial sarcoma. Since 2019 she is leading the soft-tissue sarcoma laboratory at the Hopp Children Cancer Center (KiTZ) a joint institute of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg University Hospital and Heidelberg University. Her research focus on molecular mechanisms underlying oncogenic activity of fusion oncoproteins and on the development of more flexible immunocompetent animal models for sarcomas. Her team aims to etter understand the biology of pediatric sarcomas and to improve treatments for patients.

Professor Louis Chesler is working to understand the biology of children’s cancers and use that information to discover and develop new personalised approaches to cancer treatment. His research involves the two most common solid tumours of children – neuroblastoma, a nerve tumour, and medulloblastoma, a brain tumour. 

Louis leads the Stratified Medicine Paediatrics 2 research programme, which is developing advanced genetic tests to gain insights into the biology of relapsed childhood cancers. This information will be used to tailor treatments to the individual. Louis is also head of the Centre for Paediatric Oncology Experimental Medicine at The Institute of Cancer Research, London. He is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Association of Paediatrics and is on the editorial board for several peer-reviewed journals. 

Dr. Florencia Cidre-Aranaz is the deputy Division Head of the Division of Translational Pediatric Sarcoma Research at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Hopp-Children’s Cancer Center (KiTZ) in Heidelberg, Germany. She is a biotecnologist with 12 years of experience in the field of fusion-driven pediatric solid tumors, and leads a team focused on understanding the mechanisms of cancer progression and metastasis. Her team implements systems biology approaches integrating multi-omics data and clinical information with functional in vitro and in vivo experiments to identify treatable vulnerabilities in pediatric sarcomas that can be exploited to develop targeted therapies for pediatric fusion-drive solid tumors. 

Dr. Benjamin Ebert is the Chair of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the George P. Canellos, MD and Jean S. Canellos Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute. The Ebert laboratory focuses on the molecular basis and treatment of hematologic malignancies and its non-malignant precursor conditions, with a particular focus on myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and clonal hematopoiesis.  The Ebert laboratory demonstrated that lenalidomide, a derivative of thalidomide, binds the CRL4-CRBN E3 ubiquitin ligase and induces degradation of specific substrates.  Subsequent research has examined novel mechanisms of drug-induced protein degradation that expand the spectrum of protein substrates that can be targeted pharmacologically. 

Dr. Ebert received a bachelor's degree from Williams College and a doctorate from Oxford University.  He completed an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He served as president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. His awards include the Meyenburg Prize for Cancer Research, the Sjöberg Prize, and the Korsmeyer Award. 

Dr. Eric Fischer, Ph.D. is a Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). Dr. Fischer obtained his PhD in 2013 from the University of Basel, Switzerland. After postdoctoral studies at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Eric joined HMS/DFCI as an Assistant Professor in 2015 and was promoted through the ranks to full Professor in 2023. Additionally, he currently serves as the Director of the Chemical Biology Program, Director of the Center for Protein Degradation, and co-director of the Center for Therapeutics Discovery, all DFCI. He is also an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.  

Dr. Fischer is a world leading expert in the area of targeted protein degradation using chemical strategies to induce selective degradation of therapeutically relevant proteins. His laboratory focuses on molecular design of such chemical matter and mechanistic understanding of how these molecules exert their cellular effects. In this context, understanding protein complexes that play critical roles in ubiquitin signaling, especially the molecular workings of E3 ubiquitin ligases, enzymes that catalyze the ultimate step of ubiquitin transfer to the substarte protein, are also of paramount importance. Over the last decade, Dr. Fischer has made seminal contributions to our mechanistic understanding of E3 ubiquitin ligases, small molecule induced protein degradation, and translational application of targeted protein degradation as a new pharmacological modality. Dr. Fischers is recognozied as a leading chemical biologists in targeted protein degradation and translational chemical biology, as illustrated by his role as a founder and advisor of several biotechnology companies. 

Dr. Volker Germaschewski joined LifeArc in 2022 and is heading Therapeutic Platforms which includes all lab-based activities at our Stevenage site and at the Francis Crick Institute. Currently these platforms mainly include antibody-based drug discovery, antibody humanisation, cell biology and small molecule drug discovery. 

Volker has 25 years’ experience in the pharma and biotech industry. After studying Biology in Germany and then receiving his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh, he joined Unilever in Bedfordshire where he worked on various biotechnology applications in consumer products. Following that he spent over 10 years at GlaxoWellcome and then GSK where he led antibody humanisation and engineering and domain antibody discovery units working across disease areas within Biopharm R&D. 

He then moved to biotech and Cambridge-based start-up Kymab where he spent 10 years building a successful Antibody Discovery team and eventually leading the Haematology Disease Area for several years. Prior to LifeArc he joined Belgian mRNA specialists eTheRNA where he was SVP R&D heading research and pre-clinical functions focussing on vaccines in infectious disease and oncology as well as mRNA-based therapeutic across various disease areas.  

Nathanael Gray is a Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford, Co-Director of Cancer Drug Discovery, Co-Leader of the Cancer Therapeutics Research Program, Member of Chem-H, and Program Leader for Small Molecule Drug Discovery for the Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). His research uses the tools of synthetic chemistry, protein biochemistry, and cancer biology to discover and validate new strategies for addressing anti-cancer targets. Dr. Gray’s research has had broad impact in the areas of kinase inhibitor and degrader design and in circumventing drug resistance.  

Dr. Gray’s generalized strategy for structure-based design of inhibitors that stabilize the inactive kinase conformations (type II) has been widely adopted by the research community and has had a significant impact on the development of numerous inhibitors of tyrosine kinases that are currently undergoing clinical development. His success in developing and translating experimental anti-cancer agents has been due to his highly collaborative and integrative approach to research, as Dr. Gray has developed and led large project teams. Dr. Gray has also built a reputation as a strong partner for commercial entities needed to further clinical development, resulting in establishment of number of companies. Dr. Gray has further been involved with developing small molecule protein degraders, especially their application towards degrading protein kinases.

Professor Swen Hoelder is a medicinal chemist working to discover novel cancer drugs. His recent achievements include the discovery of the MPS1 inhibitor and the clinical candidate BOS172722, which entered Phase 1 clinical development for triple negative breast cancer. 

Swen has experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with positions in Hoechst Marion Roussel (now Sanofi) and Altana (now Takeda), where he led a team of chemists that discovered two pre-clinical candidates for cancer. Swen joined the ICR in 2007 and is now the Head of Chemistry within the Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery, at The Institute of Cancer Research, London. 

Max Jan is a physician-scientist principal investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital. His research group is focused on developing targeted protein degradation-based synthetic biology tools as control systems for next-generation cellular immunotherapies. As a molecular pathologist, he applies genomic technologies to support precision medicine for people with cancer.  

Max is an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He trained at Princeton (BA), Stanford (PhD), and UCSF (MD) before completing residency/fellowship at MGH and the Broad Institute. 

Cigall Kadoch, Ph.D., is an innovative academic investigator as well as entrepreneur in the biomedical sciences. She is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatric Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Institute Member and Epigenomics Program Co-Director at the Broad Institute, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Dr. Kadoch established her independent laboratory in 2014, at age 27, immediately following completion of her Ph.D. studies at Stanford University. She is a leading expert in chromatin and gene regulation and is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking studies in these areas leading to recent clinical translation. Specifically, her laboratory studies the structure and function of nuclear protein complexes called chromatin remodeling complexes that govern DNA architecture and gene expression, perturbations in which are implicated in over 50% of human cancers, including their roles as oncogenic drivers of several aggressive pediatric cancers. Based on her seminal work, Dr. Kadoch is also the Scientific Founder of Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), a company advancing a new class of medicines in oncology and beyond.

Cristina Mayor-Ruiz is a chemical biologist with expertise in targeted protein degradation and proteostasis biology. She is known for mapping the genetic determinats governing the efficiency of degraders, innovating a screening strategy to identify molecular glue degraders, and defining synthetic vulnerabilities to overcome widespread resistanace to degraders. Her current research focuses on developing proximity-inducing drugs with therapeutic interest, and on tackling biological questions that involve (dys)regulation of E3 ubiquitin ligases. 

Cristina obtained her PhD in 2017 at the CNIO (Madrid), where she unraveled novel mechanisms of resistance to anticancer therapies. In 2018, she joined the group of G. Winter (CeMM, Vienna) for her postdoc and innovated chemical biology approaches in the field of targeted protein degradation. Since January 2021, she is a Group Leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Barcelona. Dr. Mayor-Ruiz has been honored with national and international awards, such as an ERC Starting grant or an Aspire I Award from the Mark Foundation of Cancer Research. 

Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and the Ted Williams Investigator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), has pioneered the application of genomics to drug and protein target discovery for pediatric malignancies.  

Dr. Stegmaier is the Vice Chair for Pediatric Oncology Research, Co-director of the Pediatric Hematologic Malignancy Program, and a pediatric oncologist at DFCI and Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). She is an Institute Member of the Broad Institute, a Board Member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and the outgoing Chair of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Scientific Advisory Board.  

Dr. Stegmaier received the Joanne Levy, MD, Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement (American Society of Hematology), a Stand Up to Cancer Innovative Research Grant, an E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics, the NCI Outstanding Investigator Award, and a St. Baldrick’s Foundation Robert J. Arceci Innovation Award. She was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians. She was recognized with the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School (HMS). 

Dr. Stegmaier received her undergraduate degree from Duke University where she graduated valedictorian, medical degree from HMS, and trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at BCH and DFCI. 

Photo by Sam Ogden. 

Frank has been focusing on conceiving, developing and running the world-leading XChem facility for crystal-based fragment screening at Diamond Light Source (~40 projects/year). He was the co-founder of the COVID Moonshot a global open-science effort to develop a globally accessible antiviral pill against SARS-CoV-2. F von Delft et al. Nature, 594, 330-332 (2021). He has also driven development of PanDDA software (pan-dataset density analysis) using novel noise-reduction for identifying weakly-bound ligands in crystal structures, used world-wide in industrial drug discovery. 

Frank is the Department Head Neuroblastoma Genomics and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). The overall aim of their work is to integrate next-generation molecular diagnostics for a more precise patient risk stratification and to develop molecularly targeted therapies (incl. immunotherapies) based on a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying neuroblastoma tumorigenesis. They are combining basic research on the embryonal/fetal development of the human adrenal gland and the sympathetic nervous system ganglia with translational research on neuroblastoma tumors and neuroblastoma models (cell cultures, organoids and in vivo mouse models) to elucidate the putative cell-of-origin, neuroblastoma onset, evolution and resistance formation under therapy of this disease.

Dr. Judith Wienke is a medical doctor and biomedical scientist specialized in translational immunology. She was trained in pediatric immunology and human tissue immunology and currently is positioned at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Her research interest lies in developing innovative immunotherapeutic interventions for pediatric solid tumors. She focuses on T cell activation and (dys)regulation in tumors, to identify and exploit immunologic targets for therapeutic purposes. Dr. Wienke is currently deciphering neuroblastoma’s immune-environment and immunosuppressive mechanisms by multi-omics, including scRNAseq and proteomics, focusing on interactions between T cells and the tumor microenvironment. She recently identified and validated an immunosuppressive axis in neuroblastoma which is planned to be targeted in a Phase I trial. In parallel, she is implementing complex 3D tumoroid-lymphocyte co-cultures to test new interventions in vitro. Furthermore, she  applies novel (engineering) strategies to have (CAR-)T cells overcome identified immunosuppressive signals and dysfunctionality. She is currently pursuing a scientific fellowship to ‘arm’ CAR-T-cells against suppression by neuroblastoma at Charité-Universitätsmedizin in Berlin, Germany.  

Patricia Blanc, alongside her husband, established the association Imagine for Margo - Children without Cancer, in memory of their daughter Margaux, who succumbed to a brain tumour at the age of 14. Patricia, formerly entrenched in the realms of audit and international finance for 26 years, redirected the course of her life in 2013, forsaking her corporate career to wholeheartedly commit to combating childhood cancer. 

Imagine for Margo has emerged as a pivotal force in paediatric oncology, not only in its substantial financial contributions to research but also in its role as a unifying force across France and Europe.  

Patricia Blanc serves on various international committees, including ACCELERATE, Childhood Cancer International Europe, ITCC, the Scientific Advisory Board of Gustave Roussy, and the SFCE in France.  Patricia has 12 year’s experience as patient advocate and is an active advocacy member in several research programs funded by the French government, CRUK, and European grants.  

Patricia has been honoured with the Vanity Fair award for being among the 50 most influential French figures globally. Additionally, she has been bestowed with the French National Order of Merit, recognizing her exemplary services and leadership as the president of Imagine for Margo. 

Sam Daems is Principal at Waterland Private Equity. In this role Sam evaluates investments, structures transactions and supports companies in defining and executing their strategy. Prior to joining Waterland, Sam built experience as management consultant at Bain & Company and leading the Business Development and Transformation team at the publicly traded global industrial conglomerate Tessenderlo Group.

Sam’s commitment to pediatric oncology is inspired by a tragic personal experience. In 2017 his 2 year old daughter Fé was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. 6 months later, Fé passed away from the malignancy leaving his family devastated, but also committed to contribute to the fight against cancer. 

Delphine Heenen is the managing director and one of the founders of the Belgian public interest foundation KickCancer, the mission of which is to foster fundamental and clinical research in the field of paediatric oncology. KickCancer is achieving this objective by funding research, advocating an innovation-prone regulatory, economic and cultural environment with the European institutions and the pharmaceutical companies, empowering patients and raising awareness.

Delphine is also a member of Childhood Cancer International – Europe’s Regional Committee and plays an active role in their European Affairs as well as Research & Innovation Pillars. 

She is the (step)mother to four boys, one of whom was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 9. It is the lack of innovative treatments offered to her son which drove her and her family to found KickCancer. Before KickCancer, Delphine had a career as international corporate lawyer, strategy consultant and legal advisor to a private investment funds dedicated to renewable energies.