Guest Speakers

Dr. Sharon B. Cantor is the Gladys Smith Martin Chair in Oncology and Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology at UMass Chan Medical School, where she also serves as Co-Director of the Genome Integrity Program and Associate Director of Basic Research for the UMass Cancer Center. She earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Tufts University and completed postdoctoral training with Dr. David Livingston in the Department of Cancer Biology at Harvard Medical School. Her research centers on genomic instability and DNA repair, with a particular focus on BRCA-mediated repair pathways and their relevance to cancer. Dr. Cantor has held numerous leadership roles in graduate education, including Director of the Cancer Biology Graduate Program for eight years, and has mentored generations of graduate students, postbaccalaureate scholars, and trainees now in research and clinical careers. Her contributions have been recognized with honors such as the Dean's Award for Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Education.

https://www.umassmed.edu/mccb/faculty-MCCB/faculty-MCCB/faculty-profile-pages/cantor-sharon/ 

Dr Liz Christie is a Group Leader in the Cancer Evolution and Metastasis Program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne. Her laboratory seeks to understand how ovarian and endometrial cancers evolve to become resistant to treatment using genomics and bioinformatics and patient samples. Liz’s research program also seeks to develop ctDNA biomarkers of resistance, and the lab’s overall goal is to identify treatments that can overcome different resistance mechanisms.

Elizabeth Christie lab - Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Dr. Domchek is the Basser Professor in Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, executive director of the Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center, and director of the Mariann and Robert MacDonald Cancer Risk Evaluation Program. A medical oncologist, Dr. Domchek’s research focuses on improving the genetic evaluation and medical management of individuals with inherited risk factors for cancer. She is particularly interested in developing cancer interception strategies, including the possibility of immune-interception, for those with a genetic susceptibility. In her seminal work, Dr. Domchek demonstrated that risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy is associated with improved survival in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers. She has been critical to the development of PARP inhibitors in BRCA associated cancers. Her work has also addressed the real-world complexity of the clinical application of germline genetics, particularly with multigene panel testing. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and has authored/co-authored more than 450 articles appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology among others.

https://www.pennmedicine.org/providers/susan-domchek#Research

Gaorav Gupta, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist and Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as Vice Chair for Translational Research in Radiation Oncology, Co-Leader of the UNC Lineberger Breast Cancer Research Program, and Associate Director of the UNC MD/PhD Program.  His laboratory investigates the interplay between DNA damage, DNA repair, and anti-tumor immunity in breast cancer.

https://www.med.unc.edu/biochem/directory/gaorav_p_gupta/ 

Susan L. Neuhausen, Ph.D. is the Morris and Horowitz Families Professor and Director of the Division of Biomarkers of Early Detection and Prevention in the Department of Population Sciences in the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope.  She also is the Co-Leader of the Cancer Control and Population Sciences program in the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Director of Assessment and Development in the City of Hope Irell and Manella Graduate School. Dr. Neuhausen has been conducting NCI-funded research on the genetics and epidemiology of cancer for the past 34 years.  In 1992, she started her research career as part of a collaborative team who discovered the breast cancer genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2. Her research focuses on identifying genetic and environmental factors and establishing how they interact with each other to cause disease and impact disease-free survival. The hope is that this knowledge will be used for precision medicine for genetic risk assessment and targeted preventative and therapeutic strategies. Her current primary areas of research are the genomics of breast cancer in Latinas and the effects of body burden levels of environmental chemicals on risk of developing breast cancer. 

https://www.cityofhope.org/research/find-a-scientist/susan-neuhausen

Jeff Perry, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cancer Biology and Molecular Medicine at City of Hope. He is a structural biologist and drug-discovery scientist whose research focuses on developing new small-molecule therapies for cancer and metabolic diseases. His laboratory integrates structural biology, fragment-based drug discovery, biochemistry, and chemical biology to address challenging protein targets and protein-interaction networks that have historically been considered difficult to drug, thereby creating new opportunities for therapeutic intervention. A major focus of his research is proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), encompassing work with the Malkas and Hickey laboratories on the development and clinical translation of AOH1996, as well as the development of a broader PCNA-targeted platform for cancer drug discovery.

cityofhope.org/jeff-perry-lab

Dr. Jeremy M. Stark is Professor in the Department of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, where he also serves as Scientific Director of the Analytical Cytometry Core and Director of the Ph.D. Curriculum at the Irell and Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, followed by postdoctoral training with Dr. Maria Jasin at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His research focuses on the mechanisms of DNA double-strand break repair, including chromosomal end joining and homology-directed repair, and their implications for cancer therapy resistance. Dr. Stark has been continuously NIH/NCI-funded for over two decades and currently serves as PI or MPI on several R01 and T32 grants examining DNA damage response and repair pathways. He has been recognized with honors including Professor of the Year at Irell and Manella and has chaired the Gordon Research Conference on DNA Damage, Mutation and Cancer.

https://www.imgs-coh.edu/faculty/jeremy-stark

Prof. Dr. John Tainer is Director of Structural Biology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Duke University under Jane Richardson and completed postdoctoral training in computational biophysics at Scripps Research Institute with Arthur Olson. A former tenured Scripps Professor and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Senior Scientist, he developed the nationally utilized SIBYLS synchrotron beamline.

Prof. Tainer’s research leadership focuses on transforming structural data into actionable knowledge to uncover the mechanistic causality behind genome instability, DNA repair, and inflammation in cancer. His laboratory pioneers the integration of high-throughput Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (HT-SAXS), cryo-EM, crystallography, and computation to target dynamic functional states within the DNA damage response. By defining these complex molecular cancer mechanisms, his team aims to design novel allosteric activators and inhibitors, ultimately enabling new targets for precision medicines and synthetic lethality applications.

With advanced hybrid experimental and computational structural methods, Prof. Tainer is elucidating how dynamic enzyme complexes recognize and repair DNA damage. His seminal findings include mapping the dual functional roles of MRE11 Complex and BRCA2 in replication restart and break repair, as well as detailing specific structural mechanisms for the major DNA repair pathways and their intersection with replication stress, inflammation, and immune activation. Overall, his research connects dynamic molecular structures to predictive cancer biology, establishing critical new therapeutic targets and strategies.

https://www.mdanderson.org/research/departments-labs-institutes/labs/tainer-laboratory/research.html