AACR Establishes New Cancer Evolution Working Group

PHILADELPHIA – The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) today announced the formation of its seventh and newest scientific working group, which will be dedicated to supporting cancer evolution research.

The mission of the AACR Cancer Evolution Working Group is to advance cancer diagnostic, therapeutic, and prevention strategies by fostering a fundamental understanding of cancer evolution amongst its members and the broader cancer research community. Membership in the AACR Cancer Evolution Working Group is free and open to all members of the AACR interested in cancer evolution.

The AACR Cancer Evolution Working Group will strive to accomplish its mission by working to:

• Facilitate transdisciplinary approaches to the study of cancer evolution and translate novel cancer evolution insights into new early detection, diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive strategies to improve outcomes significantly and sustainably for cancer patients.
• Promote the incorporation of multiomic molecular (genetic, epigenetic, genomic, karyotype, transcriptomic, proteomic, epiproteomic, metabolic), cellular, and tissue-based concepts and techniques, as well as novel data science tools into well-designed cancer evolution studies of multiclonal cancer cells and of host immune system and tumor microenvironment co-development.
• Recommend scientific and educational programs to provide ongoing forum(s) for the scholarly discussion and development of effective approaches to the conduct and interpretation of cancer evolution studies, including an annual Cancer Evolution Special Conference, an ongoing monthly Cancer Evolution Seminar Series, and cancer evolution sessions at AACR Annual Meetings.
• Foster collaborations with individuals interested in this scientific area and with relevant AACR scientific working groups that are engaged in other scientific disciplines.
• Assist with the professional advancement of early- and mid-career investigators engaged in cancer evolution research.
• Establish a community of cancer evolution experts and other individuals interested in advancing progress in cancer evolution.

“Since the launch of AACR’s Molecular Epidemiology Working Group in 1999, our scientific working groups have contributed enormously to guiding the AACR’s scientific agenda, and we are thrilled to announce the formation of the AACR Cancer Evolution Working Group as our seventh scientific working group. The field of cancer evolution has emerged as a vital area in cancer research and improved patient care, and the AACR stands committed to supporting the advancement of this important scientific area,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR. “The working group’s inaugural leadership body has been crafted to include luminaries and thought leaders from around the world whose unique scientific expertise will be collectively harnessed to enhance and nourish the AACR’s support of cancer evolution research.”

The members of the AACR Cancer Evolution Working Group Executive and Steering Committees are as follows:

AACR Cancer Evolution Working Group Executive Committee

Frank H. Laukien, PhD (Co-Chair)
Chairman, President and CEO, Bruker Corporation, Billerica, MA; Member, The Oncology Think Tank; Visiting Scholar, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Charles Swanton, MBPhD, FRCP, FMedSci, FRS, FAACR (Co-Chair)
Royal Society Napier Professor; Group Leader, Cancer Evolution and Genome Instability Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute and UCL Cancer Institute, London, United Kingdom

Anna D. Barker, PhD, FAACR (Co-Chair Elect)
Chief Strategy Officer, Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Jeffrey P. Townsend, PhD (Co-Chair Elect)
Elihu Professor of Biostatistics; Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT

Denis Noble, CBE, FRS, FMedSci, MAE
Professor Emeritus; Co-Director of Computational Physiology, Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Kenneth J. Pienta, MD
The Donald S. Coffey Professor of Urology; Professor of Oncology, Pharmacology, and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

George H. Poste, DVM, PhD, FRCPath, FMedSci, CBE, FRS
Director and Chief Scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative; Regents’ Professor and Del E. Webb Professor of Health Innovation, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Susan M. Rosenberg, PhD
Ben F. Love Chair in Cancer Research; Leader, Mechanisms in Cancer Evolution Program; Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Integrative Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine, Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Jason A. Somarelli, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine; Director of Research, Duke Comparative Oncology Group, Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, NC

AACR Cancer Evolution Working Group Steering Committee

M. William Audeh, MD, MS
Chief Medical Officer, Agendia, Inc., Irvine, CA; Medical Staff Member, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

Alberto Bardelli, PhD
Full Professor, Department of Oncology, University of Torino; Director, Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Candiolo Cancer Institute, Candiolo, Italy

Michael C. Campbell, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Howard University, Washington, DC

Peter J. Campbell, MBChB, PhD
Head of Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation; Senior Group Leader, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

Christina Curtis, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine and Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine; Co-Director, Molecular Tumor Board, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, CA

James V. DeGregori, PhD
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO

Robert A. Gatenby, MD
Chair, Department of Radiology; Co-Director, Cancer Biology and Evolution Program, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL

Marco Gerlinger, MD
Team Leader, Translational Oncogenomics Laboratory, Centre for Evolution and Cancer, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, United Kingdom

Michael A. Gillette, MD, PhD
Senior Group Leader, Proteomics and Biomarker Discovery, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA

Robert J. Gillies, PhD
Chair, Department of Cancer Physiology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL

Trevor Graham, PhD
Professor of Cancer Evolution; Deputy Centre Lead and Group Leader, Barts Cancer Institute, London, United Kingdom

Henry H. Q. Heng, PhD
Professor of Molecular Medicine, Genetics and Pathology, Karmanos Cancer Institute Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI

Giulia C. Kennedy, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer, Veracyte, Inc., San Francisco, CA

Carlo C. Maley, PhD
Director, Arizona Cancer and Evolution Center; Associate Professor, Biodesign Institute and School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Perry S. Marshall, BS
Marketing Consultant and Author, Chicago, IL

Andriy Marusyk, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Cancer Physiology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL

Nicholas McGranahan, PhD
Professor, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Franziska Michor, PhD
Professor of Computational Biology, Departments of Data Sciences, Biostatistics, and Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA

Paul S. Mischel, MD
Professor and Vice Chair of Research, Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA

Nicholas E. Navin, PhD
Associate Professor, Departments of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Division of Basic Science Research; Director, CPRIT Single Cell Genomics Center; Co-Director, Advanced Technology Genomics Core, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Serena Nik-Zainal, MBBCh, PhD
CRUK Advanced Clinician Scientist; Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Larry Norton, MD, FAACR
Department Physician-In-Chief For Breast Cancer Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Elizabeth O’Day, MPhil, PhD
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Olaris Therapeutics, Inc., Waltham, MA

Azra Raza, MD
Chan Soon-Shiong Professor of Medicine; Director, Myelodysplastic Syndrome Center, Columbia University, New York, NY

Andrea Sottoriva, PhD
Head, Centre for Computational Biology, Human Technopole, Milan, Italy; Director, Centre for Evolution and Cancer, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, United Kingdom

Jonathan Weissman, PhD
Landon T. Clay Professor of Biology; Member, Whitehead Institute; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cambridge, MA

Danny R. Welch, PhD
Professor of Cancer Biology, University of Kansas Cancer Center, Kansas City, KS