Who We Are

Andrew Aguirre, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Institute Member at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Dr. Aguirre is also the associate director of the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research and the co-director of the Center for RAS Therapeutics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He leads a basic and translational cancer research laboratory that studies pancreatic cancer biology and RAS signaling with the goal of developing new therapeutic strategies for patients.

Dr. Wolpin is the Robert T. & Judith B. Hale Chair in Pancreatic Cancer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He obtained his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and completed a residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He completed fellowship training in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and returned to Brigham and Women’s hospital to serve as chief medical resident. Subsequently, he received a M.P.H. from Harvard School of Public Health. His wet and dry lab research program is dedicated to understanding the factors that promote initiation and progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, with a focus on defining early detection strategies and personalized treatment approaches. At Dana-Farber, Dr. Wolpin serves as Chief of the Division of Gastrointestinal Oncology, Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center, and Director of the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research. His research team has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Lustgarten Foundation, ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Stand Up to Cancer, and U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Wolpin’s clinical practice involves the care of patients with gastrointestinal cancers, with a particular focus on pancreatic cancer.

E. Gabriela Chiorean, MD, FASCO is a GI and Phase I Medical Oncologist, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology Oncology at University of Washington (UW) and Professor in the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Fred Hutch) in Seattle, WA, USA. Dr. Chiorean is the Medical and Clinical Research Director of the UW/Fred Hutch Gastrointestinal Oncology Program, and Deputy Co-Director of the Fred Hutch Pancreatic Cancer Program. She is Vice-Chair of the GI Cancers Committee for the NCI Southwest Oncology Cooperative Group (SWOG) Cancer Research Network, and member of the NCI Gastrointestinal Cancers Steering Committee (GISC) Pancreatic Cancer Task Force. She is also a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines Panel for Pancreatic Cancers, and leader of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Ampullary Cancers.

She has been the chair of the ASCO Plenary Series for GI Cancers, chaired multiple ASCO Scientific Committees for GI Cancers and Developmental Therapeutics, and co-chaired the ASCO international expert panel for Late-Stage Colorectal Cancer Guidelines. Dr Chiorean is an editorial board member for the journals Seminars in Oncology and Cancers, and has authored over 200 peer reviewed research publications in journals such as Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet Oncology, JAMA Oncology and Annals of Oncology and abstracts at national and international cancer meetings. Dr. Chiorean’s clinical and translational research interests for pancreatic and gastrointestinal cancers are focused on biomarker driven precision oncology, cellular immunotherapies, and novel therapeutics. 

Dr. Carlos Fernandez-del Castillo is currently the director of the Pancreas and Biliary Surgery Program, and the Jorge and Darlene Perez Endowed Chair in Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.   He has authored over 450 original articles with an H-index of 118, and is a past-president of the American Pancreatic Association.  He co-directs translational research at the Pancreas Biology Laboratory at MGH and oversees its Pancreas Biobank, which has a repository of more than 3,500 tissue, blood, and cyst fluid samples from patients with pancreatic diseases.  His main research interests are the heterogeneity of pancreatic cancer, the effects of neoadjuvant treatment, and intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms.

Associate Clinical Director for Innovation,
Director, Tumor Cartography Center,
Director, Biomarker Discovery Lab,
Zebunisha Juma Endowed Chair,
Mass General Cancer Center,
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

David T. Ting, M.D., is the Associate Clinical Director for Innovation and Co-Director of the Biomarker Discovery Lab for the Mass General Cancer Center.  He is the Zebunisha Juma Endowed Chair and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Ting received his B.S. in chemical engineering and biology from MIT, and he completed his medical degree at Harvard Medical School from the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program with magna cum laude honors. During his undergraduate and medical school studies, he trained with Dr. Robert Langer at MIT on drug delivery platforms and did a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship at the Whitehead Institute at MIT working on stem cell biology with Dr. George Daley, current Dean of Harvard Medical School. He completed internal medicine residency at the MGH and medical oncology fellowship in the combined Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and MGH Cancer Center program. He moved on to post-doctoral training with Daniel Haber’s group at the MGH Cancer Center working on CTCs and novel RNA biomarkers in cancer. Dr. Ting’s lab works on understanding RNA expression patterns in cancer to gain biological insight into the role of tumor heterogeneity in cancer progression, develop biomarkers applicable to the clinic, and to identify novel therapeutic avenues against cancer.  His group uses single cell analytics to understand the relationship of cancer microenvironment and tumor heterogeneity. In parallel, these single cell technologies have been applicated to circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that have been isolated with microfluidic enrichment technologies to understand the molecular underpinnings of cancer metastasis and provide a path for blood based biomarkers. In addition, his group has discovered the aberrant expression of non-coding repeat RNAs that appear to play an important role in both the tumor microenvironment and metastasis. His work has led to the founding of three biotech companies, PanTher Therapeutics, ROME Therapeutics, and TellBio, Inc..

https://www.massgeneral.org/cancer-center/clinical-trials-and-research/center-for-cancer-research/investigators/ting-lab

Dr. Raul Urrutia is Professor of Surgery and Biochemistry, Warren P. Knowles Endowed Chair of Genomics and Precision Medicine, Director of the Linda T. and John A. Mellowes Center for Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine, Director of the Pancreas Cancer Program, and Director of the Precision Medicine Simulation Unit at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

He is also an active Emeritus Professor at Mayo Clinic, where he served for 25 years, after completing seven years of research training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His expertise spans data science and experimental biology, focusing on disease mechanisms and the development of novel therapies.

A pioneer in pancreatic cancer genomics and epigenomics, Dr. Urrutia has served as President of the American Pancreatic Association, Chairman of the Pancreatic Diseases Section of the American Gastroenterology Association, Council Member of the International Association of Pancreatology, and Chief Scientific Officer of the Cancer Epigenomic Society.

Because of the importance of his work, he has been inducted as a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, USA, and has held Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, and Editorial Board roles for major scientific journals. He also serves as a scientific reviewer for funding agencies and institutions in the USA, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Dr. Urrutia’s research has significantly advanced the understanding of molecular pathways in pancreatic cancer, driving precision medicine applications in diagnosis and therapy through interdisciplinary teams that integrate clinical, molecular, and computational sciences.

As an educator and mentor, he has trained more than 50 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty members, many of whom now hold leadership positions worldwide. His career exemplifies leadership in expanding the knowledge of pancreatic cancer, and he is an advocate who actively promotes awareness of the needs of patients affected by this disease.

Gwen Lomberk, PhD is Professor and the Joel and Arlene Lee Chair in Pancreatic Cancer Research in the Department of Surgery with a joint appointment in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). She also serves as the Chief of the Division of Research for the Department of Surgery and Director of the Precision Medicine Education (PM Ed) Program for the Institute for Health & Humanity. She received her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Boston College and her PhD in Tumor Biology at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Prior to joining MCW in 2017, she was on faculty at the Mayo Clinic in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine. Her research focuses on epigenomics and nuclear structure in pancreatic cancer, as well as developing novel therapeutic strategies that can help fight this dismal disease.

I am a Professor of Pathology and Translational Molecular Pathology, and Scientific Director of the Sheikh Ahmed Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston (since August 2013). Prior to this, I was Professor of Pathology & Oncology at the Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine at Baltimore. I am also a board-certified pathologist, with specialty expertise in pancreatic & GI pathology. I am the Principal Investigator of a NIH- funded laboratory dedicated to pancreatic cancer research. I am currently the PI on an NCI U54 grant, an NCI U01 grant and an NCI U24 grant, all focused on pancreatic cancer research. I am Co-Leader of the MD Anderson Pancreatic Cancer Moonshot project, a multi-disciplinary effort to improve the survival of this disease beyond incremental advances. Thus, I have extensive familiarity of working with & leading, large diverse teams of investigators engaged in a focused area of research. The arc of my career has been defined by contributions made in the spheres of genetics & molecular pathology of pancreatic cancer & its precursor lesions, mouse models of pancreatic neoplasia, & experimental therapeutics in pancreatic cancer. I have published over 300 peer-reviewed publications, three dozen book chapters, & a comparable number of invited editorials, the vast majority of which are focused on pancreatic cancer research & /or clinical care. I have also trained close to 40 postdoctoral fellows & graduate students, many of whom are now in independent faculty positions in the United States or worldwide.

Rebecca A. Snyder, MD, MPH

Department of Surgical Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center

Dr. Rebecca Snyder is Associate Professor, Departments of Surgical Oncology and Health Services Research, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Her clinical practice is focused on caring for patients with pancreatic cancer, and her research efforts concentrate on pancreatic cancer clinical trials as well as patient-centered cancer care. Dr. Snyder is Co-Chair of the Gastrointestinal Surgery Working Group of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology and a member of the AHPBA Clinical Trials Committee and the SSO Hepatopancreatobiliary Disease Site Working Group. She is an experienced investigator and has published original scientific studies in high-impact journals including JAMA, JAMA Surgery, and JNCI.

Dr. Matthew H.G. Katz is currently a Professor and Chair of the department of Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He has extensive experience in the design and conduct of clinical trials and has led two national cooperative group studies of the effects of preoperative therapy on patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. He has published over 250 original articles that have described novel multi-modality treatment approaches for patients with this disease. He is past Chair of the ACS-Cancer Research Program Cancer Care Standards Development Program and the current chair of the ACS-Cancer Surgery Standards Program.

Eileen M. O’Reilly is the Winthrop Rockefeller Endowed Chair in Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She serves as Section Head for Hepatopancreaticobiliary/ Neuroendocrine Cancers, Co-Director for Medical Initiatives at David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer and is an Attending Physician and Member at MSK and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. O’Reilly is the Principal Investigator of multiple phase I- III trials in pancreas cancer and has authored >400 articles, editorials, and book chapters with a H-index of 99. She serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Senior Editor for several other journals. She is PI of the MSK Pancreas Specialized Program in Oncology Research Excellence (SPORE), an NCI funded team science grant. Dr. O’Reilly has leadership roles in several major advocacy organizations and serves as Co-Chair of the NCI Alliance Gastrointestinal Cancers committee.

I am a board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with specialty training in gastrointestinal pathology and molecular genetics of gastrointestinal neoplasia. I am the Director of the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research (CPCR), an Affiliate Member of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, and an Attending Pathologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In addition to managing the CPCR I run a federally funded laboratory focused on the genetics and evolutionary dynamics of cancer progression and metastasis in solid tumors, with a strong focus on pancreatic cancer. To date, I have published more than 350 peer-reviewed manuscripts, most of which are related to the molecular biology and genetics of pancreatic cancer. I am an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigators and the Association of American Physicians, and I was awarded the Ruth Leff Siegel Award in 2019 for the most impactful contribution to the understanding, treatment, and/or advancement of pancreatic cancer in that year.

Research focus: Dr. Brody has dedicated his career to the understanding of the molecular underpinnings of pancreatic  tumorigenesis. He has published >160peer  reviewed  publications, over 100  related specifically  to pancreatic cancer. Indeed, these articles cover a diverse range of cancer related topics from patient outcomes to the development of assays to improving therapeutics to reviews on personalized medicine and perspectives on training. Included in this list of publications are key papers listing the bench-bedside work related to personalized therapy (primarily focused on PDAC tumors with DNA repair defects) and work on an RNA binding protein (HuR) that is relevant to acute therapeutic resistance mechanisms. Of note, recently the pre-clinical work from his laboratory on pyrvinuim pomoate was published and set the framework for an initiated clinical trial (NCT05055323). In fact, Dr. Brody’s laboratory has also provided part of the pre-clinical work that supported a recently completed clinical trial involving PARP inhibitors (PMID: 32669374), a focus of his current work. Key studies in  the  Brody  lab  discovered  that  HuR  regulated  WEE1, IDH1,  and  PARG. Additionally, his  lab  has published  on  drug-target  relationships in PDAC  cells  including  many druggable targets directly or indirectly evaluated now for cancer: IDH1, WEE1, PARG, TOP1, thymidylate synthase, CD4/6, HuR, and DNA repair genes (e.g., Fanconi Anemia genes and BRCA2).Early in his career he received a Pancreatic Career Development Award (PanCAN) which initiated his line of investigation into the RNA binding protein HuR which helped to identify and validate PDAC targets, PARG, IDH1 and WEE1, both explored in his lab now.  He has now recently been named to the SMAB for PanCAN and the council for the PCARP Programmatic Panel. To date, the Brody lab is the primary lab working on identifying new targets and understanding therapeutic resistance in PDAC.  In relation to mentoring, his recently graduated post-doc (Aditi Jain) and his  surgeon-scientist  mentee  at  OHSU  (Robert  Eil) received  PanCAN  Career  Development  Awards, underscoring Dr. Brody’s commitment to mentorship.  Dr. Brody currently holds NIH and DoD funding to study: 1) metabolic vulnerabilities in PDAC (setting the stage for an initiated clinical trial targeting IDH1 with a surgeon-scientist); 2) a 3D/4D progression model of pancreatic tumorigenesis related to BRCA1/2 germline mutations; 3) disparities in Oregon in the Native American communities as it relates to pancreatic cancer.

Internal leadership at OHSU: Dr. Brody is the Associate Director for the Knight BCCPC and Vice Chair of Research for the Dept. of Surgery. He also is the lead co-director for the STEMM, Distance Learning program at OHSU  and serves on many leadership and mentoring committees. He is also leading the charge with Dr. Clay Kills First to addressing the disparities in Oregon in relation to PDAC care (recently funded by the Kuni Foundation and the DoD).

External leadership: Dr. Brody served on the DOD Council for the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program for many years and was elected as previous Chair. He has now recently been named to the SMAB for PanCAN and the council for the PCARP Programmatic Panel. Additionally, Dr. Brody was a permanent member and Chair of the CPSS NIH study section and was a recent Chair of the Tumor Biology and Genomics Study Section (American Cancer Society). He served as the chair of the PanCAN career development award study section. He has served on numerous panels (NIH, DOD, American Cancer Society related)and is also the acting co-Editor-in-Chief of Cancer, Biology and Therapy and Molecular Biology Reports. He was asked to be a panelist on the education session at the Annual AACR meeting (2022): “The Importance of Surgeon Engagement for Translational Cancer Research.”

Jonathan Brody, Ph.D. Current highlights, and leadership roles:

•  Professor in the Department of Surgery and Endowed Chair at OHSU, focusing on pancreatic cancer.


•  Vice chair of research, Dept. of Surgery, OHSU


•  Associate Director of Translational Research at the Brenden-Colson Center for Pancreatic Care.


•  Co-leader of the Healthy Oregon Project and a member of various research groups, including the Knight Cancer Institute.


•  Completed chair of a NIH study section, ad hoc reviewer; Previous chair and council member of a Dept. of Defense Cancer Program, current member of the pancreatic cancer DoD program


•  Gerlinger Surgical Chair

Diane Simeone, MD, director of Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health provides strategic and intellectual direction for research programs, administrative structure, and multidisciplinary cancer clinical care. She is principal investigator for the Cancer Center’s support grant sponsored by the NCI. Previously, she was director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center and associate director, translational research at Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Langone Health. She is an internationally renowned pancreatic surgeon and researcher focused on treating pancreatic cancer and pancreatic cystic tumors. She chaired the scientific and medical advisory board of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and is a past president of the American Pancreatic Association and Society of University Surgeons. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, NCI Pancreatic Cancer Task force and NCI Cancer Centers Study Section. She serves on the Board of Directors for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. She is the principal investigator and lead of Precision Promise, a national clinical trials consortium focused on next generation clinical trials for pancreatic cancer. She founded the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Consortium to drive early detection of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Simeone completed her residency at the University of Michigan and earned her MD at Duke University.

Dr. Lowy holds the Levine Family Chancellor’s Distinguished Chair in Surgical Oncology and is Professor of Surgery, Director of Surgical Oncology and Associate Director of Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health. He is a physician-scientist whose clinical and research primarily focuses on identifying and testing novel therapies for pancreatic cancer. His laboratory co-developed the first mouse model of human pancreatic cancer which has become the standard in the field, has been licensed to pharma and used by hundreds of labs worldwide. The laboratory focuses on novel target identification, preclinical modeling and experimental therapeutics. Dr. Lowy’s research has led to the development and testing of novel therapies which have reached the clinic most recently a tumor penetrating peptide which is being tested in randomized Phase 2 trials. 

Dr. Lowy has served in a number of national leadership roles including the NCI Clinical Trials and Translational Research Committee which advised on development of pancreatic cancer research priorities for the Recalcitrant Cancers Act, serving as vice-chair of the NCI Pancreatic Cancer Task Force, and chair from 2016-2021. He now serves on the NCI GI Steering Committee and has served as co-leader of the SWOG pancreas cancer subcommittee since 2007. Dr. Lowy serves on the NCCN pancreatic cancer guidelines panel and on advisory boards for PANCAN, The Lustgarten Foundation, PANKIND, and The National Pancreas Foundation. Most recently, Dr. Lowy co-led the creation of the University of California Pancreatic Cancer Consortium.

Dr. Margaret Tempero is a gastrointestinal oncologist and the Director of the UCSF Pancreas Center, Director of the Cancer Early Detection and Interception initiative, and Leader of the Pancreas Cancer Program at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Previously, she was the founding Deputy Director of the Cancer Center and Chief of Hematology and Oncology at UCSF.

In research, Tempero was a pioneer in applying radioactively tagged antibodies for cancer therapy. She has led national and international research projects on gastrointestinal cancers, including pancreatic cancer.

Tempero has held many national and international leadership positions, including President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, President of the American Pancreatic Association, and Editor in Chief of the Journal of the National Comprehensive Network.

At UCSF, She is the Rombauer Family Distinguished Professor in Pancreas Cancer Clinical and Translational Science. Prior to joining UCSF, she was Deputy Director of the Buffet Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska.

Ajay V. Maker, MD, FACS, FSSO

Professor and Chief of Surgical Oncology
Surgeon In Chief, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor in Surgical Oncology

Dr. Maker is the Surgeon-In-Chief of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor, and Chief of Surgical Oncology at the University of California San Francisco. He graduated from Brown University with dual degree honors in fine arts/painting and drawing, and biology.  Thereafter, he enrolled in the Yale School of Medicine where he graduated with the Gold Medal in Surgery, followed by residency in general surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School. He trained in surgical oncology at the NIH and completed postdoctoral studies in tumor immunology at the National Cancer Institute under Dr. Steven Rosenberg. This research included trials that led to approval by the Food and Drug Administration of Ipilimumab as a new treatment for metastatic cancer. He later completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and then gained experience in minimally invasive surgical techniques at the University of Paris. Prior to joining UCSF, he was a tenured professor in the Departments of Surgery and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he was Director of Surgical Oncology for the Creticos Cancer Center and Director of Translational Oncology.

He has focused the efforts of his research career on expanding the role of immunotherapy for colorectal liver metastases, and in establishing biomarkers of malignancy in pancreatic cystic tumors for early detection of pancreatic cancer. His work has been funded consistently for over a decade and he has aligned his clinical practice to coincide with his research interests. He is the principal investigator on federal grants awarded by the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense, including the NCI R37 MERIT award. He has published more than 250 manuscripts, abstracts and book chapters, and he lectures nationally and internationally.  

Rushika M. Perera PhD is the Deborah Cowan Endowed Associate Professor in the School of Medicine and the Vice Chair of the Dept. of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco. She also holds appointments in the Dept. of Pathology and the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and is the Chief Scientific Officer of the UCSF Pancreas Center.

Dr. Perera received her PhD from the University of Melbourne in Australia and trained at Yale University and the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston before joining the faculty at UCSF in 2015.

Dr. Perera leads an NIH-funded research laboratory focused on understanding how fundamental cell biological processes that regulate metabolism, protein trafficking and quality control are dysregulated in pancreatic cancer, with the aim of identifying new cancer specific vulnerabilities that can be targeted clinically.

Dr. Perera is the recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network-AACR Career Development Award, the AACR-MPM Transformative Cancer Research Award and was selected as the 2021 Gunter Blobel Early Career Award recipient of the American Society for Cell Biology.

Dr Pasca di Magliano obtained her PhD at the Institute for Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria.  She then joined the laboratory of Dr Matthias Hebrok at the University of California, San Francisco, for her postdoctoral training. The Hebrok laboratory studied embryonic signaling pathways in the development and disease of pancreatic islets; Dr Pasca di Magliano’s research branched out to pancreatic cancer, revealing a role for Hedgehog and Wnt signaling in this disease. Dr Pasca di Magliano joined the faculty in the Department of Surgery at the University of Michigan in 2008, raising through the ranks to Full Professor in 2020. Dr Pasca di Magliano holds a joint appointment in Cell and Developmental Biology. Her laboratory studies the role of oncogenic KRAS, the hallmark mutation of pancreatic cancer, in the regulation of the establishment and maintenance of the pancreatic cancer microenvironment. Her team developed a mouse model of inducible and reversible expression of oncogenic Kras, which they used to interrogate oncogenic addition to KRAS and the crosstalk between immune cells and pancreatic cancer cells.  More recently, Dr Pasca di Magliano led a team on investigators in a large project characterizing the normal human pancreas and precursor lesions across age, sex and race, a project run in partnership with Gift of Life Michigan, an organ donor organization.

In addition to running her laboratory, Dr Pasca di Magliano is the co-leader of the Cancer Biology research program for the Rogel Cancer Center at the University of Michigan; she is also Scientific Director of the Rogel and Blondy Pancreatic Cancer Center at the University of Michigan. Dr Pasca di Magliano is also highly involved in graduate and undergraduate training and as mentor to junior faculty on campus. Dr Pasca di Magliano serves on the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Hirshberg Foundation.

Oliver Smithies Investigator
Professor of Surgery and Pharmacology
Vice Chair of Research, Department of Surgery
Director, UNC Lineberger Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence
co-Associate Director of Education, co-Clinical Research Program Leader, UNC Lineberger

Dr. Yeh is a Professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology and Endocrinology in the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill where she is Assistant Dean for Translational Research. She has an active surgical oncology practice focused on patients with melanoma, endocrine and pancreatic cancers, and is the Director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she is also Interim Associate Director of Translational Research.

Dr. Yeh’s research interests have been focused on integrating clinical, computational and biological approaches to tackle the complexities of pancreatic cancer. Her work has included the identification and understanding tumor-intrinsic molecular subtypes of pancreatic cancer that are prognostic and may predict treatment response. Dr. Yeh is co-founder of Focal Medical, Inc, focused on the advancement of iontophoretic delivery of oncology drugs for challenging tumors such as pancreatic cancer. She currently leads the UNC Selective Targeting of Pancreatic Cancer P50 SPORE and a U01 in the Pancreatic Cancer Stroma Reprogramming Consortium (PSRC). Her long-term goal of her research is to identify promising approaches for pancreatic cancer and accelerating their translation to the clinic.

Dr. Jordan Berlin is a GI Oncologist and Early phase trialist with a focus in pancreatic cancer.  He has led multiple national phase II and III trials in pancreatic cancer as well as phase I trials of novel drugs designed to treat the disease.  He was a member of the National Cancer Institute’s NCTN Pancreatic Cancer Task Force from 2002-2022 and was Chair of that committee for 7 years.  He has been part of program committees for ASCO, the GI Symposium, ESMO World GI Congress and other meetings.  He chaired the GI Symposium in 2008 and has chaired both the educational and program committees for non-colorectal GI for the ASCO annual meeting.  He remains an advocate for thoughtful study design, practical drug development and multidisciplinary study of pancreatic cancer.  He was on the Executive Committee for the 2007 Stae of the Science Meeting on pancreas cancer, has authored on pancreatic cancer clinical trial design and served twice on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Pancreas Guidelines Committee.  Additionally he is a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and once served on the Board of the National Pancreas Foundation.

Dr Vincent J Picozzi MD MMM is director of the pancreaticobiliary cancer program at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle Washington, A summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Yale University, Dr Picozzi earned his MD from Stanford University, completed his internship and residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital (Harvard University(, returned to Stanford to complete fellowships in hematology and oncology before joining the faculty there for several years prior to matriculating to Virginia Mason. He also holds a masters degree in medical management , Alpha Omega Alpha, from Tulane University.

Dr Picozzi sees approximately 200 new patients with pancreaticobiliary cancer, and is very active in clinical research and drug development both at his own institution and internationally, He is currently the director of the Clinical Trials Consortium and Co-Principal Investigator of the Precision Promise initiative, formerly sponsored by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network ( PANCAN) and now by the Global Coalition for Adoptive Research. A member and former national chairman of PANCAn's Scientifi and Medical Advisory Board, Dr, Picozzi has published over 200 scientific articles, book chapters and abstracts and has been a featured speaker at every major US meeting involved with pancreatic cancer.

Professor of Oncology and Pharmacology at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Chief of Hematology and Oncology and also the head of the Gastrointestinal and Neuroendocrine cancers at the Henry Ford Cancer Institute in Detroit. Additionally, he is co-leader of the Pancreas Cancer Program.  He chairs the GI Committee at SWOG national group. Dr. Philip earned his medical degree at the University of Baghdad College of Medicine in Iraq and his Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenetics at the University of London Guy’s Hospital Medical School in the United Kingdom. He completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology in  Oxford/UK and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He is board certified in Medical Oncology in the United States and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in the UK. His major research interests are in the development of new therapies for gastrointestinal cancers with particular emphasis on pancreatic cancer.  He authored more than 300 manuscripts, review articles and editorials and co-edited a book on pancreatic cancer and another on gastrointestinal  cancers. Dr Philip is a member of the scientific board of the Pancreatic Action Network (PanCan), scientific board of Skyfoundation, and the Michigan Society of Hematology and Oncology board.

Manuel Hidalgo, M.D., Ph.D.  is the Chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine/New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is also the Walter B. Wriston Professor of Pancreatic Cancer Research at Weill Cornell Medical College.  Dr. Hidalgo received his M.D. degree from the University of Navarra in Pamplona,  Spain in 1992 and a Ph.D. degree from University Autonoma of Madrid in 1997.  He trained in medicine and medical oncology at Hospital ¨12 de Octubre¨ in Madrid and at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.  He also completed a fellowship program in anticancer drug development at the Institute of Drug Development in San Antonio, TX.  Dr. Hidalgo is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. Prior to this position he served in different leadership roles at Johns Hopkins University,  Speanish National Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School.  He is a member of Bristol Myers Squibb Board of Directors.  His main focus of research has been new drug development in pancreatic cancer and other solid tumors.  His group popularized the used of Avatar mouse models for cancer research and has contributed to the development multiple new anticancer agents. His current work focuses on strategies for personalize medicine and inmmunotherapy in pancreatic cancer.

Amy de Haar-Holleman is medical oncologist and molecular biologist. She obtained her Biomedical and Medical degree from the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands) in 1995 and 2009 respectively. She obtained her PhD in 2006 and graduated as a medical oncologist in 2018. She currently works as a medical oncologist at the department of medical oncology at UZ Brussels (UZB). Her main activity is the treatment of patient with gastrointestinal malignancies with a special focus on pancreatic cancer. In this capacity she has been involved in several national and international trials in pancreatic cancer.

She is in the process of establishing her own research group embedded in the Translational Oncology Research Centre of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and part of the co-partnership with the University of Brussels (ULB) for pancreatic cancer research (BRU-PACT). Her research focuses on early detection as well as new treatment paradigms in pancreatic cancer. She is a member of Pancreatic Cancer Europe and the international Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection (PRECEDE) consortium.

Pr Jean-Luc VAN LAETHEM is digestive oncologist and the head of the GI Oncology Department at Hopital Universitaire de Bruxelles (Erasme academic hospital and Bordet Institute,Université Libre de Bruxelles). He graduated from the Brussels Free University in 1988 and obtained his graduation as gastroenterologist in 1994, and PhD in 1996.He is currently professor of gastroenterology at the University of Brussels (ULB) and heading  the GI oncology translational lab in Brussels with a co-partnership with the Vlaamse University Brussels for pancreatic cancer research (BRU-PACT)

His main activity is to coordinate the multidisciplinary management of patients with gastrointestinal cancer and to promote research and education in this field ;his topic of interest is pancreatic cancer and the development of platforms that integrate patients care and translational research  .

Jean-Luc VAN LAETHEM was previously chairman  of the pancreatic cancer task force at EORTC GI Group and is currently board member of the European Society of Digestive Oncology (ESDO). He is past chair of the Belgian Group of Digestive Oncology (BGDO) and past general secretary of the “Société Royale Belge de Gastroentérologie-SRBGE”. He also served as member of the scientific comitee of the UEG.

He authored or co-authored more than 270 pubmed referenced publications with an H-index of 80.

He coordinated several national and international trials in pancreatic cancer , currently leading the STEREOPAC trial.

Ana Martins holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and dedicated two decades to scientific research. In 2023, she joined Digestive Cancers Europe (DiCE) as a Medical and Scientific Project manager, overseeing multiple work packages and tasks within EU-funded projects where DiCE serves as a partner. With her extensive scientific background and experience working mainly with pancreatic cancer patients, she ensures that the design, development, and implementation of scientific projects integrate a patient-centered perspective, focusing on their needs. Ana advocates for science-based, patient-friendly communication, education, and shared decision-making to achieve the best outcomes for patients.

Ilse Rooman, PhD

Full Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Translational Oncology Research Centre, Laboratory of Medical and Molecular Research

 

Dr Rooman has been studying the pancreas during her entire scientific career, starting off with PhD studies on cell regeneration and plasticity in the context of cell therapy for diabetes, but gradually becoming more focused on cancer.

She twice set up a research group; In 2011, she was appointed at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia. Her team was devoted to finding new genes and pathways that are at play in pancreatic tumor development (hypothesis driven and unbiased integrative –omics analyses from the efforts of the International Cancer Genome Consortium). In 2016, she was granted an Odysseus fellowship from the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) to build a research team at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) where she is now full professor in the Translational Oncology Research Centre (https://torc.research.vub.be/en/medical-and-molecular-oncology). Dr Rooman continues to work in the field of pancreatic (cancer) biology, studying pancreatic exocrine cell plasticity in homeostasis and cancer; Exocrine acinar and ductal cells are the cells of origin for tumor formation. They study differentiation changes in these cells or subsets of these cell populations, and their role in tumor initiation. They also discovered a new cell type/state, i.e. pancreatic basal cells that are under investigation in non-neoplastic tissue and cancer. Lastly, they focus on the role of a set of axon guidance genes in cancer. Next to her research team, Dr Rooman has also taken on the Directorship of the new core-facility Visual and Spatial Tissue Analysis (https://vsta.research.vub.be) at VUB that serves academia and industry. Dr Rooman is also board member of Pancreatic Cancer Europe (https://pancreaticcancereurope.eu).

Marianna is a dedicated patient advocate who leads medical and scientific initiatives at Digestive Cancers Europe. Leveraging her multidisciplinary expertise, she works to bridge the gap between science and global health.

Her passion for human health and well-being has been a driving force since the start of her career. She earned a degree in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and completed a Ph.D. in Genetics and Human Pathology through international collaborations with institutions in the United States and Spain. As a biomedical researcher, her work centered on regenerative medicine, stem cells, and therapeutic approaches to disease.

During her research, Marianna developed a strong interest in public and global health, which inspired her to transition toward international initiatives aimed at improving human health. She furthered her expertise by obtaining a degree in Public Health and collaborating with the WHO’s Genomics and Global Health initiative.

Over the past six years, Marianna has dedicated her efforts to serving patient organizations, combining her scientific background with her commitment to advancing global health initiatives.

Rami I. Aqeilan is Professor of Immunology and Cancer Biology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, group leader at the Cyprus Cancer Research Institute (CCRI), and Ex-Chairman of the Institute for Medical Research (IMRIC). His research focuses on the molecular basis of genome instability and tumor suppression, with particular emphasis on the role of WWOX in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). He has authored highly cited publications with over 19,000 citations and an h-index of 61, secured major competitive funding including European Research Council (ERC) grants as well as substantial industry support, and delivered numerous invited lectures worldwide. Prof. Aqeilan’s laboratory was among the first to demonstrate that loss of WWOX accelerates PDAC development and identified synthetic vulnerabilities of WWOX/Ras-mutant PDAC cells, paving the way for innovative therapeutic strategies. He is also advancing gene therapy approaches for PDAC, including self-replicating mRNA delivery of WWOX. In addition, he co-founded OncoVation Therapeutics, a startup company dedicated to developing novel treatments for PDAC. His work bridges fundamental cancer biology with translational applications, advancing the potential for precision medicine in pancreatic cancer.

Søren Brunak is professor of Disease Systems Biology at the University of Copenhagen: Included in the Clarivate listing of “Highly Cited Researchers”, which citation-wise belong to the top 1% in their discipline, also in 2024. Similarly, for the Stanford listing of the 2% most impactful researchers. Currently at more than 500 papers, > 160,000 citations (h = 130). He has been a Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences since 2016, a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization since 2009, and a Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters since 2004. Søren Brunak is a leading pioneer within bioinformatics and health data science, in particular using machine learning techniques since the mid-1980ies. His use of population-wide healthcare sector data in data integration frameworks benefits from the accessibility of electronic patient records in the Danish setting. He has developed a descriptive and predictive disease trajectory concept for modeling of multi-morbidity that has attracted significant attention and is used to analyse disease progression patterns, for example in pancreatic cancer, diabetes, and other diseases. Søren Brunak is SAB member of the UK Biobank and is also the member of the Scientific Advisory board of SciLifeLab in Sweden, HiLIfe in Finland and many other SABs.

Antoine Hollebecque (M.D.) is a senior medical oncologist at Gustave Roussy Cancer Center in Paris. He completed his residency training in 2008. He spent 2 years as an Assistant Professor in the Drug Development Department at Gustave Roussy Cancer Center in 2012-2013. He completed his training with a one-year post-doctoral fellowship in the Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology (CEP) (Pr C. Dive), Manchester Institute, Cancer Research UK where he worked on cell-free DNA. His research axis are precision medicine, biliary and pancreatic carcinoma, FGFR inhibitors and drug development. Dr Hollebecque is or has been the principal investigator of more than 50 Phase I/II/III trials and investigator of more than 400 clinical trials over the past ten years. He has contributed to more than 230 peer-reviewed publications, including publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, Cancer Discovery, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of oncology, JAMA Oncology, Gastroenterology. Dr Hollebecque is a member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), American Association of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the French Federation of Gastrointestinal oncology (FFCD).

Pr. Emmanuel Mitry, MD, PhD, is a gastrointestinal oncologist, with a particular focus on pancreatic adenocarcinoma. After earning his medical degree and a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology and Public Health, Dr. Mitry completed extensive clinical training in digestive oncology and hepatogastroenterology. He has held academic and clinical leadership roles in prominent institutions, including the Institut Curie and the Institut Paoli-Calmettes.

Currently, he serves as Director of Clinical Research at the Institut Paoli-Calmettes (IPC) and represents UNICANCER in the Pancreas Subgroup of PRODIGE. He is also Vice-President of the French Association for Pancreatic Cancer Research (AFRCP). His research includes leading clinical trials in digestive oncology and contributing to the development of innovative therapies.

Rémy Nicolle is a computational biologist at INSERM (lnstitut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale) and leads a research group dedicated to deciphering the molecular heterogeneity of pancreatic cancer. His work has contributed to the molecular subtyping of the disease and to the development of transcriptomic theragnostic signatures predictive of treatment response. The group integrates large patient cohorts with computational and spatial approaches to understand how tissue architecture reflects tumor evolution and interaction with the microenvironment. A central aim of this research is to translate molecular and architectural complexity into clinically actionable frameworks for patient stratification and model-guided therapy selection.

Prof. Niels Halama obtained his MD at the University of Heidelberg, Germany in 2005. He then joined as Resident and Fellow the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT). From 2008 till 2023 he was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the NCT and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. Since 2017 Niels Halama has been attending the Physician Clinical Cancer Research Program Colorectal Cancer. In 2018 he got his habilitation in internal medicine at the University of Heidelberg and 2022 he obtained the Award of professorship. From 2019 to 2023 he was leading the department of Translational Immunotherapy at the DKFZ. In 2023 he was appointed W3 professor at the HI-TRON in Mainz and is Head of the Department Tumor Immunology and Tumor Immunotherapy. His department is integrating broad aspects of immunological parameters (i.e. tissue-specific regulation, microbiome, metabolic regulation, genomic factors etc.) for the successful development and optimization of therapeutic approaches in clinical translation.

In addition to running his laboratory, Prof. Niels Halama is Certified clinical investigator in oncology, clinical trials and medical products. 2003 till 2006 he was editor and author of the Section "Endocrinology” and “Neurology", for Medicle (www.medicle.org). He is member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immunologie (DGfI), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), USA (AACR-sponsored membership), the Cancer Immunology Working Group (CIMM) and the International Cancer Microenvironment Society (ICMS). Prof. Halama is also highly involved in graduate and undergraduate training at the University of Mainz.

His research field is Tumor Immunology, Tumor immunotherapy, Tumor Inflammation, (Immunological) Biomarker Identification, Imaging Technologies, High-Throughput Processing, Colorectal Cancer, Pancreatic cancer, Breast Cancer, Malignant Melanom

Christoph Michalski is Professor of Surgery and Head of the Department of General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery at the Heidelberg University Hospital. Professor Michalski was trained at the University Hospitals of Munich, Heidelberg, Halle and Portland.

He is a member of numerous national and international surgical associations and is board member of the Faculty Council of the Medical Faculty Heidelberg and the Senate Committee for the Entire Faculty. Furthermore, Professor Michalski is Editor-in-Chief of Langenbeck’s Archives of Surgery. His clinical focuses are complex tumor surgery, transplant surgery and modern minimally invasive, especially robot-assisted surgery. In research, Professor Michalski’s scientific accents include pancreatic carcinogenesis, pancreatic carcinoma and surgical oncology, as well as digital applications in surgery, and clinical trials on surgery and multimodality therapy in visceral oncology.

Professor Patrick Michl has specialised in Gastroenterology and currently serves as Full Professor and Director of the Dept. of Internal Medicine IV (Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Infectious Diseases) at the University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany. In addition, he is council member of the European Pancreatic Club (EPC) and member of the Public Affairs Group of the United European Gastroenterology Association.

His research interests include molecular mechanisms of tumor initiation and progression in pancreatic cancer and neuroendocrine neoplasms as well as the crosstalk between the tumor cell compartment and inflammatory stroma cells. He led and/or participated in numerous clinical trials and research consortia in pancreatic malignancies and other gastrointestinal diseases.

John Neoptolemos, is Professor of Surgery, University of Heidelberg and Chair of the European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer (ESPAC). He has  >100,000 scientific citations, £75m in grants and has given over 300 invited lectures. He was Chair of Surgery 1996-2017 at Liverpool University, elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2007), a National Institutes Health Research Senior Fellow (2011), a Department of Health Platinum Awards (2004-2017), and Clinical Chair UK NICE Guidelines on Pancreatic Cancer. He received Honorary Memberships  from the German Society of Surgery (2012) and the Hungary Society of Surgery (2014), a Nanjing Medical University Honorary Professorship (2014), a European Pancreatic Club (EPC) Lifetime Achievement Award (2013), the American Pancreatic Association Hirschberg Award for Pancreatic Cancer (2005), the Pancreas Cancer Research Ruth Brufsky Award (2017), the Inherited Pancreas Diseases Henry Lynch Award (2018), elected to the Academia Europaea (2019), and made a Lifetime Member of the EPC and the  International Association of Pancreatology both in 2024. He is leading the randomized trials ESPAC6 and 7 based on a pancreatic  cancer transcriptomic signature.

Dieter Saur is a physician scientist and Professor of the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK). He heads the Division of Translational Cancer Research at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and is the Director of the Institute of Experimental Cancer Therapy at the TUM School of Medicine (https://exp-cancertherapy.med.tum.de/en). His group studies fundamental biologically and clinically relevant aspects of pancreatic cancer: how it develops, progresses, spreads to distant sites, and why it becomes resistant to anti-cancer therapies. Over the last 20 years, his lab has generated unique biological resources and genetic tools to analyze tumor evolution and how this affects therapeutic response of pancreatic cancer subtypes in vitro and in vivo with a special focus on the cross-talk of cells in tumors with different genetic makeups and their interactions with the immune system. Thereby, the lab explores new ways to target pancreatic cancer subtypes more efficiently and to translate these finding to clinical trials to improve the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients. Saur has published >200 papers and received an ERC Consolidator Grant and the German Cancer Award for his work in pancreatic cancer.

Thomas Seufferlein, MD, PhD, is a gastroenterologist and gastrointestinal oncology leader whose work has had major impact on pancreatic cancer research, guidelines, and care. Professor and Medical Director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nephrology at Ulm University Hospital, he has led translational and clinical research programs that elucidate the molecular basis of pancreatic cancer and pioneer novel targeted and systemic therapies. As a long-standing member of the steering boards of the AIO pancreatic cancer study group, he has helped design and conduct numerous national and multinational trials and coordinates the German National Guideline for pancreatic cancer, shaping standards of diagnosis and treatment across Germany. He is Editor‑in‑Chief of the German Journal of Gastroenterology and has served on the executive board, including as President, of the German Cancer Society, where he advances national cancer policy, early detection initiatives, and multidisciplinary care for patients with pancreatic cancer and other gastrointestinal malignancies.

Jens Siveke is a passionate translational cancer researcher combining clinical care for patients with preclinical and translational research. He holds positions as Director of the Bridge Institute of Experimental Tumor Therapy at the West German Cancer Center (WTZ) of the University Hospital Essen and as Head of the Division of Solid Tumor Translational Oncology within the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) at partner site Essen. He serves as Scientific Director of the WTZ and is Speaker of the German Cancer Consortium partner site Essen. He is member of the steering committee of the German Cancer Society working group for pancreatic cancer (AIO) and serves as PI in various phase I-III trials (>70) including IITs in GI and rare cancer entities.

His main areas of expertise are in gastrointestinal and translationale oncology. His preclinical work focuses on generating comprehensive preclinical model systems in combination with molecular and imaging/AI-based profiling technologies to model complex phenotypes. He is interested in mechanisms underlying tumor heterogeneity and phenotypic plasticity driving therapy resistance and the instructive and receptive role of the tumor microenvironment and host factors.

Prof. Christoph Springfeld is a gastroenterologist and oncologist in the Department of Medical Oncology at the National Center for Tumor Diseases in Heidelberg where he is responsible for the pancreatic cancer and liver cancer programs. Focus of his work are innovative clinical studies, especially in the field of targeted therapy and immunotherapy. He is a member of the steering committee of the pancreatic working group of the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Internistische Onkologie” in the German Cancer Society.

Prof. Springfeld holds an M.D. from Heidelberg University and a Ph.D. from the Open University, UK. He was trained in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hematology/Oncology at Heidelberg University Hospital. From 2002 to 2005, he worked as a research fellow in Roberto Cattaneo´s laboratory in the Molecular Medicine Program at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA in the field of basic virology and oncolytic virotherapy.

Pat Smullen Chair in Pancreatic Cancer
Professor of Oncology
St. Vincent’s University Hospital and University College Dublin
Associate Investigator Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.

Dr. Grainne O’Kane is a GI medical oncologist and the newly appointed Pat Smullen Chair in Pancreatic Cancer at St Vincent’s University Hospital Dublin and University College Dublin. Dr O’Kane completed her medical and oncology training in Ireland prior to commencing a fellowship in GI/thoracic oncology at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto in 2016. She joined faculty as a Clinician Investigator and Assistant Professor at The University of Toronto in 2019 specialising in liver and pancreatic cancers. Her primary research has been in integrative molecular profiling of tumours for biomarker development and she is PI of a number of investigator initiated studies in HPB malignancies. In particular she has an interest in immune checkpoint inhibitor combinations prior to surgery and transplant for HCC. Dr O’Kane’s translational research in liver and pancreatic cancer has resulted in a number of awards from ASCO, ESMO and AACR and she has published over 100 manuscripts in peer reviewed journals.

Paola Cappello is Head of the Tumour Immune Microenvironment Group at the "Guido Tarone" Centre for Molecular Biotechnology and Full Professor of Immunology and Pathology at the University of Turin. There she also completed her studies in Biological Sciences and her Ph.D. in Immunology in 2001. After her Ph.D. at the Dept of Clinical and Biological Sciences, she worked as post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Experimental Medicine and Research of the Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, where she developed an active interest in the study of the anti-tumor immune response in pancreatic cancer patients, with the aim of defining targets that could be exploited in the design of novel immunotherapy strategies. In 2004, she was awarded a FIRC grant for the immunological characterization of a pancreatic cancer-associated antigen. Over the following years, she generated a first DNA vaccine based on this research. This was further improved over time into a second-generation vaccine, designed to induce a more robust lymphocyte response. She then filed a patent for this vaccine with colleagues in the department. She spent a couple of years in Prof. Tak Mak's laboratory at the Campbell Family Institute for Cancer Research in Toronto, Canada, where she developed her biological and molecular skills. Her research group is currently engaged in the study of tumor and immune crosstalk with the objective of defining novel combined therapies that can be used in conjunction with conventional or immunotherapy. She is the Coordinator of the Ph.D. program in Molecular Medicine at the University of Turin.

Prof. Riccardo Casadei is Director of Unità Operativa Complessa (UOC) for Pancreatic and Endocrine Surgery at Sant’Orsola University Hospital in Bologna (IRCCS), Italy. He is also Full Professor of General Surgery at the University of Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum.

He authored 255 published innovative scientific articles scoring an H-index of 37 on Scopus. His field of research focuses on pancreatic pathology and in particular on pancreatic adenocarcinoma (improving outcomes via early diagnostics employing liquid biopsy, pioneering innovative approaches in surgery and devising strategies in neoadjuvant therapies), on pre-cancerous lesions such as IPMN, and on neuroendocrine and gastroentreropancreatic tumors. Following these lines of research he joined several international multicentric studies and both national and international registers, conveying the experience of his Institute. He’s currently promoting two experimental studies: the first on microbiota (MIRAGE study) aiming at ascertaining whether the intestinal microbiota plays a part in the risk of complications following pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple Procedure) in periampullary carcinoma  patients; the second on ‘long survivors in pancreatic adenocarcinoma’, which aims to evaluate the most common genetic mutations in this subset of patients in order to inform the most appropriate therapeutic strategy.

He is Associate Editor of the Update in Surgery Journal (UPIS) of the Italian Society of Surgery (Q1), chapter “The Pancreas”.

Giovanni Marchegiani is a pancreas surgeon scientist at the Hepato-biliary-pancreatic (HPB) and Liver transplant surgery service of the Padova University Hospital. As an academic, he is appointed as assistant professor of surgery at the same university, and he holds the habilitation for Full Professor in General Surgery since 2018 by the Italian Ministry of Public Health. He holds a PhD at the Verona University in Inflammation, Immunity and Cancer for Pancreas Sciences. He served as a Research Fellow in Pancreas Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) of the Harvard University in Boston, USA. During his surgical training, he did serval clinical and research experiences at the NYU University of New York and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, USA. His training in Pancreas Surgery was mainly performed at the Pancreas Institute of the Verona University, the leading Institution of Italy, where he also served as a faculty for 5 years.

From the scientific standpoint, he is author of more than 380 articles in peer reviewed journals. In 2025 his H-index is 56, i10-index 191 and total citation as high as 16368. For his research he has been awarded with several national and international grants for a total value of more than 200k euro.

He is currently the secretary of the International Study Group for Pancreas Surgery (ISGPS). This is the main study group for the definition and classification of outcome in pancreas surgery worldwide. He is the viceChair of the Program Committee of the European-African HepatoPancreatoBiliary Association (E-AHPBA). He is also the Chair of the Quality-of-Care Committee of the United European Gastroenterology (UEG). The committee is responsible for providing new and update already existing Guidelines in the GI world. He is president and faculty of the “Pancreas2000” Education course promoted by the European Pancreas Club. The course is the most important educational activity in Pancreatology in Europe.

From the editorial standpoint, he is Editor of the British Journal of Surgery (BJS) open for HPB and Associate Editor of the European Digestive Surgery journals.

Federica Marchesi, PhD
Head of the Tissue Oncoimmunology Lab
Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translatioanl Medicine, University of Milan

Federica Marchesi is Associate Professor of General Pathology and head of the Laboratory of Tissue Oncoimmunology in the Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, at the University of Milan. 

She received her PhD from the Open University in 2006, training in the Department of Immunology led by Prof. Alberto Mantovani, and she then moved to the United States, to train as a post-doctoral fellow at the Mount Sinai Immunobiology Institute in New York (NY). Back to Milan, she worked as Project Leader at the Humanitas Research Hospital, leading projects aimed at evaluating immune cells as prognostic and predictive markers in cancer patients, with pancreatic adenocarcinoma standing as one of her main focuses. The strategy has been to combine a solid knowledge in cancer research with the clinical expertise of the Pancreatic Surgery Unit led by Prof. Alessandro Zerbi, at Humanitas. The constant and bidirectional interaction has allowed integrating different approaches to answer important clinical questions related to pancreatic disorders. One of the key questions is whether we can study and profile pancreatic cancer patients in a way that allows identification of immune subgroups with distinct clinical features. 

Professor Michele Reni is Head of Medical Oncology Department, director of the strategic clinical coordination program of the Pancreas Center at the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele and associate professor of Oncology at the Vita e Salute University. He is member of the Cancer Center Board of the IRCCS San Raffaele, member of the Working Group on Pancreatic Tumors of the General Welfare Directorate of the Lombardy Region. He is a member of the ministerial control room for the implementation of a network of “Pancreas Unit” centers. After graduating in Medicine and Surgery, he specialized in Radiotherapy and obtained a second specialization in Medical Oncology. From both a clinical and research perspective, Professor Reni is interested in the treatment of pancreatic tumors. In particular, his main contribution has been to coordinate over 25 independent studies and to be principal investigator of over 50 experimental studies that have allowed modifying the standard therapy of pancreatic cancer. He is the coordinator of the guidelines for pancreatic cancer of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology. He is the author and co-author of over 270 publications in scientific journals and book chapters, most of which on pancreatic cancer. He regularly participates as a lecturer in national and international conferences in the sector.

Associate Professor of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Kyoto University, Japan. Dr Akihisa Fukuda obtained his MD and PhD at Kyoto University in Japan. He then joined the laboratory of Dr Matthias Hebrok at the University of California, San Francisco, as a postdoctoral researcher, where he revealed a role for Stat3 signaling as well as a role of BRG1, a core subunit of SWISNF chromatin remodeling complex, in the initiation and progression of pancreatic cancer. Dr Akihisa Fukuda then joined the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Kyoto University, Japan in 2012. His laboratory studies the role of SWISNF chromatin remodeling factors in the initiation and progression of pancreatic cancer. His team developed novel mouse models of IPMN and ITPN recapitulating human diseases, where they revealed cellular origins and the molecular mechanisms by which the are formed. More recently, his team demonstrated that the membrane protein RECK positively regulates E-cadherin expression via MMPs, and that loss of RECK expression causes loss of E-cadherin expression, leading to EMT and metastasis in pancreatic cancer, while also promoting pancreatic cancer development itself. Most recently, his team demonstrated that PBRM1 wild-type pancreatic cancer is well-differentiated, less metastatic, the classical subtype, and is sensitive to chemotherapy, whereas in PBRM1-deficient pancreatic cancer, vimentin expression is increased, leading to poorly differentiated/undifferentiated cancer, squamous subtype, induction of EMT, increased metastasis, and chemotherapy resistance. In addition, as the principal investigator of a multi-institutional research group, he has led the collaborative effort for the development of novel pancreatic cancer biomarkers. He collaborated with industry on “Developing an early diagnosis method for pancreatic cancer using serum microRNAs.” The pancreatic cancer discrimination model using 100 miRNAs + CA19-9 demonstrated extremely high diagnostic performance: 90% sensitivity, 98% specificity, and an AUC of 0.99. He published a paper on this in 2024 and are currently working towards its societal implementation. In addition to running his laboratory, he is engaged in the clinical practice of pancreatic cancer as a board certified supervisory physician of the Japan Pancreas Society.

Takuji Okusaka is a Japanese medical oncologist specializing in pancreatic, biliary tract, and liver cancers. He serves as chief at the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Oncology in the National Cancer Center Hospital in Japan and has played a central role in the development of clinical practice guidelines for pancreatic and biliary tract cancers through national guideline committees. His work spans clinical practice, translational research, and education, with a strong focus on biomarker-driven therapy and precision oncology. He is also a founder and core leader of a nationwide medical professional network dedicated to supporting patients with pancreatic and biliary cancers, promoting multidisciplinary collaboration among healthcare professionals, patients, industry, academia, and government.

Anders Molven is Professor of Molecular Pathology at the University of Bergen and also affiliated with Section for Cancer Genomics at Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen. He has published nearly 200 scientific papers, most of them on endocrine and exocrine diseases of the pancreas and various cancer-related topics. He has obtained more than 10,000 scientific citations and €6m in grants. He has been in the leadership of several large research projects with extensive international collaboration and is frequently used as evaluator of grant applications and scientific papers. Molven is former President of the European Pancreatic Club and has been Fulbright fellow at Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Caroline Verbeke is a senior consultant pathologist at Oslo University Hospital and professor of pathology at the University of Oslo. She trained in histopathology in Belgium and Germany, following which she worked as a consultant pathologist and researcher in the USA, UK, Sweden and Norway. She has more than 25 years of experience in the field of diagnostic and experimental pathology of pancreatic disease, in particular human and murine pancreatic cancer. She is actively involved at a national and international level in the development of diagnostic data sets and guidelines for the reporting of pancreatic disease. She is co-author of the upcoming 6th edition of the WHO Classification of tumours of the digestive system. Her research group focuses on tumour heterogeneity, characterization of residual pancreatic cancer following neoadjuvant treatment, stromal biology, and metabolism. She is leader of the Norwegian Cancer Society’s National Group of Expertise on Pancreatic Cancer Research.

Peter Bailey PhD is Director of Translational Research at the Botton-Champalimaud Pancreatic Cancer (BCPCC), Lisbon. Dr. Bailey has made seminal contributions to the classification of pancreatic cancer “Bailey subtypes” and has contributed to the genomic characterisation of several cancers including pancreatic neuroendocrine, oesophageal, and ovarian cancer as a member of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC). Working closely with Professor Markus Büchler and his surgical group, Dr. Bailey leads a 30 strong team of experts in pathology, molecular oncology, systems biology and cancer genomics. Translational Research at the BCPCC aims to understand the complexity of pancreatic cancer and to create rational, personalized therapeutic strategies for patients. Translational Research at the BCPCC is supported by a 50 million euro donation from the Würth Foundation.

Professor Markus W. Büchler is Director of the Botton-Champalimaud Pancreatic Cancer Centre Lisbon, Portugal and is widely regarded as a pioneer in pancreatic surgery. For over 20 years, Professor Büchler served as Chairman of Surgery at Heidelberg University Hospital, developing it into a world-leading center for surgical oncology. A leader in evidence-based oncology, Professor Büchler co-founded the European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer (ESPAC). His leadership in these landmark trials has revolutionized global treatment standards. A prolific \"clinician-scientist\" with over 2,700 publications, Professor Büchler’s work has earned him \"Living Legend\" status from the IHPBA (2020), German Cancer Prize (2021), Willy Robert Pitzer Prize (2025) and Johann Georg Zimmermann Medal (2025). He holds honorary fellowships from the American College of Surgeons and the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (UK). At the Botton-Champalimaud Pancreatic Cancer Centre (BCPCC), Professor Büchler leads a unique facility integrating cutting-edge research and clinical care. Professor Büchler’s research is generously supported by a 50 million euro donation from the Würth Foundation through the establishment of the Würth Research Centre of Hope for Pancreatic Cancer.

Sónia Melo, MD, PhD, is a medical doctor at Hospital de São João and a Principal Investigator at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S), University of Porto in Portugal. She is also an Associate Invited Professor in the Department of Pathology and Oncology at the University of Porto Medical School (FMUP). Dr. Melo leads a basic and translational cancer research laboratory that studies pancreatic cancer biology and exosomes-mediated communication with the goal of developing novel therapeutic strategies for patients.

Sónia Melo, MD, PhD
Medical Doctor at Unidade Local de Saúde São João
Principal Investigator at i3S, Institute for Research and Innovation in Health
Associate Professor Invited at FMUP, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto FMUP
Scientific Committee Member of P.CCC, Porto Comprehensive Cancer Center Raquel Seruca
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-2291-4263
https://soniameloteam.com

Alessandro Zerbi is currently the Director of the Pancreatic Surgery Unit at the Humanitas Research Hospital in Rozzano (Milan, Italy) and he is Full Professor of Surgery at Humanitas University. He graduated and completed his residency in General Surgery at the State University of Milan. From 1987 to 2003 he worked as general surgeon at the Surgical Department of San Raffaele Hospital of  directed by Professor Di Carlo. He broadened his knowledge on pancreatic surgery during stages at MGH, Boston (1988, Prof Warshaw) and at Ulm Hospital, Germany (1990 and 1995, Prof Beger). From 2004 to 2009 he directed the Pancreatic Surgery Unit of San Raffaele Hospital. Since 2010 he is the chief of Pancreatic Surgery at the Humanitas Cancer Center. He performed as first surgeon more than 2.000 pancreatic resections; his Unit currently performs about 200 pancreatic and duodenal resections/year. From 2015 to 2017 he was the President of the Italian Association of Pancreatology (AISP). His main areas of clinical and research interest are the benign and malignant diseases of the pancreas and the technical aspects of pancreatic surgery. He coordinated the group who settled the Italian Guidelines for Acute Pancreatitis and contributed to the Italian Guidelines on Chronic Pancreatitis, to the Italian and European Guidelines on Cystic Pancreatic Tumors. He currently coordinates the Screening Program for Familiar Pancreatic Cancer in Italy and the Italian Group for minimally invasive pancreatic surgery (IGoMIPS). He is author of 291 scientific articles, official H index (Scopus): 60

Alfredo Carrato is presently Emeritus Professor of Medical Oncology at Alcala University and the Chairperson of Pancreatic Cancer Europe, https://pancreaticcancereurope.eu, a European multi-stakeholder platform to improve the outcome of pancreatic cancer patients (Brussels). He is currently giving support to cancer research at the Ramon y Cajal Research Institute -IRYCIS, and Spanish Cooperative Group of Digestive Tumors (TTD), both in Madrid, Spain. He has served as Director of the Ramon y Cajal Institute for Health Research -IRYCIS from March 2015 until December 2019. He was President of the National Advisory Commission of Medical Oncology at the Spanish Ministries of Health and Education (2003 - 2014) and was the past President of the Spanish Society of Cancer Research (ASEICA) and the Spanish Federation of Oncologic Societies (FESEO), from 2013 - 2015. He was President of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) (2005 – 2007). He has been Director of the Research Group on Pancreatic Cancer at the Spanish Network of Cancer Research – CIBERONC until December 2024. He served as Director of the Medical Oncology Department and full Professor of Oncology at Elche University Hospital, Miguel Hernández University (2000-2008) and Ramón y Cajal University Hospital, Alcalá University (2008-2021). Dr. Carrato has been entirely involved in translational research projects, on molecular epidemiology and biology of solid tumors, mainly in pancreatic cancer, in national (CNIO, CIBERONC), European and US networks. His clinical research mostly focuses on digestive tract cancer. He has been fully trained in Good Clinical Practice and has participated in hundreds of clinical trials, leading many of them. The American Society for Clinical Oncology – Quality Oncology Practice (ASCO-QOPI) has accredited, in 2017 and 2021, the Ramon y Cajal Medical Oncology Department as committed and dedicated to Quality Care of patients with cancer. He was Vice President of the Spanish Cooperative Group for the Treatment of Digestive Tumors (TTD) (2016-2020) and of the Excellence and Quality Foundation on Cancer (ECO) (2019-2021). Dr. Carrato has served as a member of the editorial board for relevant international journals (Journal of Clinical Oncology, among others), as a reviewer for national and international research projects, and has contributed to more than 390 publications in peer reviewed journals, H index of 79, more than 600 abstracts at medical congresses. He is an active member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), being ESMO faculty member for the Gastro-Intestinal Tumors faculty group for the period 2017-2022, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) being a panel member of the American College of Pathologists (ACP)-ASCO 2017 Her-2 Guidelines in Gastric Cancer and serves as member of the ASCO-QOPI Certification Program’s Taskforce.

Teresa Macarulla, MD, PhD, received her medical degree from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain. Afterwards, she completed her specialist training in medical  oncology and has had appointments in Barcelona. 

Dr Macarulla is currently a physician in the Medical Oncology Department at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Dr Macarulla is also the head of the GI Cancer Program  Unit  since  April  2017.  She is working in the  gastrointestinal tumors team. She is involved in translational research and pharmacodynamic phase I studies with molecular  targeted  therapies and related translational research, with a special focus on EGFR inhibitors. She is also involved in phase II and III studies with new chemotherapy agents in gastrointestinal tumors, with special interest in hepatobiliopancreatic tumors.  

Dr Macarulla is the author of numerous publications, many focusing on hepatobiliopancreatic tumors and new  drugs, and she has authored communications at different conferences. She  actively  participates in the development of national and international clinical investigations, especially in relation to drugs directed against molecular  targets, as well as clinical  investigations for new chemotherapy agents. Dr Macarulla is also an ad  hoc reviewer for various oncology journals.  In  addition,  Dr  Macarulla is an active member of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology, European Society for Medical Oncology, and American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Dr Mariano Ponz-Sarvise is a Medical Oncologist (MD, PhD), specialized in gastrointestinal malignancies (hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB)). He was trained in Medical Oncology (including his PhD) in Spain (Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Universidad de Navarra). On 2011 he moved to the US for a postdoc stage. His first postdoc was performed under the guidance of Dr. Mien-Chie Hung at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Department of Cellular and Molecular Oncology). Then he moved to a second postdoc focused on pancreatic cancer with Dr. Dave Tuveson at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). In the end of 2015 he moved back to Spain to continue his clinical and research activities at Clinica Universidad de Navarra. He lead the phase I unit until 2023 and now is leading the HPB group in the medical oncology department. In addition, he is Co-PI (with Dr. Silve Vicent) of the Pancreatobiliary Group at the recently created Cancer Center Clinica Universidad de Navarra. He has published more than 45 peer-review manuscripts, accounting for an H-index of 28. He is PI in several HPB focused clinical trials in all developmental stages.

Fernando Rotellar, MD PhD, is Head of the Department of Abdominal and General Surgery and Director of the HPB and Liver Transplant Unit at Clinica Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona and Madrid, Spain, where he is staff surgeon since 2002. In 2008 he obtained his PhD degree and was then appointed as Consultant Surgeon and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. He has also obtained both the European Board Accreditation (UEMS) in HPB Surgery and in Transplantation (multiorgan retrieval and liver transplantation).

With a solid background in advanced laparoscopic procedures (adrenal, hiatal hernia, bariatric and oncological procedures), and as a specialist in HPB and Liver Transplant surgery he has contributed to develop and expand the minimally invasive approach in HPB surgery. After a significant experience in laparoscopic liver surgery, he also contributed to develop the laparoscopic approach in living donor hepatectomies for adult liver transplantation. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and described different minimally invasive surgical techniques and approaches for both liver and pancreatic procedures.

Matthias Löhr is currently the president of UEG, previously secretary general of EPC and program director of Pancreas 2000. He is working with the pancreas for many decades. Löhr earned his MD from the University of Hamburg in Germany with MD thesis in pancreatic pathology with Günter Klöppel. After residency in pathology, postdoc at Scripps, La Jolla, CA. 1989-93 residency in Internal Medicine, Univ. of Erlangen, then Univ. of Rostock where he obtained his PhD on the molecular biology of the connective tissue in pancreatic diseases. 2000-07 Professor of Molecular Gastroenterology at Univ. of Heidelberg and head of a division at German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). Since 2007, professor of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Karolinska Institutet. Löhr led UEG guidelines for chronic pancreatitis (HaPanEU), IgG4-related diseases, and for Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency. PI of early-phase clinical trials in pancreatic cancer. EU projects MolDiaPaCa, EPC-TM-Net, CanDo, PRECODE (active), PancAIM (active), PANCAID(active), GUIDE.MRD (active). Head of the Pancreas team at Karolinska and the HPB tumor network at CancerResearchKI where he is also in the steering committee. He received the life time achievement award of EPC in 2023. Current areas of interest are chronic and autoimmune pancreatitis,pancreatic function/PEI, IPMN, familiar pancreatic cancer/IAR, early pancreatic cancer, and liquid biopsy.

 

Matthias Löhr

matthias.lohr@ki.se

Daniel Öhlund is Associate Professor of Oncology and Consultant Physician at Umeå University and Umeå University Hospital. He leads a translational research program focused on the tumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancer, with particular emphasis on cancer-associated fibroblast heterogeneity and stromal modulation. He completed his postdoctoral training with Prof. David Tuveson at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he co-developed organoid-based co-culture systems that have since shaped the field’s understanding of fibroblast subtypes.

Dr. Öhlund has received over 60 million SEK in competitive research funding, including grants from the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Research Council, and the Wallenberg Foundations. He has published extensively in high-impact journals such as Journal of Experimental Medicine, Cancer Immunology Research, and Cancer Research, and his work has been cited widely in the field of tumor biology. He serves as Chair of the Swedish Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer (SSPAC), and is the Swedish national coordinator for the ESPAC-6 trial.

His research has led to the identification of novel therapeutic strategies, including galectin-4 blockade and fibroblast reprogramming (oncofibrotherapy), and he is actively involved in patent development and clinical translation.

Claudia Mellenthin is a family physician for 15 years in Schmitten, Switzerland. She is also clinical lecturer at the Institute of Family Medicine of the University of Fribourg and part of the Surgical Research Unit of the Hospital Fribourg. Her research is specialized on the link between pancreatic cancer and diabetes, both in the context of early diagnosis and the link to inflammation. She has presented on this topic both orally and with posters on national and international conferences and authored several papers on this topic.

Also engaged in the Swiss self-help organization for pancreatic illness and leading the Laufteam Lila, a running team to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer, she is very involved in pancreatic cancer actions in Switzerland.

Elisa Giovannetti, is the head of the “Molecular mechanism of Drug Activity” group at the Department of Medical Oncology, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She received her M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2000 and 2007, respectively. Between 2001 and 2004, she contributed to translational studies on pharmacogenetics as clinical fellow in Pharmacology in the Department of Oncology at Pisa University.  Since 2006, she has been working at the Cancer Center Amsterdam, where she established a research line focusing on the (epi)genetic determinants of drug activity and molecular mechanisms underlying chemoresistance in pancreatic cancer. Her current research interests also include the role of omics and liquid biopsies in predicting drug activity and resistance. In 2016, she was promoted to Associate Professor, and in 2022, she received habilitation as Full Professor. Additionally, she serves as Principal Investigator of a Start-Up lab at the Fondazione Pisana per la Scienza, in Pisa. 

She is a laureate of the MSCA-IF and L'Oréal-UNESCO programs and has secured over 25 million euros in funding from various international organizations, including the European FP7, MSCA, and COST Action initiatives, as well as the Italian Association for Research Against Cancer (AIRC, Start-Up and IG grants), the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, VENI grant), and the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF). Prof. Giovannetti is also actively involved, as Past-Chair, in research projects within the Pharmacology (PAMM) group of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), as well as in studies of the European Pancreatic Club (EPC).  She has mentored over 30 PhD students and postdocs, many of whom now hold prominent roles in academia and industry.

Marc Besselink (1976) is the professor of Pancreatic and Hepatobiliary (HPB) surgery at Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He studied at Utrecht University (Medicine) and as postgraduate at Oxford University (MSc Evidence Based Health Care). In 2002, he co-founded the Dutch Pancreatitis Study Group (DPSG, www.pancreatitis.nl), in 2012 the Dutch Pancreatic Cancer Group (DPCG, www.dpcg.nl) in 2016 the European Consortium on Minimally Invasive Pancreatic Surgery (E-MIPS; www.e-mips.com), in 2019 the Global Audits of Pancreatic Surgery (GAPASURG, www.gapasurg.com) consortium, in 2023 the European Consortium of Advanced Pancreatic Surgery (E-CAPS, https://e-caps.org) and in 2024 the Transatlantic Robotic Pancreas Consortium (TROPANC). He was trained as a surgeon in Utrecht, Amsterdam, and Southampton. Marc has co-authored over 900 peer-reviewed papers and has (co-)designed over 35 randomized controlled multicenter trials in the field of pancreatic and hepato-biliary surgery. He is the current chair of the scientific committee of the Dutch Pancreatic Cancer Group, the 2025-2027 Past-President of EAHPBA, the co-lead of the 2023-2025 Multi-societal European Evidence-Based Guideline on Pancreatic Cancer, the Pancreas editor for Annals of Surery, and the congress chair of “IHPBA 2030 The Netherlands”. You can follow Marc on BlueSky and X.

Bas Groot Koerkamp is a professor of pancreatobiliary surgery at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His clinical focus is on HPB oncology and abdominal transplantation. His research focus is on phase II/III clinical trials in pancreato-biliary oncology. He is the PI of the PREOPANC-2/3 trials for neoadjuvant treatment of pancreatic cancer, the PUMP-trials for intra-arterial chemotherapy, and the TESLA trials for percutaneous primary stenting for malignant hilar obstruction.

Eithne Costello is a Professor of Molecular Oncology in the Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at the University of Liverpool. Eithne gained a B.Sc. and PhD in Pharmacology, at University College Dublin. She undertook post-doctoral training at the Swiss Institute for Cancer Research (ISREC), Lausanne and subsequently at the Institute of Microbiology, University of Lausanne. She leads a Cancer Research UK-funded programme, the UK Early Detection Initiative for Pancreatic Cancer (UK-EDI), aimed at detecting pancreatic cancer in individuals newly diagnosed with diabetes. Understanding the biology underpinning pancreatic cancer -related diabetes is a key area of her team’s research. Their work is supported by funding from Cancer Research UK, Pancreatic Cancer UK, The UK’s National Institute for Health Research and the European Union. She is on the UK management committee and is a Working Group lead for the European Union TRANSPAN COST ACTION and is an elected member of the Board of Directors of Pancreatic Cancer Europe. She is a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

Paula Ghaneh is a Professor of Surgery and Deputy Head of the Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at the University of Liverpool and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Her research interests are in pancreatic cancer diagnosis, treatment and clinical trials. Her clinical trial research into PET CT and work with adjuvant therapy trials has been included in the evidence base for the NICE Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Pancreatic Cancer. She has led the ESPAC 5 trial which demonstrated improved survival with neoadjuvant therapy in patients with borderline resectable pancreatic cancer. She is National Clinical Lead for HPB Cancer (NHS England). She has Chaired the Best Practice Timed Pathway Task and Finish Group for Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Cancer, the Service Specifications for HPB cancer (NHS England) and the Optimising Care Pathway for Pancreatic Cancer (Pancreatic Cancer UK). She is a member of the MRC Clinical Training and Career Development Panel, the Clinical Reference Group of the National Pancreatic Cancer Audit (NPACA) and the HPB Clinical Reference Group NHS England.

Bill Greenhalf is Professor of Molecular Oncology at the University of Liverpool and Director of the Liverpool Good Clinical Practice Laboratory Facility (GCPLab). His research focuses on the molecular genetics and early detection of pancreatic cancer, and on developing the laboratory infrastructure required to support translational and early-phase clinical trials. He also serves as Scientific Lead for the Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) and for EUROPAC, the UK’s leading familial pancreatic cancer research programme.

Professor Greenhalf has extensive experience in translational cancer research spanning academia and industry, including postdoctoral positions at Ciba-Geigy/Novartis in Basel and academic appointments in the UK and Brazil. His work integrates genomic analysis, biomarker development and clinical studies to improve early detection and patient stratification in pancreatic and hepatobiliary cancers.

He has led or co-led numerous major research initiatives funded by organisations including Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and the Department of Health and Social Care. His current portfolio includes leadership roles in the Liverpool ECMC, the EUROPAC programme, and national clinical trial infrastructure projects. He has authored over 180 peer-reviewed publications, including more than 50 as first or senior author, and has contributed extensively to collaborative international research aimed at improving outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer.

CRUK Scotland Institute

Glasgow, UK

Jen Morton is head of the Preclinical Pancreatic Cancer Laboratory at the CRUK Scotland (formerly Beatson) Institute and a Professor in the University of Glasgow School of Cancer Sciences. She qualified with a BSc in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Glasgow in 1998 and gained her PhD in Molecular Oncology in 2002. She carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Glasgow and then, from 2004 - 2007, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, at which time she started to specialize in pancreatic cancer research. In 2007 she joined the CRUK Beatson Institute where she now leads a lab focused on research into pancreatic cancer. Her lab uses genetically engineered mouse models which develop pancreatic tumors that mimic the human disease in terms of the genes altered, the dense desmoplastic stroma, and their resistance to therapy. Work in her lab has generated insights into the importance of specific genetic changes identified in human tumors, metastasis, and the role of the microenvironment in supporting tumor growth and resistance to therapies. She works with both academic and industry collaborators to identify novel targets for therapy, both in tumor cells and in the microenvironment, and test new therapies preclinically to guide more effective clinical trials

Link to website here

Professor Daniel Palmer BSc, MBChB, FRCP, PhD
Director, Cancer Research UK Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre
Professor and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology, University of Liverpool
Professor Palmer took his current position of Chair in Medical Oncology at the University of Liverpool in 2011. 

His research interests relate to HPB cancers (liver, pancreas and biliary tract) and incorporate basic laboratory science, translational research and clinical trials. His laboratory research is currently investigating novel therapeutic approaches to the treatment of HPB cancer through stimulation of anti-tumour immune responses and targeting tumour micro-environment, and developing and validating biomarkers for a stratified approach to the treatment of pancreatic cancers. With colleagues in Liverpool he also has an interest in early detection of pancreatic cancer and is a core member of the ESPAC group. He is a member of the UK hepatobiliary and pancreatic Clinical Studies Groups and has been Chief Investigator for a number of national and international clinical trials in liver and pancreatic cancer. He is Director of the Cancer Research UK/NIHR Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and has established a portfolio of early phase clinical trials and translational studies associated with a large clinical practice for patients with pancreatic cancer.

Michael Schmid, PhD, MSc

Professor Michael Schmid is a research group leader and the Head of the Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine, University of Liverpool, UK. He received his PhD from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and completed his postdoctoral training at the Moores Cancer Center, UCSD, USA. Professor Schmid’s lab performs a research programme on the tumour microenvironment in pancreatic cancer metastasis.  The main goal of his team is to gain a better understanding of where, when and how host immune cells enhance or suppress metastatic progression in pancreatic cancer to develop new treatments and diagnostics.

Website: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/michael-schmid