On Tuesday, Nov. 3, experts in genetics, immunology, epidemiology, biology and pathology from the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins will discuss their projections for the future of cancer research and the challenges and opportunities facing cancer doctors and patients today. Topics discussed during the forum, which will be held from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Kimmel Cancer Center’s Albert H. Owens Jr. Auditorium, may include the promise of research fields such as precision medicine, immunotherapy, and cancer prevention.

 

Part of the forum will honor philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, for whom the cancer center is named. He is expected to give closing remarks.

 

Watch a recorded version of the forum.

 

William Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., the Marion I. Knott Director and Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, will moderate the panel.

 

Panelists include:

• Theodore DeWeese, M.D., the Sidney Kimmel Professor and Director of the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, will discuss how scientists are developing more tailored approaches to radiation therapy and determining how radiation pairs with other drug therapies.

 

• Immunologist and oncologist Charles Drake, M.D., Ph.D., will discuss the intersection between immunotherapy and genetics, and how scientists are learning which patients may benefit most from particular combinations of therapies.

 

• Andrew Holland, Ph.D., a molecular biologist and geneticist in Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, who is studying how cell division goes wrong, contributing to faulty genomes and, eventually, cancer.

 

• Cancer prevention expert Elizabeth Platz, Sc.D., an epidemiologist from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Martin D. Abeloff, M.D., Scholar in Cancer Prevention, will discuss the integration of genomics in population science.

 

• Laura Wood, M.D., Ph.D., a pathologist, will discuss how cells morph from a precancerous state to invasive cancer.

 

• Scientist Srinivasan “Vasan” Yegnasubramanian, M.D., Ph.D., who directs the Kimmel Cancer Center’s genome sequencing center.