Dr. Crystal L. Mackall, MD, serves as a Professor of Pediatrics and of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Mackall co-leads the StandUp2Cancer/St.Baldrick’s/NCI Pediatric Dream Team. An expert in the field of T-cell homeostasis, Dr. Mackall has experience leading clinical trials of engineered T-cell and Natural Killer cell therapies. Her work focuses on translational research and immunotherapy for childhood cancers. She has been Member of Scientific Advisory Board at Unum Therapeutics, Inc. since February 2, 2016. She serves as Associate Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute, Co-Medical Director of the Stanford Laboratory for Cell and Gene Medicine, and as Program Leader in pediatric cancer immunotherapy. She served as Head of Immunology Section and Chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch at National Cancer Institute having spent much of her career.

Dr. John Bell received his PhD from McMaster University in 1982. The three years that followed, he trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa and then at the Medical Research Council in London, England. Dr. Bell began his independent research career at McGill University in 1986 and moved to the University of Ottawa, Department of Medicine, in 1989. He is a member of the Center for Cancer Therapeutics at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Center, a Senior Scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He heads the Canadian Oncolytic Virus Consortium, a Terry Fox funded group from across Canada that is developing virus based cancer therapeutics and is the Director of the Biotherapeutics Program for the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. He is the Scientific Director of the National Centre of Excellence for the development of Biotherapeutics for Cancer Therapy and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr. Pierce is an ophthalmologist and molecular geneticist whose research program is dedicated to understanding the molecular mechanisms of Inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs) and improving therapeutic interventions for these conditions. IRDs are a leading cause of blindness worldwide, and are characterized by progressive dysfunctionand death of retinal photoreceptor cells. Dr. Pierce's research program is focused on identifying new IRD disease genes, investigating the mechanism by which mutations in the identified genes lead to blindness, and using this information about disease pathogenesis to develop gene and genetic therapies to prevent vision loss.

Dr. Young studies the repair of the mature, diseased central nervous system, specifically the degeneration that occurs in the retina during disease or injury. He is currently studying human retinal stem cells with the goal of transplanting these cells to the diseased eye to establish functional connectivity between donor retinal stem cells and the mature, diseased host retina. Studies include gene and protein expression, substrate specific differentiation, and retinal transplantation in mice and pigs.

Dr. Charles G. Drake is an Associate Professor of Oncology, Urology, and Immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Drake’s expertise is in the use of checkpoint inhibitors, the immunotherapy agents that have made such an impact in the treatment of certain solid tumors. His work has also recently been focused on the use of radiation in conjunction with checkpoint blockade.

Dr. Marcela V. Maus is the Director of Cellular Immunotherapy at the MGH Cancer Center and a Member of the Faculty at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Maus has performed extensive investigations in the biology of T cell receptors, including the design and manufacture of chimeric antigen receptors – so called CARs – a technology that has already revolutionized the treatment of certain blood cancers.

Leisha Emens is an Associate Professor of Oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center where she and specializes in cancer immunotherapy. Her research focuses on the development and implementation of breast cancer immunotherapies (including vaccination strategies and immune checkpoint blockade) in combination with traditional anticancer therapies and newer biologically targeted therapies. She is a member of the FDA Advisory Committee on Cell, Tissue, and Gene Therapies, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer Research, and the Journal for the Immunotherapy of Cancer.

Amongst other topics, Dr. Emens will discuss her work with breast GVAX, a vaccine that has already demonstrated safety and immune activity in in early trials. This year Dr. Emens, and co-investigator, Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee will combine GVAX with a newly developed immune adjuvant called STING to enhance immunity.

Dr. Louis Weiner, Director of the Lombardi Cancer Center, Board member of the Antibody Society, and co-founder of Jounce Therapeutics is an internationally recognized medical oncologist specializing in the treatment in gastrointestinal cancers. Additionally, Dr. Weiner is an accomplished researcher developing novel immunotherapy treatments for cancer, widely known for his work in antibody-based therapeutics, including the development of bi-specific antibodies.

Dr. Dario Vignali PhD, Vice Chair and Professor of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who will present “Targeting T-Regs” with a focus on LAG-3 in New York City.

Dr. Christopher Heery, MD, Director of the Clinical Trials Group of Tumor Immunology and Biology at the National Cancer Institute, and an expert in the field of cancer vaccines.