Each year, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) convenes researchers at the leading edge of oncology at its Annual Meeting. This year, the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research is proud to spotlight many grantees and community members among the presenters and session chairs. From decoding cancer risk factors to harnessing the microbiome to fight cancer, these bold thinkers are redefining the boundaries of the possible. Here are some of the presentations we are excited to attend this year.
April 17
1:05-1:25 PM
Professional Development Session: Grant Writing Workshop: Tips for Success from Experienced Scientists
Presenter: ASPIRE Awardee Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, National Cancer Institute
Presentation: The importance of grant writing: Perspectives from the NCI Director
Grand Hall A – Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego
4:45 PM – 6:15 PM
Educational Session: Extracellular Matrix Remodeling in the Tumor Microenvironment and Distant Niches
Presenter: Emerging Leader Award winner Jose Javier Bravo-Cordero, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Presentation: The contribution of the ECM microenvironment to metastatic dormancy
Ballroom 20 CD – Upper Level – Convention Center
4:45 PM – 6:15 PM
Educational Session: When Tumors Act Like Viruses: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Frontiers
Presenter: Nicholas Vabret, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, recipient of Aging and Cancer Award jointly presented by The Mark Foundation, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, The Cancer Research Institute And The American Cancer Society
Presentation: Immune responses to viral mimicry in the TME
Room 31 – Upper Level – Convention Center
April 18
8:00-9:30 AM
Educational Session: Improving Cancer Outcomes by Shaping the Tumor Macroenvironment
Presenter: Endeavor Awardee Ayelet Erez, MD, PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science
Presentation: Deciphering the tumor host cross talk to improve cancer therapy
Ballroom 6 B – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:00-11:30 AM
Educational Session: Tumor Immunology For Non-Immunologists: Back to Basics
Chair and presenter: Emerging Leader Award winner Greg Delgoffe, PhD, The University of Pittsburgh
Presentation: Tumor-induced immune suppression and its targeting with checkpoint blockade
Ballroom 20 AB – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:00-11:30 AM
Educational Session: Metastatic Organotropism: Clues from Primary Tumors and Metastatic Niches
Presenter: Cory Abate-Shen, PhD, Columbia University Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, member of The Mark Foundation Center for Lineage Plasticity
Presentation: How circulating tumor cells find their way to distant sites
Room 30 – Upper Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Educational Session: Clinical and Molecular Phenotyping of Cancer Cachexia
Chair and presenter: Marcus D. Goncalves, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine, recipient of Mark Foundation-The American Association for Cancer Research partnership award
Presentation: Microbiome-driven myeloid remodeling as a mechanism of cachexia and immunotherapy resistance in lung cancer
Room 15 – Mezzanine Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Educational Session: New Insights from TCGA Whole-Genome Sequencing
Presenter: Marcin Imieliński, MD, PhD, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Presentation: Dimensions of structural chromosomal instability in human cancer
Room 33 – Upper Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
AACR Team Science Award Lecture
Presenter: Drug Discovery Awardee William Sellers, MD, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Presentation: Future directions for informing therapeutic development
Ballroom 6 DE – Upper Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Educational Session: Fibroblast Dynamics: How Heterogeneity Shapes the Tumor Microenvironment
Presenter: Emerging Leader Award winner Mara Sherman, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Presentation: Identifying stromal barriers to pancreatic tumorigenesis
Room 29 – Upper Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Educational Session: 3D Tissue Imaging and Cancer
Chair and presenter: Peter Sorger, PhD, Harvard Medical School, ASPIRE Awardee and recipient of 2026 Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Break Through Cancer Early Detection Award
Presentation: High-plex 3D imaging to dissect mechanisms of immunosurveillance in immunosuppression in human tumors
Room 28 – Upper Level – Convention Center
2:30-4:00 PM
Educational Session: Chemistry to the Clinic Part 4 of 4: From Transcript to Protein—New Frontiers in Drug Discovery
Presenter: ASPIRE Awardee and member of the Mark Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee Daniel Nomura, PhD, University of California Berkeley
Presentation: Reimagining druggability using chemoproteomic platforms
Ballroom 20 CD – Upper Level – Convention Center
2:30-4:00 PM
Educational Session: New Technologies in the Metabolism of Cancer
Presenter: Joshua Rabinowitz, MD, PhD, Princeton University, recipient of Aging and Cancer Award jointly presented by The Mark Foundation, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, and The American Cancer Society
Presentation: Spatial metabolomics of pancreatic and breast cancer
Ballroom 6 DE – Upper Level – Convention Center
4:15-6:15 PM
Plenary Session: The Next Frontier in Minimal Residual Disease: Solid Tumors
Presenter: Dan Landau, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine, Emerging Leader Award winner and recipient of the Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Tina’s Wish Early Detection Award for Ovarian Cancer
Presentation: The hidden lives of cancer cells: Somatic evolution, cellular plasticity, and the detection of residual disease
Hall H – Ground Level – Convention Center
April 19
9:30-11:30 AM
Opening Plenary: Precision, Partnership, Purpose: Advancing Cancer Science to Save Lives Globally
Chair: Paul S. Mischel, MD, Stanford University, recipient of the Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Tina’s Wish Early Detection Award for Ovarian Cancer
Presenter: Carl H. June, MD, University of Pennsylvania, member of the Mark Foundation Center for Immunotherapy, Immune Signaling, and Radiation
Presentation: Beyond blood: The evolution of CAR T therapy for solid malignancies
Presenter: ASPIRE Awardee Regina Barzilay, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Presentation: Rethinking cancer diagnosis and treatment with AI: From molecular mechanisms to clinical management
Hall H – Ground Level – Convention Center
12:00-1:00 PM
Meet the Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
ASPIRE Awardee and member of the Mark Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee Daniel Nomura, PhD, University of California Berkeley
AACR Publications Booth 3537 – Hall D
12:00-1:30 PM
Major Symposium: Human Cancer Models: From Patient-Derived Systems to Clinical Translation
Presenter: Emerging Leader Award winner Jeffrey Tyner, PhD, Oregon Health and Science University
Presentation: Ex vivo functional testing to support development of new therapeutic regimens in leukemia
Ballroom 6 B – Upper Level – Convention Center
1:00-2:30 PM
Advances in Hematologic Malignancies: Epigenetics in Hematologic Malignancies
Presenter: Chair of The Mark Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee Ross Levine, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Presentation: Targeting epigenetic dependencies in myeloid malignancies
Room 28 – Upper Level – Convention Center
1:00-2:30 PM
Advances in Survivorship Research: Early-Onset Cancers: Interventions, Survivorship, and Novel Treatment Approaches
Chair and Presenter: David Solit, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, member of The Mark Foundation Center for Lineage Plasticity
Presentation: Advancing target discovery for rare cancers through institutional-scale molecular profiling and social media outreach
Ballroom 6 DE – Upper Level – Convention Center
1:00-2:30 PM
Major Symposium: Spatial and Single-Cell Omics at Scale: Technologies for Decoding Cancer Ecosystems
Chair and presenter: Endeavor Awardee Fei Chen, PhD, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA
Presentation: High-resolution spatial genomics for dissecting tumor ecosystems
Presenter: ASPIRE Awardee Dana Pe’er, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Presentation: When form meets function: Decoding tissue architecture
Room 30 – Upper Level – Convention Center
1:00-2:30 PM
Major Symposium: Mechanisms of Immune Evasion and Immune Dysregulation
Chair and presenter: Mark Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee member E. John Wherry, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Presentation: Immunopharmacology of anti-PD-1 and reinvigoration of exhausted CD8 T cells
Ballroom 6 CF – Upper Level – Convention Center
1:00-2:30 PM
Major Symposium: Synthetic Biology Approaches to Cancer and Immune Cell Therapy
Chair and presenter: Endeavor Awardee Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD, Columbia University
Presentation: Optimizing the antigen sensitivity and functional persistence of CAR T cells
Presenter: Philip Greenberg, MD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, recipient of Mark Foundation-Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy partnership award
Presentation: Synthetic biology: A means to rewire T cells for success in the TME
3:00-4:00 PM
Researcher Town Hall: Navigating Policy Challenges and Securing Funding
Panelist: Mark Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee member E. John Wherry, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Room 1 – Upper Level – Convention Center
3:00-4:00 PM
Meet the Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Research Communications
ASPIRE Awardee and Mark Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee member Elaine Mardis, PhD, Nationwide Children’s Hospital
AACR Publications Booth 3537 – Hall D
4:30-5:15 PM
AACR-Waun Ki Hong Award for Outstanding Achievement in Translational and Clinical Cancer Research
Awardee: ASPIRE Awardee Eliezer Van Allen, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
Presentation: Learning the molecular logic of cancer
Room 29 – Upper Level – Convention Center
April 20
9:15-10:15 AM
Meet the Editors-in-Chief of Blood Cancer Discovery
Chair of The Mark Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee Ross Levine, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
AACR Publications Booth 3537 – Hall D
10:15-11:45 AM
Major Symposium: Immunometabolism in Cancer
Chair and presenter: Emerging Leader Award winner Greg Delgoffe, PhD, The University of Pittsburgh
Presentation: Mitochondrial reprogramming in T cell exhaustion
Presenter: ASPIRE Awardee Owen Sansom, PhD, Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute
Presentation: Examining immunometabolism in cancer models
Room 29 – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Presidential Select Symposium: Targeting Stage 0: Precision-Based Prevention
Chair: Executive Chair of The Mark Foundation Board Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD, The Medical University of South Carolina
Ballroom 6 A – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Advances in Survivorship Research: Cancer Cachexia: Tumor Signals, Systemic Impact, and Translational Opportunities
Presenter: Endeavor Awardee Tobias Janowitz, MD, PhD, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Presentation: Mechanisms of behavioral changes in cachexia
Room 17 – Mezzanine Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Advances in Diagnostics and Therapeutics: Role of the Intestinal Microbiome in CAR T-Cell Therapy
Chair and presenter: Endeavor Awardee Robert R. Jenq, MD, City of Hope
Presentation: CAR-T response rates – how to harness the microbiome for our patients?
Ballroom 20 AB – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Advances in Diagnostics and Therapeutics: Next-Generation Radioligand Therapy
Chair and presenter: Julie L. Sutcliffe, PhD, University of California Davis, recipient of The Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation Early Detection Award
Presentation: Out of the fume hood and into the clinic
Room 33 – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Advances in Organ Site Research: Advances in Glioblastoma Research and Experimental Therapies
Chair and presenter: Emerging Leader Award winner Mario Suvà, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital
Presentation: High-definition spatial analysis of glioblastoma
Room 15 – Mezzanine Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Advances in Organ Site Research: Reframing Gynecologic Cancer Prevention: From STIC Discovery to Salpingectomy —Translating the Fallopian Tube Paradigm into Ovarian Cancer Prevention
Presenter: Ronny I. Drapkin, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, recipient of Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Break Through Cancer Early Detection Award and Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Tina’s Wish Early Detection Award for Ovarian Cancer
Presentation: The ovarian pre-cancer atlas: Charting a path to clinical interception
Room 14 – Mezzanine Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Major Symposium: Glues and Heterobifunctionals as Novel Therapeutics
Presenter: Drug Discovery Awardee Nathanael S. Gray, PhD, Stanford University
Presentation: Molecular glues that lead to gain-of-function pharmacology
Presenter: Drug Discovery Awardee Steven M. Corsello, MD, Stanford Cancer Institute
Presentation: NG07 – Discovery of TRIM21 molecular glues that drive potent anti-tumor efficacy via nuclear pore complex degradation
Presenter: ASPIRE Awardee Brian Liau, PhD, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Presentation: Chemical and genetic glues of the E3 ligase substrate adapter KBTBD4
Ballroom 6 CF – Upper Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Major Symposium: Cancer Vaccines: The Next Immunotherapy Breakthrough?
Presenter: Endeavor Awardee Catherine J. Wu, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Presentation: A personalized neoantigen vaccine reprograms the immune landscape of glioblastoma
Ballroom 6 A – Upper Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Major Symposium: RAS Inhibitors, Mechanisms of Resistance, and Drug Combinations
Presenter: Andrew J. Aguirre, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, recipient of The Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation Early Detection Award
Presentation: Mechanisms of resistance to RAS inhibition in pancreatic cancer
Ballroom 20 AB – Upper Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Major Symposium: Stress Across Scales in Cancer: From Societal Burden to Microenvironmental and Cellular Mechanisms
Chair and presenter: ASPIRE Awardee Mikala Egeblad, PhD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Presentation: Chronic stress-induced remodeling of the tumor microenvironment in cancer progression
Room 16 – Mezzanine Level – Convention Center
2:30-3:00 PM
NCI Director’s Address and Fireside Chat
Presenter: ASPIRE Awardee Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, National Cancer Institute
Ballroom 6 A – Upper Level – Convention Center
2:30-3:30 PM
Meet the Research Grant Reviewers
Panelist: Emerging Leader Award winner Greg Delgoffe, PhD, The University of Pittsburgh
Room 26 – Upper Level – Convention Center
2:30-4:00 PM
Educational Session: ED29 – Chromosomal Instability in Cancer: From Mechanism to Therapy and Clinical Translation
Chair and presenter: Emerging Leader Award winner and ASPIRE Awardee Samuel F. Bakhoum, MD, PhD, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine
Presentation: Targeting chromosomal instability in the clinic
Ballroom 6 B – Upper Level – Convention Center
2:30-4:30 PM
Minisymposium: Advancing Cancer Research Through an International Cancer Registry: AACR Project GENIE® Use Cases
Cochair: David Solit, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, member of The Mark Foundation Center for Lineage Plasticity
Room 14 – Mezzanine Level – Convention Center
2:30-4:30 PM
Minisymposium: Cutting-Edge Advances in Hematology
Cochair: Rong Fan, PhD, Yale University, recipient of ASPIRE Award delivered in partnership with the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation
Room 15 – Mezzanine Level – Convention Center
3:30-4:30 PM
Meet the Editors-in-Chief of Cancer Prevention Research
Executive Chair of The Mark Foundation Board Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD, The Medical University of South Carolina
AACR Publications Booth 3537 – Hall D
4:45-6:15 PM
AACR-ASCO Joint Session: Next Generation of CAR T-Cell Therapies
Presenter: Emerging Leader Award winner Saar I. Gill, MD, PhD, The Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania
Presentation: Towards in vivo CART
Ballroom 6 CF – Upper Level – Convention Center
5:00-5:45 PM
AACR-St. Baldrick’s Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pediatric Cancer Research
Awardee: Drug Discovery Awardee Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Presentation: Toward mechanistic understanding and new therapies for childhood cancers
Room 30 – Upper Level – Convention Center
5:00-6:30 PM
Forum: Pharma, Biotech, and Academia: Advancing Drug Discovery and Development in an AI World
Presenter: ASPIRE Awardee Cigall Kadoch, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Presentation: Therapeutic approaches in chromatin and gene regulation informed by basic mechanisms
Ballroom 6 B – Upper Level – Convention Center
5:00-7:00 PM
Special Session: The Making of Cancer: From Cellular Events to Systemic Disease—Breakthrough Discoveries from Cancer Grand Challenges
Chair: ASPIRE Awardee and member of The Mark Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee Charles Swanton, MBPhD, FRCP, FMedSci, FAACR, FRS
The Francis Crick Institute
Panelist: Paul S. Mischel, MD, Stanford University, recipient of the Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Tina’s Wish Early Detection Award for Ovarian Cancer
Room 11 – Upper Level – Convention Center
6:30-8:30 PM
Town Meeting: Immune-Driven Cancer Prevention: From Vaccines to Lifestyle Interventions—A CIMM-CPWG Town Hall and Networking Meeting
Chair: Endeavor Awardee Catherine J. Wu, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Presenter: ASPIRE Awardee Jennifer L. McQuade, MD, MS, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Room 30 – Upper Level – Convention Center
April 21
8:00-10:00 AM
Plenary Session: Early-Onset Cancers
Chair and presenter: Andrew Chan, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital, recipient of Aging and Cancer Award jointly presented by The Mark Foundation and the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation
Presentation: Early-onset colorectal cancer: Advancing correlation to causation to prevention
Hall H – Ground Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Advances in Diagnostics and Therapeutics – New Advances in Bispecific Antibody Development
Hair and Presenter: Drug Discovery Awardee William R. Sellers, MD, Broad Institute
Presentation: The discovery of biparatopic antibodies and ADCs targeting FGFR2
Ballroom 20 CD – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Advances in Organ Site Research: Latest Advances in Translational Research from the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
Presenter: Sherene Loi, MD, PhD, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Presentation: Parity and breastfeeding and immune responses in breast cancer
Room 30 – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Advances in Population Science: Translating Epidemiology to the Clinic: Aspirin for the Prevention and Treatment of Colorectal Cancer—Dedicated to the Memory of Thomas W. Kensler
Chair and presenter: Omer H. Yilmaz, PhD, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, recipient of Aging and Cancer Award jointly presented by The Mark Foundation and the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation
Presentation: Understanding the paradoxical effects of aspirin on colorectal cancer prevention and metastasis
Presenter: Executive Chair of The Mark Foundation Board Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD, The Medical University of South Carolina
Presentation: Targeting cyclooxygenase for prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer
Room 33 – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Major Symposium: Structural Insights to Cancer Biology and Therapy
Presenter: Drug Discovery Awardee Eric S. Fischer, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Presentation: Advances in the systematic discovery of molecular glue degraders
Room 28 – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Major Symposium: Pediatric Brain Tumors: Biology to Therapy
Presenter: Emerging Leader Award winner Mariella Filbin, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Presentation: Form follows function: Multi-dimensional profiling of tumor cell heterogeneity in supratentorial ependymomas
Room 11 – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Major Symposium: Tumor-secreted Factors: The Next Hallmark of Cancer?
Chair and presenter: Ashani Weeraratna, PhD, Johns Hopkins University, recipient of an Aging and Cancer Award jointly presented by The Mark Foundation, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, and the Melanoma Research Alliance
Presentation: A Complex TIME: The impact of age on tumor progression
Room 29 – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15 AM-12:15 PM
Clinical Trials Plenary Session: CTPL04 – Advances in Immunotherapy
Discussant: Endeavor Awardee Tina Cascone, MD, PhD, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Hall H – Ground Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Advances in Hematologic Malignancies: Dissecting Hematologic Malignancies at Single-Cell Resolution: Cutting-Edge Advances in Spatial Omics
Presenter: Rong Fan, PhD, Yale University, recipient of ASPIRE Award delivered in partnership with the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation
Presentation: Spatially decoding human lymphoma transformers
Ballroom 6 DE – Upper Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Advances in Technologies: AI-Based Tissue Biomarkers in Cancer: Multimodal AI Across Scales
Presenter: Christina Curtis, PhD, Stanford University, recipient of The Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Break Through Cancer Early Detection Award
Presentation: Beyond prediction: Generative and autonomous AI for cross-scale cancer biomarkers
Ballroom 20 CD – Upper Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Major Symposium: Inflammaging and Cancer: Mechanistic Insights and Therapeutic Opportunities
Presenter: Sandra McAllister, PhD, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, recipient of an Aging and Cancer Award jointly presented by The Mark Foundation, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation
Presentation: Overcoming age-related immune dysfunction and chemoresistance in breast cancer
Room 14 – Mezzanine Level – Convention Center
12:30-2:00 PM
Major Symposium: Beyond Genetics: Macroenvironmental and Microenvironmental Determinants of Cancer Risk, Disease Progression, and Treatment Response
Presenter: Karin Pelka, PhD, Gladstone Institutes, recipient of an Endeavor Awardee jointly presented by The Mark Foundation and the Torrey Coast Foundation
Presentation: Spatially organized immune hubs in human tumors
Room 15 – Mezzanine Level – Convention Center
2:30-4:30 PM
Minisymposium: Aging Micro- and Macro-Environments in Tumor Progression and Therapy
Cochair: Ashani Weeraratna, PhD, Johns Hopkins University, recipient of an Aging and Cancer Award jointly presented by The Mark Foundation, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, and the Melanoma Research Alliance
Ballroom 6 A – Upper Level – Convention Center
5:00-5:45 PM
Meet-the-Expert Session: Christopher R. Flowers: Applying Molecular Classifications to Therapy and Trials in Large B-Cell Lymphoma
Speaker: Christopher Flowers, MD, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, recipient of ASPIRE Award delivered in partnership with the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation
Room 5 – Upper Level – Convention Center
5:00-6:30 PM
Forum: Leveraging Novel Technologies and Knowledge Bases to Optimize Success in Clinical Trials
Chair: ASPIRE Awardee Eliezer Van Allen, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Ballroom 6 A – Upper Level – Convention Center
5:00-6:30 PM
Special Session: AI in Cancer Research and Care: What We’ve Learned and What Comes Next?
Cochair and panelist: Christina Curtis, PhD, Stanford University, recipient of 2026 Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Break Through Cancer Early Detection Award
Ballroom 20 CD – Upper Level – Convention Center
April 22
10:15-11:45 AM
Advances in Diagnostics and Therapeutics: Induced Proximity Pharmacology: Degraders and Beyond
Chair and presenter: Drug Discovery Awardee Michelle Arkin, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
Presentation: Gluing native protein-protein interactions to augment anticancer pathways
Ballroom 6 CF – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Major Symposium: Understanding the Impact of Mechanobiology on Tumor Evolution
Presenter: Christina Curtis, PhD, Stanford University, recipient of 2026 Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Break Through Cancer Early Detection Award
Presentation: Evolution under pressure: Spatial and mechanical niches in breast cancer
Room 29 – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Major Symposium: Genetic and Environmental Determinants of Cancer
Presenter: Emerging Leader Award winner Kamila Naxerova, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Presentation: Distinguishing selection in normal tissue from cancer causation
Room 33 – Upper Level – Convention Center
10:15-11:45 AM
Advances in Early Detection and Interception: Silent Lesions, Dynamic Niches: Harnessing the Stroma to Prevent Cancer Initiation
Presenter: Laura DeLong Wood, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, recipient of The Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation Early Detection Award
Presentation: Molecular and cellular alterations associated with malignant progression in the pancreas
Ballroom 6 DE – Upper Level – Convention Center
Be sure to check the official AACR program for updates, additional presentations, and poster sessions! See anyone missing from our list? Email us at info@themarkfoundation.org.