Upcoming Conferences

What causes cancer? What are the biological mechanisms that cause cancer cells to grow uncontrollably at a great cost to the body as a whole? How does a person's immune system protect against a disease that originates from one's own cells? In recent decades, researchers have made great strides in understanding both the progression of cancer in the human individual and the ways the individual’s immune system responds to it. Their findings have led to the development of cancer therapies that can strategically target cancer cells, with the result that persons undergoing the treatments experience fewer side effects than they would with traditional chemotherapy. Many of these innovative and highly effective treatments are based on antibodies and other complex biologically-derived molecules, rather than chemically synthesized drugs. The complexity of these biological drugs allows for their specificity and greater effectiveness, but also makes them very expensive to develop, produce and administer. Advances in treatment also increase the number of individuals living with cancer raising questions about how to most effectively support patients in the long-term following diagnosis.

Nobel Conference 56 will explore the science of these new cancer treatments, and address the structural and societal factors that influence who will have access to these life-saving treatments. Can we imagine a future in which these next generation therapies are available to all those who need them?

Information on Confirmed Speakers

Bissan Al-Lazikani, PhD
Bissan Al-Lazikani, computational structural biology, University of Cambridge
Bissan Al-Lazikani's research focuses on developing and applying multidisciplinary computational techniques for drug discovery and clinical application. Passionate about the application of Big Data and machine learning to fight cancer, she leads the Knowledge Hub Big Data Team initiative to capture and analyse big clinical and preclinical data to enable data-driven adaptive therapy. Al-Lazikani is Head of Data Science at the Institute of Cancer Research, London.

Suzanne Chambers, PhD, RN
Suzanne Chambers is Dean of the Faculty of Health at the University of Technology Sydney. She studies the psychosocial effects of cancer, and effective ways to enhance the quality of life and psychological outcomes after diagnosis and treatment. A health psychologist who has worked as a practitioner-researcher in psychological support for people with cancer for more than 20 years, Chambers has published extensively on the supportive care needs of men with prostate cancer and their families.

Chanita Hughes-Halbert, PhD
Chanita Hughes-Halbert is Associate Dean for Assessment and Evaluation and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. Hughes-Halbert's research focuses on identifying sociocultural, psychological and environmental determinants of cancer prevention and control. Currently, she is examining community-based strategies for increasing access to, and enhancing the quality of, precision medicine strategies among medically underserved populations, with a particular focus on minority men.

Carl June, MD 
Carl June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2011, June’s research team published findings detailing a new therapy, called CAR T, in which patients with refractory and relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia were treated with genetically engineered versions of their own T cells. The treatment has now also been used with promising results to treat children with refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Charles Sawyers, MD
Charles Sawyers is the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair in Human Oncology and Pathogenesis, and Chair of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, as well as an Investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Sawyers is investigating the signaling pathways that drive the growth of cancer cells, with an eye toward designing new treatment options for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, prostate cancer, and glioblastoma.

Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, FACSM
Kathryn Schmitz is Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, and Behavioral Research Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Penn State Cancer Institute. She is an exercise interventionist who has led multiple trials to assess the safety of upper body exercise among breast cancer survivors with and without lymphedema. Her meta-analyses on the topic of exercise interventions in cancer patients and survivors provide a starting point for clinicians to understand the effects of exercise among cancer survivors.

James Thomas, PhD
James Thomas is the Executive Vice President, Global Head of Biotherapeutics, President of U.S. Operations, Just-Evotec Biologics, an integrated design company focused on technologies that will accelerate development of biotherapeutics and substantially reduce their manufacturing cost. Over the course of his career, Thomas has contributed to the advancement of many important therapeutics. His current work focuses on lowering the cost and changing the paradigm of biologics manufacturing, to increase access to medicines for populations globally.