Speakers
The following speakers were selected for their profound leadership and accomplishments in the areas of liver cancer research and patient care.
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Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science
Consultant, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
Dr. McNiven joined the staff of Mayo Clinic in 1989. He is jointly appointed in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, where he served as chair from 2000 to 2011. He is recognized with the distinction of the George M. Eisenberg Professorship.
Dr. McNiven’s laboratory focuses on the molecular basis by which tumor cells grow unchecked and migrate from the primary organ to invade and metastasize into distal sites. In addition, his program studies the cellular basis by which cells of the liver can become laden with fat leading to steatohepatitis, metabolic diseases and cancer. He is co-principal investigator of the Hepatobiliary Cancer SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence).
His research is funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. His work has been published in prominent peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Cell Biology, Developmental Cell, Nature Cell Biology, Hepatology, Nature Genetics, Trends in Cellular Biology, Molecular Biology of the Cell, Gastroenterology, Cancer Research, and Science. In recognition of his work, Dr. McNiven has received numerous awards and honors, including the Dean’s Recognition Award, conferred by Mayo Clinic; and the NIH Merit Award, conferred by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. He has also been recognized as a Distinguished Mayo Investigator.
Dr. McNiven is active in teaching and mentoring and holds full faculty privileges in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Neurosciences at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He serves on many national and international advisory boards and committees.
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Professor of Psychology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science
Consultant, Department of Psychiatry and Psychology. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
Dr. Ehlers is the President of the Society for Health Psychology. She is a Professor of Psychology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, and board-certified in Clinical Health Psychology, specializing in cancer survivorship.
Within Mayo Clinic, Dr. Ehlers is a faculty member of The Center for Clinical and Translational Science, Director of Behavioral Health for the specialties of Oncology and Hematology and serves on the Executive Committee of the Population Science and Community Interventions Program for the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Ehlers’s research focuses on improving our understanding of psychological, social, and behavioral prognostic risk factors in cancer outcomes, and translational trials of best-evidence interventions targeting these factors in real-world practice settings.
She also examines how care givers can work with patients to promote proactively healthy behaviors and to fully engage each patient in the process of his or her own medical care. She hopes that her research will contribute to improving both quality of life and overall outcomes.
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Carrie A. Bronars, Ph.D., L.P.
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science
Consultant, Department of Psychiatry and Psychology. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
Dr. Bronars is a licensed psychologist and behavioral scientist in the area of psycho-oncology through the development of innovative, novel interventions focused on promotion of psychological health and wellbeing among patients living with cancer. For the past 10 years, she also has worked as an independent, licensed psychologist with a specialization in health psychology, which gives her a solid foundation of clinical theory and practical training.
She has provided clinical supervision to community health workers, trainees and colleagues in the delivery of evidence-based behavioral treatments such as motivational interviewing, acceptance and commitment therapy, mindful self-compassion and cognitive behavior therapy.
Dr. Bronars leads a randomized controlled pilot study, “Development of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Cancer Distress among Rural and Urban Patients with Hepatobiliary Cancers (ACT-HBC).” This study aims to establish the feasibility and acceptability of an eight-week, remotely delivered, group-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention specifically adapted for patients with hepatobiliary cancers.
She also collaborates with Dr. Ehlers and her multidisciplinary team on “Launching the era of melanoma survivorship: defining treatment targets in quality of life and mental health,” a project grant helping improve the lives of individuals with cancer.
Other speakers include:
Tanios Bekaii-Saab, M.D., is the David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Professor of Novel Therapeutics for Cancer Research I at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. He is the chair for hematology and medical oncology for the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. He is the leader of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program for the Enterprise-wide Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Bekaii-Saab is currently the co-leader of the Hepatobiliary Cancer Sub-Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology and the co-chair for the National Cancer Institute’s Hepatobiliary Task Force. Dr. Bekaii-Saab hopes his research will lead to better tools to tackle the highly complex and heterogeneous nature of gastrointestinal cancers. Through a large emphasis on precision medicine and individualized care, many novel anticancer drugs are proving to be effective in subsets of cancer. His work includes two discoveries as co-inventor of a pan-histone deacetylase (pan-HDAC) inhibitor called AR-42 and an anti-PD-1 vaccine called PD-Vaxx. Both are being studied in clinical trials and have resulted in licensing opportunities under multiple patents.
Henrique Borges da Silva, Ph.D., is a Brazilian immunologist. He completed his bachelor’s degree in biology from the Univ. Sao Paulo (2005) and completed his Ph.D. in Immunology in the same institution in 2014. Between 2015 and 2020, Dr. Borges da Silva was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota. Currently, Dr. Borges da Silva is an associate professor in the Mayo Clinic departments of immunology and cancer biology, on the Arizona campus. His lab aims to understand how extracellular nucleotides regulate the immune system. Nucleotides are produced and influenced by numerous intracellular pathways. In diverse circumstances, however, nucleotides are released into the extracellular environment and are sensed by specific receptors called purinergic receptors. Immune cells are not devoid of this process; many purinergic receptors are expressed by the immune system. The current focus of Dr. Borges da Silva is determining how one of these nucleotides, extracellular ATP (eATP), affects killer CD8+ T cells in response to cancer.
Caitlin Conboy, M.D., Ph.D., is a medical oncologist and physician scientist focused on improving the care of patients with hepatobiliary cancers. She completed the Internal Medicine Residency and Hematology & Oncology Fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where she is currently an Assistant Professor of Medical Oncology. Dr. Conboy runs an active basic and translational research program and is a principal investigator for prospective clinical trials focused on cholangiocarcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma. Her research interests include mapping genetic and epigenetic drivers of liver and bile duct cancers, identifying selective vulnerabilities of cancers with epigenetic dysregulation and developing novel therapies from bench to bedside.
John A. Copland III, Ph.D., leads the Cancer Biology and Translational Oncogenomics Laboratory in the Department of Cancer Biology at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida. He is Professor of Cancer Biology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Research in the lab is aimed at better understanding the mechanisms and pathways of carcinogenesis and tumor progression to develop novel synergistic cancer therapies. Discoveries have led to clinical trials and development of novel therapeutic agents. A novel TSHR CART therapy for metastatic thyroid cancer has been developed with preclinical data demonstrating durable response as well as a Claudin 18.2 CART. The lab has developed a novel small molecule inhibitor called SSI-4 (now MTI-301) that binds to and blocks the biological activity of stearoyl CoA desaturase one (SCD1) protein. SSI-4 has been licensed to Modulation Therapeutics, Inc (MTI) and is now in a Phase 1 clinical trial. Dr. Copland co-founded the small animal PET/SPECT/CT Facility, which has led to the development of novel diagnostics and theranostics. Additionally, the laboratory develops novel patient tumor-derived preclinical models to provide mechanistic insights and test novel combination therapeutics leading to antitumor synergy.
Lionel Kankeu Fonkoua, M.D., is a physician-scientist and medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic, where he specializes in the care of patients with hepatobiliary and gastrointestinal cancers. His research focuses on developing novel immunotherapy strategies for liver cancer, with a particular emphasis on reshaping the tumor microenvironment to make cancers more responsive to treatment. Dr. Kankeu Fonkoua leads multiple translational and clinical research studies aimed at bringing forward new therapies that are both innovative and truly meaningful to patients and families affected by liver cancer. In addition to his clinical and research activities, Dr. Kankeu Fonkoua is also committed to improving equitable access to high-quality care for all cancer patients, including the underserved and at-risk populations. He is passionate about ensuring that every patient benefits from the latest advances in liver cancer treatment and prevention.
Jean-Pierre Kocher, Ph.D., joined Mayo Clinic in October 2005 to create and direct the activities of the Bioinformatics Core facility. Between 2008 and 2016, he served as the Chair of the Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, which included experts in biostatistics, bioinformatics, medical informatics and computer science. From 2014 to 2019, he served as the Associate Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Arizona State University. Dr. Kocher received his Ph.D. in computational chemistry from the University Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium; his M.S. in informatics; and B.S. in chemistry from the University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France. His scientific expertise is in bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, computational biology and machine learning. Dr. Kocher's current scientific interest is advancing the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of diseases through analysis of omics data.
Sarah Manes serves as the Program Director for Liver Cancers at the Global Liver Institute (GLI), where she leads initiatives focused on liver cancer awareness, advocacy and education. Her work emphasizes reducing stigma, improving patient outcomes and fostering global partnerships to advance liver health. She received the Community Partner Award from the Milken Institute School of Public Health for her outstanding contributions to public health education and mentorship. Sarah frequently speaks on liver cancer awareness, including topics such as prevalence, risk factors, treatment and survivorship, and has appeared on podcasts and webinars to promote GLI’s mission and initiatives. Furthermore, Sarah collaborates with global partners to drive impactful programs and policy change.
Lewis Roberts, M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D., has clinical and research interests in the molecular mechanisms of liver and biliary tract cancers; biomarkers for diagnosis of liver, biliary and pancreas cancers; and prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis and hepatobiliary cancers, with a particular interest in populations of African descent. He has extensive expertise in the diagnosis and multidisciplinary management of benign and malignant liver masses, including hepatic adenomas, hepatocellular carcinomas, bile duct cancers and gallbladder cancers. Dr. Roberts is a professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. He is the Peter and Frances Georgeson Professor of Gastroenterology Cancer Research. Dr. Roberts has authored more than 500 publications and has mentored over 230 students, fellows and faculty. He serves as president of Africa Partners Medical, a non-profit organization focused on improving healthcare in Africa, the Africa Institute for Liver and Digestive Diseases Foundation, and the Africa Hepatopancreatobiliary Cancer Consortium.
Sanford (Sandy) M. Simon, Ph.D., is a Günter Blobel Professor at The Rockefeller University in New York, where he directs the Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics. Dr. Simon's lab focuses on single events — single proteins, single nuclear pores, single viruses, and single precisely defined cancers — to identify what is lost when using averages. Their research shows how this approach can accelerate the elucidation of mechanism. Current work on childhood, adolescent and young adult cancers runs the gamut from identifying oncogenic drivers and studying malignant transformation to designing clinical trials. Another key area of research in the lab is to develop new technologies that can improve the spatial or temporal resolution of images obtained through microscopes or other modalities.
Rory L. Smoot, M.D., is a consultant in the Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreas Surgery and vice chair for research in the Department of Surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Smoot holds a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He also serves as medical director of the Surgical Clinical Research Office and associate medical director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office. He joined the staff of Mayo Clinic in 2012 and holds the academic ranks of Professor of Surgery and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. His research interests are understanding the mechanisms of altered liver regeneration, as well as those underlying the progression and development of cholangiocarcinoma.