Following a PhD in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Ghent University (Belgium), I carried out Postdoctoral studies at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, London, where I was involved in a systematic effort to isolate the genes encoding PI 3-kinases (PI3Ks).

In my independent laboratory, we developed a unique genetic approach to create an unparalleled series of mouse models that allowed us to uncover the roles of multiple PI3K family members in biology, and to faithfully predict organismal PI3K inhibitor activity.

We discovered PI3Kdelta which we took from gene cloning and preclinical modelling to the generation of PI3Kdelta inhibitors, and the development of clinical strategies to inhibit this PI3K isoform. These studies underpinned the approval of PI3Kdelta-inhibitors for leukaemia and their emerging use in solid tumour immunotherapy.

Our current research is focused on exploring alternative ways to modulate the PI3K pathway, including in cancer immunotherapy, cancer prevention, and the generation of small molecule PI3K activators.

B.V. is an elected member of EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organisation) and of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences

Professor Mariko Okada’s laboratory focuses on dynamics of molecules and genes in cells and analyzes them by combining wet lab experiments and mathematical models, thereby clarifying the quantitative relationship between signalling dynamics, transcriptional regulation, and cell fate.

Professor Mariko Okada is the Director of the Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University.

Prof Paolo Salomoni first independent position was in 2003 as Programme Leader Track at the MRC Unit in Leicester, where he was promoted to tenured Senior Group Leader in 2009. Subsequently, he joined the UCL Cancer Institute as Professorial Research Associate and Lead of the Samantha Dickson Brain Cancer Unit. He became UCL Professor of Nervous System Tumour Research in 2015. 

Since 2017, Paolo Salomoni is heading the Nuclear Function group at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) within the Helmholtz Association. DZNE is a recently created multi-center Institute, whose mission is the study of ageing and age-associated neurodegenerative conditions and the translation of fundamental discoveries into new treatments of these disease. The main remit of his laboratory is investigating chromatin dynamics in homeostatic as well as pathological conditions, with emphasis on the brain and the hematopoietic system. More recent work focuses on the role of intrinsic immunity mechanisms controlling accessibility to endogenous retroelements in the genome and how disruption of such mechanisms contributes to neuroinflammation and age-associated neurodegenerative conditions. With respect to cancer, PS has developed a number of models for studying the function of oncohistones and other epigenetic cancer drivers in brain cancer and other neoplasms. His work carries multiple implications ranging from understanding disease etiology to the identification of chromatin vulnerabilities that could be exploited for development of new treatments. His studies comprise mouse models, patient-derived material and state-of-the art (epi)genomics, the latter supported by strong bioinformatics/computational biology core.

Charles completed his MBPhD training in 1999 at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories and Cancer Research UK clinician scientist/medical oncology training in 2008. He is a senior group leader of the Cancer Evolution and Genome Instability Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute and combines his research with clinical duties at UCLH, as a thoracic oncologist, focussed on how tumours evolve over space and time. His research branched evolutionary histories of solid tumours, processes that drive cancer cell-to-cell variation in the form of new cancer mutations or chromosomal instabilities, and the impact of such cancer diversity on effective immune surveillance and clinical outcome. Charles is chief investigator of TRACERx, a lung cancer evolutionary study and the national PEACE autopsy program.

 Charles was made Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in April 2011, appointed Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2015, awarded the Napier Professorship in Cancer by the Royal Society in 2016, appointed Cancer Research UK’s Chief Clinician in 2017, elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2018, and Fellow of the Academy of the American Association for Cancer Research in 2020. He is an editorial board member of Cell, Plos Medicine, Cancer Discovery and Annals of Oncology and an advisory board member for Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology and Cancer Cell. In 2016 he co-founded Achilles Therapeutics, a UCL/CRUK/Francis Crick Institute spin-out company, assessing the efficacy of T cells targeting clonal neoantigens. 

Ramanuj DasGupta joined A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) in 2014 where he is now a Senior Group Leader. DasGupta obtained his Ph.D. in Developmental and Stem cell Biology at the University of Chicago followed by postdoctoral studies at the Harvard Medical School. The major focus in the DasGupta laboratory is to explore fundamental mechanisms of cancer evolution and implement “Response-driven Precision Oncology” in the clinic by utilizing next-generation, multi-omic single cell and spatial transcriptomic technologies.

Ruth Palmer was trained in biochemistry, and supplemented this with training in genetics and developmental biology as a post-doctoral fellow, before setting up a research group in Sweden. She has a long-standing interest in cell signalling, specifically with respect to the ALK receptor tyrosine kinase and its role in developmental processes and neuroblastoma. Her research group, which is based in Gothenburg, employs a range of model systems, from the fruit fly to mouse tumour models as well as human cell lines and patient tumour samples to understand ALK function in neuroblastoma.