Spotlight on the Cancer Cell: Intrinsic Properties and Vulnerabilities for Therapeutics (A3)
January 26-29, 2026
| Embassy Suites by Hilton Raleigh Durham Research Triangle, Cary, NC, United States
Anwesha Dey, Laura D. Attardi and Mariam Jamal-Hanjani
Scholarship Deadline: Nov. 3, 2025 | Abstract Deadline: Jan. 7, 2026 | Early Registration Deadline: Nov. 26, 2025
| 4:00–8:00 PM |
Registration |
Registry |
| 6:00–8:00 PM |
Welcome Mixer w/ Heavy Appetizers |
Blowing Rock |
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
| 8:00–9:00 AM |
Breakfast for Hotel Guests |
Individual Hotel |
| 10:00–10:20 AM |
Coffee Break |
Foyer |
| 10:20–10:30 AM |
Welcome Remarks |
Chimney Rock |
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* Anwesha Dey, Genentech, Inc.
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| 10:30–11:30 AM |
Cancer Evolution, Tumor Heterogeneity and Metastasis |
Chimney Rock |
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* Anwesha Dey, Genentech, Inc.
Session Chair |
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Rohit Bose, UCSF - University of California, San Francisco
Short Talk: Engineering Tumor Evolution In Vivo to Reveal Cell-Intrinsic Vulnerabilities for Therapeutic Interception |
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Christina Ferrer, University of Maryland Baltimore
Short Talk: Slow-Cycling, Glutathione-Sensing GSTT1⁺ Cells Mediate Therapy Resistance and Metastasis in Pancreatic Cancer |
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| 11:30–12:30 PM |
Lunch |
Blowing Rock |
| 11:30–1:00 PM |
Poster Setup |
Blowing Rock |
| 1:00–10:00 PM |
Poster Viewing |
Blowing Rock |
| 2:30–4:30 PM |
Symposia Spotlight 1 |
Chimney Rock |
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* Rohit Bose, UCSF - University of California, San Francisco
Session Chair |
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Deepan Chatterjee, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Tumor initiation and Therapy Resistance in SCLC |
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Thijs J Hagenbeek, Genentech, Inc.
Covalent Pan-TEAD Inhibitors Block YAP Activity and Demonstrate Brain Penetrance in Hippo-dependent Cancer Models |
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Bence Daniel, Genentech Inc.
Promoter-Centric Gene Regulation in Drug Resistant Cancer Cells |
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Wendy W. Hwang-Verslues, Academia Sinica
BMAL2 as a Druggable Target for ARID1A-wildtype Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinoma |
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Joseph Manu, University of Georgia
In-vitro Investigations into Troxacitabine and Deazaneplanocin Combination for Pancreatic Cancer Therapy |
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Elisabeth D. Martinez, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Targeting Canonical and Non-canonical Oncogenic Actions of Jumonji Demethylases in Lung Cancer |
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Rachel O'Rourke, University of Michigan
Unraveling the Effects of eIF4E Cap Analogue Inhibitors on Cap-Dependent Translation to Assess their Therapeutic Potential in Cancer |
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Shadika Panta, Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine
DNA-protein Interactions at a DNA Secondary Structure Forming Sequence |
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| 4:30–5:00 PM |
Coffee Available |
Foyer |
| 5:00–7:00 PM |
Keynote Address and Drugging Cancer Pathways and New Targets on the Horizon |
Chimney Rock |
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* Laura D. Attardi, Stanford University School of Medicine
Session Chair |
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Kevan M. Shokat, University of California, San Francisco
Overcoming the Undruggable Nature of the Most Common Human Oncogene K-Ras |
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Gregory L. Verdine, Harvard University and FogPharma
Drugging Oncogenic Transcriptional Drivers |
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Anwesha Dey, Genentech, Inc.
Targeting the PI3K Pathway in Cancers |
|
| 7:00–8:00 PM |
Social Hour with Dinner |
Blowing Rock |
| 7:30–10:00 PM |
Poster Session 1 |
Blowing Rock |
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
| 8:00–9:00 AM |
Breakfast for Hotel Guests |
Individual Hotel |
| 9:00–12:30 PM |
Cancer Cell Vulnerabilities and Therapeutic Opportunities |
Chimney Rock |
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* Ashok R. Venkitaraman, Cancer Science Institute
Remote Presentation: Metabolic Control of Tumour Suppression Shapes Cancer Cell States |
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Benjamin Sunkel, Nationwide Children's Hospital
Short Talk: Remote Presentation: NR0B1 Alters the Retinoid Response in Ewing Sarcoma Cells: A Pathway to Therapy? |
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Karen M. Cichowski, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Chemical Synthetic Lethal Interactions for the Development of Combinatorial Therapies |
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Kevin Marks, Delphia Therapeutics
Paradoxical Activation of Oncogenic Signaling as a Therapeutic Strategy |
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LaQuita Jones, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Unexpected Resistance Mechanisms Underlying AML Targeted Therapy |
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Josh Plotnik, AbbVie, Inc.
Novel Synthetic Lethal Targets in Cancer |
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Valentina Posada, The Ohio State University
Short Talk: Uncovering Melanocyte-Intrinsic Drivers of Melanoma in MC1R Deficiency |
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| 10:00–10:20 AM |
Coffee Break |
Foyer |
| 10:20–10:25 AM |
Award Recipient Acknowledgement |
Chimney Rock |
| 11:30–12:30 PM |
Lunch |
Blowing Rock |
| 11:30–1:00 PM |
Poster Setup |
Blowing Rock |
| 1:00–10:00 PM |
Poster Viewing |
Blowing Rock |
| 3:30–4:30 PM |
Career Roundtable |
Chimney Rock |
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LaQuita Jones, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Associate Professor |
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Anugraha Rajagopalan, Genentech
Scientist III |
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Heathcliff Dorado Garcia, Springer Nature
Associate Editor |
|
| 4:30–5:00 PM |
Coffee Available |
Foyer |
| 5:00–7:30 PM |
Metabolic Rewiring in Cancer and Metabolic Approaches to Therapy |
Chimney Rock |
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Ralph J DeBerardinis, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Remote Presentation: Cell Intrinsic Metabolic Features Contributing to Cancer Growth and Therapeutic Sensitivity |
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* Poul H Sorensen, University of British Columbia
Metabolic Adaptation Mechanisms that Confer Resistance to Oxidative Stress in Cancer Cells |
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Manuel Valiente, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre
Metastatic Colonization and the Development of Brain Metastasis |
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Dohoon Kim, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Cancer Metabolism and Metabolic Toxicity |
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Taras Shyp, BC Cancer Research Institute
Short Talk: Ewing Sarcoma Metabolic Fitness Depends on the STEAP1–STEAP2 Partnership |
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Noura Srour, The Ohio State University
Short Talk: PP2A Activation Impairs Oxidative Phosphorylation in Naive and BTKi Resistant Mantle Cell Lymphoma |
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| 7:30–8:30 PM |
Social Hour with Dinner |
Blowing Rock |
| 8:30–10:00 PM |
Poster Session 2 |
Blowing Rock |
Thursday, January 29, 2026
| 8:00–9:00 AM |
Breakfast for Hotel Guests |
Individual Hotel |
| 9:00–12:30 PM |
Cellular Plasticity and Cell State Changes in Cancer |
Chimney Rock |
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Mariam Jamal-Hanjani, University College London
Remote Presentation: Tumor Evolution and Metastasis Revealed through Research Autopsies in PEACE |
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Cédric Blanpain, Universite Libre de Bruxelles
Remote Presentation: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Regulation of EMT States during Tumor Progression, Metastasis and Resistance to Therapy |
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* Karuna Ganesh, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Regenerative Plasticity during Colorectal Cancer Metastasis |
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Laura D. Attardi, Stanford University School of Medicine
p53 Governs Cell State Changes in Lung and Pancreatic Cancers |
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David Millan, Auron Therapeutics
Targeting Drivers of Tumor Cell Plasticity |
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Margaret W Barbier, Duke University School of Medicine
Short Talk: PI3K-gamma Signaling as a Lineage-specific Vulnerability of Tuft-like Cancers |
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Derrick Ong, National University of Singapore
Short Talk: A Non-canonical role of HDAC7 in Regulating TAZ Phosphorylation and Nuclear Localization via 14-3-3s in Glioblastoma |
|
| 10:00–10:20 AM |
Coffee Break |
Foyer |
| 12:30–1:30 PM |
Lunch |
Blowing Rock |
| 2:30–4:30 PM |
Symposia Spotlight 2 |
Chimney Rock |
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Charly Ryan Good, University of Pennsylvania
Mutation-Specific Protein Interaction Networks Define Gain-of-Function p53 Mechanisms in Cancer |
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* Peter K. Jackson, Stanford University
Mass Spectrometry and Platform Secretomics Reveal Consistent KRAS Tumor Secretotypes in Human Lung Adenocarcinoma Cell Lines and Primary Tumors |
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Zhixiang Lei, University of Texas at Dallas
Topoisomerase-1-dependent Pathways Maintain eccDNA Populations in Cancer Cells |
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Shihui Liu, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
A Potent Tumor-selective MEK Inactivator with High Therapeutic Index |
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Srinivas Malladi, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Patient Derived Organoids Identify Targetable Metabolic Adaptations in Metastatic ccRCCs |
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Rachael Pulica, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences
Phosphatidylserine Scramblases and Immune Escape in Cancer |
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Truc T Vuong, Indiana University School of Medicine - Bloomington
DNA Methyltransferase Inhibition Prevents Platinum-Induced Ovarian Cancer Stem Cell Enrichment |
|
| 4:30–5:00 PM |
Coffee Available |
Foyer |
| 5:00–6:45 PM |
Looking to the Future: Provocative New Themes in Cancer |
Chimney Rock |
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* Laura Wood, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
New Insights into Tumor Development from CODA 3D Reconstruction |
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Xin Zhou, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Designing Antibody-Based Protein Degraders to Target Cancer Signaling Pathways and DNA Damage Responses |
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Hoifung Poon, Microsoft Research
Multimodal Generative AI for Precision Health |
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Mats Ljungman, University of Michigan Medical School
Short Talk: Precision Targeting of the Cancer Genome |
|
| 6:45–7:00 PM |
Meeting Wrap-Up: Outcomes and Future Directions |
Chimney Rock |
| 7:00–8:00 PM |
Social Hour with Dinner |
Blowing Rock |
| 8:00–9:00 PM |
Entertainment |
Chimney Rock |
