Jeanette Boudreau

Associate Professor at Dalhousie University
Scientific Director of the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute

Dr. Jeanette Boudreau is an associate professor at Dalhousie University in the Departments of Pathology, and Microbiology and Immunology and the Scientific Director of the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute, an Atlantic Canada-wide consortium of cancer researchers. Dr. Boudreau obtained her PhD from McMaster University, and conducted post-doctoral research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her training and research programs are interdisciplinary, weaving fundamental cellular and molecular biology and genetics, with model systems and clinical samples analysis. Dr. Boudreau works closely with clinical collaborators to conduct research that reflects the diversity of cancer conditions, including (and especially) the diversity of their immune genes. In particular, the Boudreau laboratory is keen to understand how natural killer (NK) immune cells influence disease processes, response to therapies, and can be leveraged for precise anticancer therapies.

Greg Delgoffe

Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh
Director, Tumor Microenvironment Center
Co-Leader, Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program (CIIP), UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
Associate Director, Program in Microbiology and Immunology

Greg M. Delgoffe, PhD is a professor of immunology at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the Tumor Microenvironment Center at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Since 2014, Dr. Delgoffe’s research group has been interested in the metabolic underpinnings of tumor-induced immune suppression. His group has discovered that T cell exhaustion is a metabolic phenotype, and that tumor tissue can support tolerogenic populations like regulatory T cells. His group works to translate fundamental observations into therapeutic modalities that can leverage metabolism for immunologic benefit. His research has been recognized through several awards, including the AACR NextGen Star Award, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award,and he has been a Clarivate Highly Cited Research in Immunology since 2022. A member of the National Academy of Inventors, Dr. Delgoffe also has developed a number of novel treatment approaches to leverage immunometabolism in cancer therapy, which formed the basis of a number of start-up companies.

Douglas Mahoney

Associate Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Infectious Disease
Associate Director, Basic and Translational Research, Charbonneau Cancer Institute
Scientific Director, Alberta Cell Therapy and Immune Oncology (ACTION) Initiative
Director, Riddell Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy

Dr. Mahoney is a translational scientist at Cumming School of Medicine in the University of Calgary with 25 years of experience studying human health and disease. Over the past 15 years, his research has made important contributions to the development of numerous cancer immunotherapies that have been translated into human clinical trials. Currently his lab is focused on engineering "designer cells And viruses" to treat various forms of cancer in children, adolescents, and adults. Dr. Mahoney is the founder and Scientific Director of a research initiative called ACTION (Alberta Cellular Therapy and Immune Oncology) and the founder and Director of the Riddell Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy, which seeks to develop innovative next generation cell and immune therapies for cancer and deliver them to patients in Alberta and beyond. Outside the lab, Doug spends his time with his wife and three children, mostly enjoying the Alberta/BC wilderness.

Denis Migliorini

Head Neuro oncology unit, University Hospital of Geneva
Assistant Professor, Department of Oncology, University of Geneva
ISREC Foundation Chair in Brain Tumor Immunology
Center for Translational Research in Onco-Hematology

Professor Denis Migliorini completed his MD studies and internal medicine post graduate training at the Universities of Strasbourg. He then moved to the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) where he completed his postgraduate training in medical oncology under the mentorship of Professor Pierre-Yves Dietrich. From 2015 to 2016, he successfully completed his clinical fellowship in neuro-oncology. He holds a DAS in clinical trial management from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and became principal investigator of several early phase trials testing various anti-tumor immunotherapy approaches, including peptide vaccines for the treatment of glioblastoma. From 2017 to 2019, he did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, University of Pennsylvania, in the laboratories of Professor Carl June and Professor Avery D. Posey. He trained in synthetic biology and T cell engineering, disciplines that enabled the development of CAR-T cell technology. In 2019, he was awarded the Swiss Bridge Foundation Prize in recognition of his work identifying neurotoxicity mechanisms of engineered cell therapies. Returning to Switzerland in 2020, he was appointed assistant professor at the Department of Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of the UNIGE, and holds the ISREC Chair in Brain Tumour Immunology. At the HUG, he is an attending physician, head of the Neuro-Oncology Unit and clinical coordinator of the brain tumor biobank. Professor Migliorini is a member of the CRTOH steering committee.

John Stagg

Full Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of University of Montreal
Lab Head at the CHUM Hospital Research Center

Dr John Stagg is Full Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of University of Montreal and Lab Head at the CHUM Hospital Research Center since 2010. An established cancer immunologist, Dr Stagg cumulates over 100 research publications. Dr Stagg is known for having identified the adenosine-producing enzyme CD73 as a novel target in immuno-oncology and for contributing to the develop therapeutic agents targeting the extracellular adenosine pathway. Dr. Stagg was co-founder of Surface Oncology and is currently Scientific Advisory Board member of Coherus Biosciences and Domain Therapeutics. Dr. Stagg is a board member of BioCanRx.

Dr. Stagg received several distinctions, including the FRQS young investigator award, the CIHR New Investigator Award, the Terry Fox Research Institute New Investigator Award and the Excellence award for outstanding contribution from a new investigator under 10 years of Faculty appointment by the CHUM hospital. Since 2010, Dr. Stagg is recipient of the Jean-Guy Sabourin Research Chair in Pharmacology from the Université de Montréal Faculty of Pharmacy.

Mathias Vormehr

Senior Director, Cancer Vaccines at BioNTech SE

Dr. Vormehr, Senior Director Cancer Vaccines at BioNTech SE in Germany, is an immunologist with more than 10 years of experience in preclinical R&D. He holds a diploma in chemistry and a doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Mainz. His research interests encompass mRNA-based cancer vaccines including personalized therapies against mutated neoantigens, RNA-encoded cytokines and innovative therapeutic strategies to overcome cancer immune escape mechanisms. His work resulted in several patent applications and high impact publications in journals like Nature.