A Blue Ribbon Panel of experts has been named to advise the vision, proposed scientific goals and implementation of Vice President Joe Biden's National Cancer Moonshot Initiative.
The panel includes experts from a range of backgrounds, spanning genomics to diagnostics to cancer prevention, who hail from leading research institutes and cancer centers such as the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Members also include representatives from cancer advocacy groups, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies like Pfizer and Friends of Cancer Research.
The panel is tasked with considering how to advance objectives proposed by the initiative, such as how to develop cancer vaccines, approaches to early detection, immunotherapy and combination therapy, single cell genomic profiling of cancer cells and more. Members also have the ability to propose additional cancer research activities.
The National Cancer Advisory Board will use the findings and recommendations developed by the panel in its development of final recommendations to the director of the National Cancer Institute.
Here are the members of the Blue Ribbon Panel:
- Tyler Jacks, PhD (co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Panel), chair, National Cancer Advisory Board; and director, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge)
- Elizabeth Jaffee, MD (co-chair), professor and deputy director for translational research, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore)
- Dinah Singer, PhD (co-chair), acting deputy director and director, division of cancer biology, National Cancer Institute
- Peter Adamson, MD, professor and director, experimental therapeutics in oncology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
- James Allison, PhD, professor and chair of immunology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston)
- David Arons, JD, CEO, National Brain Tumor Society
- Mary Beckerle, PhD, CEO and director, Huntsman Cancer Institute (Salt Lake City)
- Mitch Berger, MD, professor and chair, department of neurological surgery, University of California, San Francisco
- Jeff Bluestone, PhD, executive vice chancellor and provost, University of California, San Francisco
- Mikael Dolsten, MD, PhD, president, Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development; and executive vice president, Pfizer (New York City)
- James Downing, MD, president and CEO, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, Tenn.)
- Levi Garraway, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and assistant professor of medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston)
- Gad Getz, PhD, director, cancer genome computational analysis group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (Boston)
- Laurie Glimcher, MD, professor of medicine and dean, Weill Cornell Medical College (New York City), and incoming president and CEO, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- Lifang Hou, MD, PhD, associate professor of preventive medicine, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (Chicago)
- Neal Kassell, MD, professor of neurosurgery, University of Virginia (Charlottesville)
- Maria Elena Martinez, PhD, professor of family medicine and public health, Reducing Cancer Disparities Program, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
- Deborah Mayer, PhD, RN, professor of adult and geriatric health, University of North Carolina School of Nursing; and director of cancer survivorship, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (Chapel Hill)
- Edith Mitchell, MD, professor of medical oncology and associate director for diversity services, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia)
- Augusto Ochoa, MD, professor of pediatrics and director, Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge)
- Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, professor of biochemistry and director, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, (Nashville, Tenn.)
- Angel Pizarro, technical business development manager, Amazon Web Services Scientific Computing and Research Computing (Seattle)
- Barbara Rimer, DrPH, alumni distinguished professor and dean, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health (Chapel Hill)
- Charles Sawyers, MD, chair, human oncology and pathogenesis program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York City); and investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Chicago)
- Ellen Sigal, PhD, founder and chair, Friends of Cancer Research (Washington, D.C.)
- Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder, chair, and CEO, NantWorks (Culver City, Calif.)
- Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and director, Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
- Wai-Kwan Alfred Yung, MD, professor of neuro-oncology and chair of clinical cancer care, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Here are the ex-officio members of the panel:
- Robert Califf, MD, commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- Kyong-Mi Chang, MD, acting chief research and development officer, Department of Veteran Affairs
- Jason Paragas, PhD, director of innovation, Lawrence Livermore (Calif.) National Laboratory
- Lawrence Tabak, DDS, PhD, principal deputy director, National Institutes of Health
- Jonathan Woodson, MD, assistant secretary of defense (Health Affairs), Department of Defense
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