Faculty

Allan Hackshaw

Professor of Epidemiology & Medical Statistics at University College London, and Director of the Cancer Research UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre

Allan Hackshaw is Professor of Epidemiology & Medical Statistics at University College London, and Director of the Cancer Research UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre, one of the largest cancer trials units in the UK. He has >32 years’ experience in the design, conduct and interpretation of phase I-III clinical trials, observational studies, real world data studies and systematic reviews, in a variety of disease areas, including cancer treatments, screening and diagnosis, and tobacco and health. He has worked in several cancer types (notably lung, thyroid, and gynaecological) and all types of interventions (systematic therapies including targeted and immunotherapies, radiotherapy, surgery, and combinations of them). His special interest is in adult and prenatal screening (he is a member of the UK National Screening Committee Adult Reference Group, and co-editor of the Journal of Medical Screening). He has published more than 200 journal articles and book chapters, and sole or first author of four textbooks, including two on clinical trials. He delivers modules on evidence-based medicine and clinical trials for postgraduate courses at UCL and the London School of Economics.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Adult and prenatal screening
• Phase 1 - 3 clinical trials
• Systematic reviews

Amit Khot

Consultant Haematologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.

After graduating from the University of Pune, India, Assoc Professor Khot trained in Internal Medicine in India and the UK, where he qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians. He completed training in laboratory and clinical Haematology in London, UK, obtaining a Fellowship from the Royal College of Pathologists. This was followed by a clinical research fellowship involving early phase clinical trials in cell therapies and myeloma at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Assoc Prof Khot has published in international journals and presented in international conferences in his fields of interest of cell therapies, bone marrow transplantation, myeloma, T-cell lymphoma and early phase clinical trials. He currently works as a Consultant Haematologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne Hospital and is an investigator in all phases of clinical trials involving novel agents and immunotherapies in myeloma and advanced haematologic malignancies.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Myeloma
• T-cell Lymphoma
• Immunotherapy and Cell therapies in Hematologic cancers

Amit A Shenoy

Patient Advocate, Hematology Cancer Consortium, Mumbai.

Curriculum Vitae:

• Bachelors of Science (Microbiol.), Mumbai University 2004

Certifications:

• PARC (Patient advocacy for Research and Clinical Guidelines), National Cancer Grid – PatientsEngage, 2024-25
• Transplant coordination and Grief counselling, MOHAN-FORT & NOTTO, 2017
• ISO Management Systems Auditor, Bureau Veritas, 2013

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Patient advocacy and counselling
• Literature survey for clinical research

Arnie Purushotham

Consultant Academic Surgeon, Professor of Breast Cancer at King’s College London.

Professor Arnie Purushotham has been a Consultant Academic Surgeon for 30 years having worked in Glasgow, Cambridge and London. He is Professor of Breast Cancer at King’s College London and Consultant Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust. He is also the Director of King’s Health Partners Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

As a scientific researcher, Professor Purushotham’s goal has been to drive high quality clinical and translational research that directly impacts patients with cancer.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Cancer pathways
• Intra-operative optical imaging
• MR Elastography to predict response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy
• Decision support tools in breast cancer management
• Prevention and early detection
• Cancer in low- and middle-income countries
• Cancer outcomes

Aparna Mittal

Founder & CEO, PatientsEngage, Singapore & India

Aparna Mittal is a social entrepreneur with a passion for improving healthcare through patient and family caregiver engagement and empowerment. Building health literacy for people dealing with chronic conditions and their family caregivers with the intent to enable shared decision-making. Advocating for patients and their family caregivers to be seen as lived experience experts and treated as partners in healthcare.

Strengths: Active Listening, Championing for inclusion of patients and family caregivers in various fora, health literacy strategies, Lived Experience Journey Mapping and Insights, Diverse determinants of health, Partnerships and Community Building

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Cancer Research Priority Setting with PPIE
• Quality of Life and Survivorship
• Enable and Measurement of Impact of PPIE

Balu Krishna Sasidharan

Professor & Head, Unit 2, Radiation Oncology. Ida B Scudder Cancer Centre, Christian Medical College, Vellore

Dr. Balu Krishna Sasidharan is a Professor of Radiation Oncology at CMC, Vellore. His passion lies in integrating AI and technology to create data-driven solutions that improve survivorship and enhance patient-centered oncology care in India. He has led clinical innovations, directed survivorship research, and developed applications for oncology AI.

His key works include a phase 2 randomized controlled studies investigating the effects of oral resistant starch supplements in cervical cancer; the use of radiotherapy for phyllodes tumor; and the comparison of Clinical Monte Carlo treatment planning with pencil beam planning for nasopharyngeal cancer. He has worked on a comparison of scanning beam proton therapy with photon IMRT for stage III lung cancer and applied machine learning techniques to predict local failure in head and neck cancers using CT and PET radiomics. He has successfully published research studies on the detection of cancer DNA in the plasma of early-stage breast cancer patients.

Dr. Sasidharan has guided and mentored the next generation of oncologists and PhD researchers. He has played a crucial role as an organizer and faculty member for the National Conference on Health Data and AI in 2023 and 2025.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Head and neck / Lung / prostate cancers / Radiotherapy
• AI integration in health care / technology
• Survivorship/ Involve decision making / Continuum of care

Bogda Koczwara

Director, Australian Research Centre for Cancer Survivorship

Professor Bogda Koczwara AM is an internationally recognised clinician researcher with expertise in cancer survivorship and supportive care. She established one of the first cancer survivorship program in Australia and the longest running cancer survivorship scientific meeting in the world. Her research has contributed to key advancers in the field of survivorship epidemiology, symptom monitoring, self-management support, and the use of patient reported outcomes in cancer. In April 2025 she was appointed as an inaugural Director of the Australian Research Centre for Cancer Survivorship based in Sydney, Australia. The Centre, created through a joint investment of $40 million from UNSW and Cancer Council NSW, was established last year with a focus on improving the care and wellbeing of cancer survivors through transformative and impactful research.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Cancer Survivorship
• Supportive Care
• Implementation Science

Chris Frampton

Professor of Biostatistics, University of Otago, New Zealand

Chris Frampton is Professor, Biostatistics, Department of Medicine/Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, and Director of a statistical consultancy company based in Christchurch, New Zealand. In addition, he is the statistical representative on New Zealand’s regulatory committees - the Standing Committee on Therapeutic Trials, Medicines Adverse Reactions Committee, and Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee - and on a number of national and international data safety monitoring committees for ongoing randomised controlled trials. Professor Frampton has a specific interest in the design, conduct and analysis of phase I, II and III randomised controlled trials. With over 25 years of experience in biostatistics consultancy as applied to a wide range of clinical disciplines, he has co-authored over 600 peer reviewed publications.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Design, conduct and analysis of phase I, II and III randomised controlled trials
• Meta-analyses
• The design and analysis of observational studies

C S Pramesh

Director of the Tata Memorial Hospital and Professor and Head of Thoracic Surgery at the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai

Dr CS Pramesh is the Director of the Tata Memorial Hospital and Professor and Head of Thoracic Surgery at the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai. He serves on the UICC Board of Directors. He is the convener for the National Cancer Grid, a large network of 370+ cancer centres in India and several other countries (https://ncgindia.org). Pramesh is highly committed to reducing inequities in cancer control and making cancer treatment accessible to all geographic regions and strata of society. He is visiting professor at the Division of Cancer Studies, King’s College London and the Institute of Cancer Policy, King’s Health Partners, London. He serves on the advisory boards of several global organizations including WHO, ASCO, ESMO and the UICC. His research interests include health services research, value-based care, addressing barriers to access, and cancer policy. He is a recipient of the Rachel Pearline global cancer research humanitarian award from the National Cancer Institute, USA.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Addressing barriers in access
• Value-based innovations in cancer therapeutics
• Randomized trials

Durga Gadgil

Research Consultant

Durga Gadgil, an independent clinical research consultant, is currently working also as a consultant with the Tata Memorial Administrative and Research Council (TRAC), Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH). She is the chief coordinator for the two-year MSc in Clinical Research course conducted by the Tata Memorial Centre under the Homi Bhabha National Institute. She is also a GCP Trainer and conducts workshops and seminars for the same. Besides, she is instrumental in setting up the National Cancer Grid Contract Research Organization (NCG CRO) at TMH in 2017, which monitors Investigator Initiated Research which are NCG funded, multicentre studies carried out in India. She is a part of the Organizing committee for CReDO, the research methodology workshop conducted by TMH.

She has 31 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and retired in November 2015 as Area Head, Asia Pacific, Regional Medical Monitoring Organization, Pfizer.

Durga is a certified NABH assessor for NABH Accreditation Standards for Clinical Trials (Ethics Committee, Investigator, and Clinical Trial Site)

During her career span of 30+ years, she has worked in many pharmaceutical companies, all MNCs and one Indian company. She has experience in all fields related to a medical doctor’s role in the industry, like medico-marketing support, regulatory activities, pharmacovigilance and safety reporting, clinical operations, medical monitoring, auditing and training.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Clinical Operations
• Project Management & Training

Duncan Gilbert

Consultant Clinical Oncologist and Associate Professor in Cancer and Clinical Trials at MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL.

Duncan Gilbert graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1997 and trained in Clinical Oncology in Sussex and at the Royal Marsden Hospitals. As part of his training he undertook a PhD in the molecular biology of testicular cancer at the Institute of Cancer Research and also spent 6 months working at the Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, Nepal. He is now a Consultant Clinical Oncologist treating patients with pelvic cancers at the Sussex Cancer Centre in Brighton, Sussex and an Associate Professor of Cancer and Clinical Trials at MRC Clinical Trials where he is the chief investigator for REFINE, testing extended intervals of immune checkpoint inhibitors in renal cancer and melanoma, and has senior roles within the STAMPEDE and Add Aspirin trial teams.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Clinical Trials Optimising Therapies (e.g. immunotherapy)
• Repurpising drugs for Oncology
• Radiotherapy studies and translational science programs

Elizabeth Garrett-Mayer

PhD, FSCT, Vice President, Center for Research and Analytics (CENTRA)

Dr. Garrett-Mayer’s department (CENTRA) leads the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s research efforts, including the TAPUR Study (a pragmatic basket trial of FDA approved targeted agents in patients with advanced cancer), the CDK Study (a PCORI funded clinical trial comparing two dosing strategies for CDK4/6 inhibitors), and programs aimed at dose optimization, improving access to clinical trials, and oncology workforce issues. Prior to joining ASCO, she served on the faculty at Johns Hopkins in the Department of Oncology, and then joined the faculty of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) where she established the Biostatistics Shared Resource at the Hollings Cancer Center (HCC).

She earned her PhD in Biostatistics from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her publication record includes more than 300 peer-reviewed publications, primarily in early phase clinical trial design methods and clinical cancer research. She serves on the board of The Society for Clinical Trials, has been a member of numerous NIH grant review committees, NCI task forces and steering groups, Data Safety Monitoring Boards for NIH-supported clinical trials, and serves on the editorial board of three peer-reviewed journals. She has served as course director for both the ASCO-AACR Methods in Clinical Cancer Workshop and the SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology Network Workshop.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Biostatistics
• Dose optimization
• Phase II trial design

Gauri Singh

Patient Advocate, Global Health Leader

Gauri Singh is a global health leader and a powerful voice for patient equity. With over two decades of experience spanning pharma, medtech, and international non-profits, she works with a multinational organization to advance global health equity and expand access to quality care.

Diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma at the age of 25, Gauri completed treatment in 2009 and transformed her experience into a lifelong commitment to cancer advocacy. Gauri was selected for the inaugural cohort of the Patient Advocate for Research and Clinical Guidelines (PARC) program by the National Cancer Grid, India and PatientsEngage Health Foundation. She brings the power of lived experience into critical conversations on research, clinical guidelines, and policy.

Gauri is an alumna of the Indian School of Business and an engineer by training. A dedicated yoga practitioner, she has also explored diverse cultures across six continents.

Girish Chinnaswamy

Professor, HOD Pediatric Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital

Dr Girish Chinnaswamy completed his post graduate training in Pediatrics at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research(JIPMER) Pondicherry, India. He further underwent subspeciality training in Pediatric and Adolescent oncology at the Royal London and Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals in the United Kingdom. He subsequently pursued research in Pediatric cancer pharmacology at the Northern Institute of Cancer Research, Newcastle University, UK studying the pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenomics of anticancer drugs in children.

He has previously worked as a faculty in Pediatric oncology at Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, India and is presently working as a faculty at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.

His special interests are Pediatric neuro-oncology, solid tumors and bone tumors in children. His research interests include Pediatric cancer pharmacology including cancer drug disposition in malnourished children(with cancer), development of newer formulations(liquid formulation etc) and Drug repurposing for advanced and high risk pediatric malignancies.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Neuro - oncology
• Pediatric solid tumors
• Pediatric cancer pharmacology

Ian Tannock

MD, PhD: Brief Narrative Biography, September 2024

Dr. Tannock is Emeritus Professor at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and University of Toronto. He obtained his PhD from the Institute of Cancer Research, London University, England and his MD from University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. His clinical expertise is in GU and breast cancer, and he chaired trials for men with metastatic prostate cancer that led to licencing of drugs used worldwide. Dr. Tannock is editor of the Basic Science of Oncology textbook, now in its 6th edition (2021), that is used by trainees in all branches of oncology.

Dr. Tannock was a member of the ASCO Board of Directors (2001-2004), and of the EORTC Board (2009-2016). He received the ESMO award (2012) and the ASCO Allen Lichter award for leadership and innovation (2019), holds 2 honorary degrees and is appointed to the Order of Canada.

Since retiring from active practice, Dr Tannock teaches and mentors young oncologists internationally, and authors papers relating to clinical trial methodology. He is a member of the WHO Essential Medicines Committee, and a founding member of Common-Sense Oncology. These initiatives seek to return cancer management and cancer trials to evidence-based benefit for patients, and thereby reduce cost and improve global access to effective cancer treatment.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Design, analysis and reporting of clinical trials, including dose optimisation and Quality of Life
• GU cancers (prostate, bladder and kidney)
• Breast cancer

Jammbe Musoro

Senior statistician, EORTC Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium.

Jammbe obtained a PhD in Biostatistics from the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, in 2016. He joined the EORTC headquarters in October 2015, where he supports both the Quality of Life Department and the Statistics Department.

Currently, Jammbe is the designated statistician for the EORTC Cutaneous Lymphoma Tumor Group, providing statistical support in the design of cancer clinical trials. In his role with the EORTC Quality of Life Department, he offers statistical assistance in the design, analysis, and reporting of studies with quality of life endpoints. Jammbe is actively engaged in quality of life research and leads various projects, including the EORTC Minimally Important Difference (MID) project, which aims to establish interpretation guidelines for the EORTC QLQ-C30. He regularly contributes to EORTC educational courses and participates in international collaborative projects like SISAQOL- IMI, which aims to standardize the use, analysis, and interpretation of patient-reported outcome data in cancer clinical trials.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Phase II study design.
• Design of studies with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) endpoints.
• Developing interpretation guidelines for HRQoL outcomes.

Julia Hanebrink

Clinical Research Scientist in the Culture and Communication Transversal Program within the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Julia Hanebrink, PhD, is a Clinical Research Scientist in the Culture and Communication Transversal Program within the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A biocultural anthropologist, she has more than twenty years of experience designing and leading qualitative and mixed-methods research to strengthen global health programs.

Dr. Hanebrink’s work centers on patient–provider communication, caregiver and survivor lived experiences, psychosocial care, and the cultural and structural factors shaping access and outcomes in low- and middle-income settings. She leads multi-country qualitative initiatives that inform health system strengthening, quality improvement, and implementation strategies for oncology programs across Africa, Latin America, North America, the Middle East, and Asia.

At St. Jude Global, she supports the integration of rigorous qualitative methods into clinical research, program development, and strategic planning. She also directs capacity-building efforts-including mentorship programs, qualitative research training, and methodological guidance-to increase locally grounded, context-responsive evidence generation. She brings to this workshop expertise in qualitative study design, data collection, analysis, and translating narrative data into actionable insights for clinical and research teams.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Qualitative and mixed-methods research in global pediatric oncology
• Patient, caregiver, and provider experiences, communication, and psychosocial care
• Health systems strengthening, implementation, and capacity-building in LMIC contexts

Indranil Mallick

Senior Consultant, Department of Radiation Oncology, Tata Medical Center, Kolkata

Dr Indranil Mallick completed his degree in radiation oncology at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India and subsequently trained at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India and the Princess Margaret Hospital (University of Toronto), Toronto, Canada.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Hypofractionated radiotherapy in prostate and head and neck cancers.
• Applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence in oncology.
• Technical aspects of radiotherapy (image guidance, planning techniques, PET-CT guidance).
• Oncology education - developing and testing online educational courses.

Isabelle Soerjomataram

MD, PhD, Deputy Head, Branch of Cancer Surveillance, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

Isabelle Soerjomataram is deputy head of the Cancer Surveillance Branch and a medical epidemiologist with a special interest in causes, and prevention of cancer. She took a position at IARC in 2011 where she is currently assessing international variation of the cancer burden and survival using mainly population-based datasets and how policy can mitigate the rising burden of cancer and rising gap of cancer burden between sub-populations.

In addition to her research activities, she (co)coordinates several large projects funded by various institutions. She leads national, regional, and global estimation of attributable fraction for cancers related various risk factors. Other projects that she leads are cancer survival projects, in high-income and also low-and middle-income settings assessing the effectiveness of the local health system as well as influence of major risk factors such as tobacco smoking, obesity and alcohol. She also co-chairs the Lancet Commission on Women and Cancer, and also leads working groups in the Lancet Oncology Commission for Cancers in the Common Wealth and Ovarian Cancers. Finally she coordinate the IARC Initiative of Resilience in Cancer Control assessing the impact of crises on cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and outcome.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Epidemiology
• Prevention
• Population-level databases, registry
• Cancer survival
• Modelling

Katherine Van Loon

Gastrointestinal oncologist and a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Dr. Van Loon is a gastrointestinal oncologist and a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Her research is focused on the global burden of gastrointestinal malignancies. She is the Founding Director of the Global Cancer Program at UCSF’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center where she oversees UCSF’s portfolio of research, education, and capacity-building projects in low and middle-income countries. In collaboration with Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, she is the Co-Principal Investigator of a D43 award that has established a cancer research training program in Tanzania. In 2025, she became the Editor-in-Chief of an ASCO journal, JCO Global Oncology. She has been the recipient of numerous mentoring awards for her efforts to develop resources for research training and mentorship for early career investigators with interests in global cancer control.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Global Oncology
• Colorectal Cancer
• Esophageal Cancer

Manju Sengar

Professor, Adult hematolymphoid disease management group, Medical Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.

Manju Sengar is Professor, Adult hematolymphoid disease management group, Medical Oncology at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai. Dr Sengar completed her training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

She has done her post graduate diploma in clinical trials from London School of hygiene and tropical medicine (external programme). She is a recipient of American Society of Hematology visitor training program fellowship at Duke University, Durham. She is a core group member of National Cancer Grid, India. She is a founding member of the Hematology Cancer Consortium. Her main areas of clinical research are non-Hodgkin lymphomas, lymphomas in HIV/AIDS, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She has been involved in promoting value-based cancer care and resource-stratified treatment guidelines.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Phase I, II, III clinical trials in hematological cancers including CAR-T
• Real world data based research

Marc Buyse

Degrees of Engineering from Brussels University (Belgium), Degree of Management from Cranfield University (UK), and a ScD in biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health (Boston, MA)

Marc Buyse, ScD, holds degrees in engineering from Brussels University (Belgium), in management from Cranfield University (UK), and a ScD in biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health (Boston, MA). He worked at the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) in Brussels and at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. He is the founder of IDDI (International Drug Development Institute), CluePoints and One2Treat, three companies offering services and software for clinical research. He is Associate Professor of biostatistics at Hasselt University in Belgium. His recent research work focuses on developing statistical methods for patient-centric medicine.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Analysis of multiple outcomes
• Patient-centric treatment decisions
• Identification of predictive factors

Mark Krailo

Senior Statistician Emeritus, Children’s Oncology Group

Staff Statistician, Kenneth Norris Jr Cancer Center (KNJCC), University of Southern California.

In my role at the KNJCC, I am responsible for design and analysis of investigator-initiated clinical trials. These include early stage trials of novel therapies for adults with cancer. I am involved with studies in the Department of Urology focused on refining methods for biopsy in prostate cancer. I also serve on the Scientific Review Committee for the KNJCC.

In my role at the Children’s Oncology Group I am responsible for reporting of secondary analyses from clinical trials in pediatric oncology. I also serve on the executive committee for the Malignant Germ Cell International Consortium (MaGIC).

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Clinical trial analysis in the case of informative censoring
• Phase I designs
• Randomized phase II designs with time to event endpoints
• Phase III designs employing multimodal therapy
• Risk prediction models and validation

Matthew Sydes

Head of Data-Driven Clinical Trials in the Data for R&D programme, part of the Transformation Directorate at NHS England in London, UK

Professor Matthew Sydes is Head of Data-Driven Clinical Trials in the Data for R&D programme, part of the Transformation Directorate at NHS England in London, UK. For 30 years, Matt has designed, conducted, analysed, reported and communicated clinical trials, usually late-phase, often international and often defining a new standard-of-care for patients. With a broad operations and statistical background, he has increasingly focused on methodological research to improve the delivery of clinical trials, including: implementation into practice of novel designs, particularly multi-arm multi-stage (MAMS) platform / master protocols; running academic-led trials with a view to regulatory use and submission; proportionate and efficient monitoring of clinical trial; better clinical trial data sharing; communication of trial findings; and, critically, the potential to transform clinical trial planning and delivery through the use of routinely-collected healthcare systems data. Matt has presented widely, taught on national and international courses, and sat on funding panels and ethics committee. He joined NHS England from University College London (UCL) where he was a Professor of Clinical Trials and Methodology, research director for the Transforming Data for Trials programme at Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and Associate Director for Data-Enabled Trials at the BHF Data Science Centre. He is an inaugural HDR UK Fellow.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Late-phase randomised controlled trials
• Health systems data for clinical trials
• Efficient clinical trial delivery

Mahesh Parmar

Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Director of both the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL

Mahesh (Max) Parmar is a Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology and Director of both the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL and the Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology at University College London.

Max joined the MRC in 1987. He has more than 450 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Many of his clinical publications have had a direct impact on policy, clinical practice, and improving outcomes for patients; while a number of his methodological publications have had a direct impact on methodological practice including, for example, his work on platform trials, flexible parametric models and meta-analyses.

The MRC Clinical Trials Unit he has directed since 2010 is at the forefront of resolving internationally important questions, particularly in infectious diseases and cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, and also aims to deliver swifter and more effective translation of scientific research into patient benefits. It does this by carrying out challenging and innovative studies and by developing and implementing methodological advances in study design, conduct, and analysis.

He was for over 10 years an Associate Director of the National Cancer Research Network since its inception in 2001, an organization which more than doubled the number of patients going into cancer studies in England and was the pre-cursor for the NIHR Clinical Research Network.

Max was awarded the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2019 and the Royal Statistical Society’s Bradford Medal in 2024.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Innovative Clinical Trials
• New Statistical Methods
• Cancer and Other Diseases (EG: Infections, Neurodegenerative Diseases)

Michael Brada

BSc, MB ChB, FRCP, FRCR, DSc

Was a Professor of Clinical Oncology at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and subsequently a Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Liverpool and Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.

A leading expert in neuro-oncology and thoracic oncology with an expertise in the development, evaluation and implementation of new technologies.

Served as the President of the European Association of Neuro-oncology (EANO), the President of The European Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology (ESTRO) and Chairman of the NCRI Brain Tumour Clinical Studies Group.

He authored and coauthored over 280 publications.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Neuro-oncology - all aspects of investigation and nonsurgical management
• Thoracic oncology with a focus on radiation oncology
• Evaluation of radiotherapy technology and design of radiotherapy trials
• Late effects of treatment

Meenakshi Devidas

Professor and Director, Analytics Core in the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine, at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Senior Statistician with the Children’s Oncology Group

Dr Devidas earned a PhD in Applied Statistics from the University of Memphis and spent the ensuing 32 years as a faculty member at UCLA, University of Mississippi Medical Center and University of Florida. She brings more than 25 years of experience in the field of pediatric oncology. She is Director of Analytics in the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She and her team provide biostatistical and analytic support for the various global initiatives/research projects in the department. She is a member of the graduate faculty and a faculty in the St Jude Global Academy. She is the study statistician for clinical trials run by the North American Consortium for Histiocytosis (NACHO), a consortium dedicated to the development and implementation of clinical and translational studies and biological research for histiocytic diseases. She is also the study statistician for a trial studying gene therapy for Hemophilia B in low-middle income countries, conducted by St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr Devidas is the Lead Statistician for the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) biology/therapeutic clinical trials in the NCI sponsored (National Clinical Trials Network) international cooperative group, the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). She is PI, Co-PI and co-investigator on several current and past NIH grants supporting clinical research. Her methodological research has focused on statistical issues related to the design and conduct of clinical studies.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Biostatistics
• Clinical trials design
• Pediatric hematology/oncology

Neil Ranasinghe

Co-founder of the Paediatric Oncology Reference Team (PORT) - a group of parents that review paediatric oncology clinical trial documentation for parents and patients

Neil Ranasinghe (BA) is the parent of a survivor of childhood cancer. For nearly 20 years he has been involved with global and UK-based cancer organisations, contributing his expertise as a patient advocate, Technical Author and his leadership capabilities.

Neil is a co-founder of the Paediatric Oncology Reference Team (PORT) - a group of parents that review paediatric oncology clinical trial documentation for parents and patients. PORT has reviewed documentation for over 40 clinical trials and advised on research and trials. This is a long standing and effective collaboration between parents and clinicians to improve the design of trials, make patient documentation more accessible, and ultimately increase participation in clinical trials.

I am attending CReDO to help attendees ensure patients are considered when designing protocols , coach attendees with their presentations, and help write plain English summaries.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Embedding patient advocacy in clinical trials
• Investigating the role of ethnicity in treatment and outcomes in paediatric oncology in the UK
• Mapping all institutions that treat children with cancer (with SIOP)

Meet the experts:

• Helping write Plain English summaries and surveys
• Helping ensure protocols are designed with patients in mind
• Helping with presentations - content and delivery

Nancy Bolous

Instructor, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine in St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Nancy S. Bolous, MD, MA, MSc, is a health economist serving as an Instructor in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine in St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In her academic role, she teaches a 15-week Health Economics course in the Global Child Health Master’s Program and supervises multiple master’s theses. In her research role, she focuses on costing and cost-effectiveness analyses of medical interventions in hematology and oncology, with published work advancing evidence-based policy and resource allocation.

Combining a medical degree with a health economics degree, Dr. Bolous bridges the gap between clinical practice and economic evaluation, bringing a unique perspective to healthcare decision-making. A core component of her portfolio involves developing standardized, transferable, and transparent health economic tools and frameworks that can be applied across institutions and countries. These tools underpin planning documents used by governments, hospitals, and foundations to conduct feasibility assessments, budget services, evaluate return on investment, and compare costs and outcomes across treatment pathways. These analyses also support fair pricing initiatives, inform price negotiations, and provide forward-looking economic forecasts to guide sustainable health planning. Her projects span multiple regions and involve collaborations with local institutions, governmental bodies, and United Nations agencies such as the World Health Organization.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Develop standardized, transferable costing and budgeting tools for global use.
• Assess the economic impact of treatment pathways by linking clinical outcomes with costs to inform decisions.
• Explore health system financing streams, identify enablers and challenges, and forecast costs and outcomes for sustainable planning.

Patricia LoRusso

Oncologist, Associate Director of Innovative Medicine at Yale Medicine

Dr. Patricia LoRusso has been a practicing academic medical oncologist performing clinical/translational research in early phase clinical trials for 35 years, spending the first 25 years at Wayne State University/Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, MI and transitioning to Yale University/Yale Cancer Center in 2014. She has had continuous NIH/NCI peer review funding for 33 years, having held a U-grant for early phase clinical trials through the NCI Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) for 28 years. She has also collaborated on numerous other grants and have been an investigator in R01, P01 and P30 funding mechanisms. Understanding the need for team science, she has participated in P50 mechanisms and has been awarded team science grants through such organizations as Stand Up to Cancer (Co-Leader: Melanoma Dream Team), the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Komen Foundation (Co-leader, KG111063:Targeting Stem Cells in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) in Different Racial Populations).

Dr. LoRusso has also been involved in many service disciplines at the NCI and elsewhere. She has reviewed grants for many study sections and has either been an ad hoc (e.g. CCSG, NeXT study sections) or permanent study section member (e.g. Program Project Subcommittee D and Clinical Oncology study sections). She has served on the Investigational Drug Steering Committee (IDSC) since inception (2005-present) and served as its chair from 2011-2013 and 2022-2024. She was a member of the steering committee that convened after the Blue- Ribbon Panel to execute on their recommendations. She served a 9-year term (2015-2024) on the Board of Scientific Council (BSC), reviewing the intramural programs for quality, content, productivity and funding.

In addition to serving in NCI positions, Dr. LoRusso has served in leadership positions of several other organizations. She has served on the Board of Directors and numerous scientific and education committees of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) as well as the AACR President from 2024-2025. She is currently the Immediate Past President of AACR. She has served on education and scientific committees of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and the steering committee for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Accelerating Anticancer Agent Development and Validation Workshop, as examples. Internationally, she has taught several clinical trials educational workshops, educating many physicians and scientists across the globe. She understands how critically important it is to train the next generation of early career investigators to be knowledgeable and proficient in clinical and translational research by providing them leadership opportunities and mentoring. She has worked closely with Cancer Research United Kingdom (CRUK), a UK Welcome Trust which is the second largest funding agency for cancer research. She is currently the chair of their New Agents Committee (NAC), reviewing international proposals relative to drug development of novel agents.

Working closely over the past 3 decades with patients suffering from advanced malignancies, Dr. LoRusso has become an advocate, not only for junior through senior faculty cancer researchers and clinicians, but more importantly for the patients and their caregivers. Having experienced at a young age the death of her own parents from cancer, she understands the urgent need for new cancer discoveries and the potential for longevity and quality of life. She is committed to training the next generation of physician scientists and clinical researchers, to advance novel therapies to increase outreach of novel therapeutics to cancer patients globally.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Early Phase Clinical Trials
• Breast Cancer

Priya Ranganathan

Professor of Anesthesiology, Tata Memorial Centre

Priya Ranganathan works as Professor of Anesthesiology at the Tata Memorial Centre, which is a tertiary-level cancer centre in Mumbai, India. She deals mainly with anesthesia for thoracic surgical procedures especially esophageal and lung resections.

She has a keen interest in clinical research methods and biostatistics and has been faculty on several short courses on these topics. She coordinates a Masters degree in Clinical Research at the Tata Memorial Centre. She is a member of the Institutional Review Board at Tata Memorial Hospital and is editor of the biostatistics section for the journal ‘Perspectives in Clinical Research’.

Priya completed her medical training at the King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai and a fellowship in Clinical Anesthesia at the Singapore General Hospital.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Research methods training
• Statistics for non-statisticians
• Onco-anaesthesia and peri-operative care

Prachi Patil

Head of the Department of Digestive Diseases and Clinical Nutrition at the
Tata Memorial Hospital

Dr. Prachi Patil is Professor and Head of the Department of Digestive Diseases and Clinical Nutrition at the Tata Memorial Hospital, where she leads clinical and academic initiatives in gastroenterology with a focus on GI oncology. She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate medical training in Mumbai. Her areas of interest are gastrointestinal cancers, therapeutic endoscopy and clinical nutrition. She has co-authored more than 80 publications in indexed journals and has received both intramural and extramural funding for her research.

Prachi has a strong interest in clinical research. From 2021 to 2024, she has served as the officer-in-charge of the Clinical Research Secretariat and DAE-Clinical Trials Center at TMH where she played a key role in strengthening the research infrastructure to effectively support clinical studies. She also led in-house training programs to build research capacity. She has been an alumnus of the ACORD workshop (2010) and faculty at the annual CReDO workshop from 2019-2024.

She has previously been a member of the editorial boards for peer-reviewed gastroenterology and endoscopy journals and is actively engaged in mentoring early-career researchers. Her current research focuses on evidence-based strategies in colorectal cancer and addressing cancer-associated malnutrition.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Gastrointestinal cancers
• Clinical nutrition
• Therapeutic endoscopy

Ramakrishnan Ayloor Seshadri

Senior Consultant Surgical Oncologist, Integrated Cancer Care Group in Chennai

Dr.Ramakrishnan Ayloor Seshadri is a Senior Consultant Surgical Oncologist with the Integrated Cancer Care Group in Chennai. He was previously Professor of Surgical Oncology at the Cancer Institute (WIA), Adyar, Chennai where he headed the Gastrointestinal and HPB oncology services. He has also held positions as In-charge of the Clinical Research Unit, Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee, Dean Academics, member of the IRB and lead of the Clinical Quality improvement cell.

He is a member of the GI cancer guidelines development committee of the NCG, a mentor for the EQUIP India program, editorial board member of the British Journal of Surgery and member of the technical committee for developing standards for centre of excellence (oncology) of the Quality Council of India

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Non-operative management of rectal cancers
• Perioperative management of gastric cancers
• Early onset colorectal cancers

Richard Stephens

Visiting Lecturer in Patient and Public Involvement at KCL, a Eupati Fellow, and the founding co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Research Involvement and Engagement.

Richard has so far survived two cancers and a heart emergency together with late effects and co-morbidities. He has participated in four interventional studies and twelve others. He is a Visiting Lecturer in Patient and Public Involvement at KCL, a Eupati Fellow, and the founding co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Research Involvement and Engagement. His professional careers were in education, journalism, and local government, and now he works with industry, academics and patients around the world.

Richard Chairs the UK’s Cancer Research Advocates Forum and use MY data. He was a co-author of England’s Cancer Strategy and is a CONCORD-Lancet Global Commissioner on Cancer. He is a member of the European Society of Cardiology Patient Forum and the European Taskforce on eConsent, a past Chair of the Stakeholder Forum at BBMRI-ERIC (European biobanking infrastructure) and is Vice-Chair of the European CanSERV (cancer research infrastructure) project.

Richard has been a patient partner with funders including EORTC, CRUK, Rising Tide and NIHR. Since 1995 he has helped design and deliver over 70 individual research studies and programmes (including CRUK-NCI Cancer Grand Challenges) and has co-authored over thirty published papers. He would like to spend more time on beaches reading history books.

Ruth Langley

Lead Specilaised in the design and management of oncology clinical trials based at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London.

Professor Ruth Langley is a medical oncologist specializing in the design and management of oncology clinical trials based at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London where she leads the Cancer Group. She has worked in a number of tumour areas including colorectal, lung, prostate and gastro-oesophageal cancer coordinating a series of trials and associated translational studies.

She has a particular interest in re-purposing established medicines as cancer therapeutics, as well as cancer prevention, and is clinical Chair of the UK Therapeutic Cancer Prevention Network. A focus of her recent work has been on the therapeutic potential of aspirin as an anti-cancer agent. She is the Chief Investigator of the Add-Aspirin trial and is a co-lead of the AsCaP consortium a translational program investigating the anti-cancer effects of aspirin.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Clinical Trials
• Gastrointestinal Malignancies
• Repurposing

Sara Selig

MD, MPH, Division Director, CENTRA

Sara Selig, MD, MPH is the Division Director for the Research Shared Services Division in the Center for Research and Analytics (CENTRA) at ASCO. In this role Dr. Selig supports research initiatives within ASCO and in partnership with ASCO volunteers and other stakeholders to advance ASCO’s mission. Prior to joining ASCO she was an Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School where she spent more than two decades working to improve health outcomes and advance health equity through a variety of efforts including conducting community-based participatory research, building more equitable health data ecosystems, incorporating patient reported outcomes into clinical research efforts, and using research and data to drive health system strengthening in the US and globally. Among other initiatives, Dr. Selig led efforts to improve oncology care and outcomes for Indigenous cancer patients and led global efforts for a patient-reported registry.

She trained in internal medicine, public health, and global health equity at Harvard and is a Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Institute Global Health Equity Fellowship Program.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Community-based participatory research
• Patient engagement
• Registries
• Public health
• Health equity

Scott Berry

MD, MHSc (Bioethics), FRCPC, Medical Oncologist, Regional Vice President for Ontario Health - Cancer Care Ontario

Dr. Berry is the Chief and Medical Director of the Carlo Fidani Cancer Centre and the Cancer Program at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. He is the Regional Vice President for Ontario Health - Cancer Care Ontario and an Adjunct Professor of Oncology at Queen’s University.

Dr. Berry’s clinical specialty is gastrointestinal cancer. As a clinical trialist, he has led and contributed to multiple practice-changing studies through the Canadian Cancer Trials Group. He is a past Co-Chair of the Gastrointestinal Disease Site Group of the Cancer Ontario Program in Evidence Based Care, the provincial guidelines group.

Dr. Berry is a medical educator who has previously served as Chair of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Specialty Committee for Medical Oncology. He is one of the co-founders of OncologyEducation.com. As the founding Executive Director and current Co-Director of Education for the Queen’s Global Oncology Program, he collaborates closely with partners in South Asia and Africa to co-develop and implement oncology education and training programs. His work focuses on building sustainable capacity to support health system strengthening through equitable partnerships.

His other academic interest is the bioethical issues surrounding the care of people with cancer. He is a former member and ethics advisor to the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review Expert Review Committee and has served on the American Society of Clinical Oncology Ethics Committee.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Educational program development
• Phase 2/3 clinical trials (Gastrointestinal CA)
• Evidence Based Guideline Development

Sally Hunsberger

Deputy Director for the Office of Biostatistics Research and acting Chief of the Biostatistics Research Branch

Dr. Hunsberger has worked as a Biostatistician at the National Institutes of Health for 34 years and has focused on clinical trials. She is currently the Deputy Director for the Office of Biostatistics Research and acting Chief of the Biostatistics Research Branch. She has held positions at three institutes: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). While at NCI she focused on breast and pediatric cancer clinical trial research designing phase I, II and III studies and serving on DSMB’s. At NIAID she is the PI for an observational COVID-19 vaccination study and a study of immune amnesia related to measles. She also focuses on orphan desease study design and serves as the executive secretary or is a member of numerous Data and Safety monitoring Boards. In August of 2025 she became a fellow of the American Statistical Association. Dr. Hunsberger’s career has been dedicated to advancing the design and oversight of clinical trials that shape public health policy, with a particular focus on cancer, infectious disease, and rare disease research.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Phase I, I, III and orphan disease trial design
• Data Safety and Monitoring Boards
• Analysis of immune response data

Sadhana Kannan

Scientific Officer “G” (Biostatistics), Incharge of Department of Clinical Biostatistics at ACTREC, Tata Memorial Centre

Sadhana Kannan is a Scientific Officer “G” (Biostatistics), Incharge of Department of Clinical Biostatistics at the Advanced Centre for Treatment Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Tata Memorial Centre. She has been trained as a Biostatistician from CMC, Vellore and has more than 24 years of experience in the field of Oncology. She has been a lead Biostatistician for many RCTs in TMC . She has over 180 national and international publications. She is the Coordinator of the Post Graduate Diploma program in Biostatistics program at ACTREC.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Design and Analysis of Clinical Trials
• Survival Analysis
• Longitudinal Data Analysis
• Bayesian methods
• Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis

Satish Gopal

M.D., M.P.H., Director of the Center for Global Health (CGH) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Satish Gopal, M.D., M.P.H. was appointed Director of the Center for Global Health (CGH) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 2020. In this role, he oversees the development of initiatives and collaborations with other NCI and NIH partners, NCI-designated cancer centers, and other governmental and non-governmental organizations to support cancer research, promote science-based cancer control, and build research capacity in low- and middle-income countries. Before coming to NCI, Dr. Gopal was the Cancer Program Director for the University of North Carolina collaboration with the Malawi Ministry of Health.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Lymphoid malignancies
• HIV-associated malignancies
• Global health

Shivakumar Thiagarajan

Professor, Division of Head & Neck, Department of Surgical Oncology, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.

Dr. Shivakumar Thiagarajan is currently serving as a Professor in the Division of Head & Neck, Department of Surgical Oncology at the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai. His clinical expertise encompasses the management of oral, thyroid, and skull base malignancies, among others.

Dr. Shivakumar Thiagarajan earned his MBBS from Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Bangalore, followed by a postgraduate degree in Otolaryngology from the Indian Air Force Hospital. He further specialised in Head and Neck Surgical Oncology through fellowships at the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore, and the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.

His research focus areas include Surgical trials, Impact of multimodal treatment on survival and quality of life, which include randomised controlled trials and single-arm trials (Observational).

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Surgical trials, Impact of multimodal treatment on survival and quality of life, which include randomised controlled trials and single-arm trials (Observational).

Shital Raval-Patel

Medical Advisor/Project Head at PatientsEngage General Practitioner (MD) and Lactation Counselor.

She completed her undergraduate studies (BSc in Biological Sciences from Rutgers University) and went on to do her Master’s in Microbiology and Molecular Genetic with research at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in the US. Yearning for clinical experience, she attended medical school in the UK for her MD.

Interested in public health, she moved to India to work in the not-for-profit sector. She worked with Cancer Patients Aid Association and Americares India. Her worked with various local and international NGOs entailed lifestyle disease awareness and education, infection prevention and control, healthcare worker safety programmes for government hospitals. An anti-tobacco activist, she has devoted her time to counsel cancer patients, conduct awareness programmes for children in schools and advocate against tobacco companies.

Since 2013, she has been associated with PatientsEngage, a patient and caregiver centred enterprise that works towards educating, engaging, and empowering patients with chronic illnesses and their family care givers. As a Medical advisor and Project Head at PatientsEngage, she works with various stakeholders to better the lives of patients and advocate for patient engagement and empowerment.

PatientsEngage projects include understanding perspectives of patient and caregiver journeys and empowering patients and caregivers to share these with healthcare stakeholders.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Palliative and Supportive Care Integration
• Addressing Psychosocial and Mental Health Needs
• Quality of Life and Survivorship

Sudha Sivaram

Program Director at the Center for Global Health (CGH) at the US National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Dr. Sudha Sivaram is a Program Director at the Center for Global Health (CGH) at the US National Cancer Institute (NCI). In this capacity, she leads the portfolio of global cancer research training grants and programs and coordinates cancer research training and education activities across the NCI and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). She led the development of NCI’s first broad global research training initiative.

Dr. Sivaram earned her doctorate in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She continued at Hopkins as faculty in the Department of Epidemiology where her research in HIV/AIDS and cancer control in India was supported by the U.S. NIH and private foundations.

Dr. Sivaram has led and co-authored peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and is a reviewer for several journals. She is actively engaged in teaching epidemiology and public health and mentoring future researchers. She recently completed a Fulbright-Nehru research fellowship in Chennai, India working with cancer survivors and their caregivers to understand patient-reported measures to improve quality of life during and after treatment.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Community-based cancer survivorship including patient-centered outcomes research.
• Implementation science
• Survey and qualitative research methods.

Vishal Deo

Scientist (ICMR-NIRDHDS)

Vishal Deo is a Statistician working as a Scientist at the National Institute for Research in Digital Health and Data Science, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR-NIRDHDS), New Delhi, India. He has earned a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Delhi. He has previously worked as an Assistant Professor of Statistics at the University of Delhi for around 12 years. As a Statistician, he has worked extensively in the areas of survival analysis, statistical methods in health economics, prognostic and predictive modelling, growth curve analysis, and functional data analysis. In addition, he has great interest in applications of AI/ML techniques in health and medical research. Currently, he leads the HIV burden estimation activity in India under the National AIDS Control Programme.

In the health and biomedical realm, Dr. Deo’s research interests encompass the areas of Digital Health, Social Determinants of Health, Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, and burden of disease. He is currently exploring ideas for implementing AI/ML based digital health technologies towards strengthening public health system in India.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Digital Health - validation and evaluation of digital / AI - driven technologies for adoption
• Strengthening Health Data Ecosystem
• Social determinants of health

Victor M. Santana

Pediatric oncologist, Department of Oncology and the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Victor M. Santana, MD is a full member in the Department of Oncology and the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (SJCRH) and holds the Charles B. Pratt Endowed Chair in Solid Tumor Research. His professional career as a pediatric oncologist and clinical investigator has been devoted to developing new experimental treatment approaches for children with high-risk cancers and applying knowledge and expertise in clinical trial design and regulatory aspects of pediatric clinical research. His research aims to identify promising new therapies for children with cancer and understanding how they can be best implemented globally. To this workshop he brings expertise in understanding conceptual development, implementation strategies and solutions to challenges inherent in clinical research in international settings.

Key Research Focus Areas:

• Interventional treatment trials for pediatric cancers
• Health disparities in participation of children and adolescents in clinical trials
• Pediatric research ethics