About Event
The 2025 Stanford Cancer Institute Retreat was held on March 25, 2025, and we extend our sincere thanks to all the speakers and attendees who made the event a resounding success. With over 350 participants, the event showcased the latest advancements in cancer research, fostered meaningful collaborations, and strengthened our community within the Stanford Cancer Institute.
The event featured an annual update from Steven Artandi, MD, PhD, director of the Stanford Cancer Institute, and scientific talks covering key areas such as Clinical and Translational Advances, Population Sciences, Cancer Biology, New Therapeutic Modalities, and Cancer Immunotherapy. In addition, over 50 posters were showcased. View the photos of the day’s memorable presentations and connections here.
We appreciate everyone who joined us for this important gathering!
- Agenda
- Breakout Sessions
- Speakers
- Registration
- Poster Session
- Travel Information
- FAQs
8:00 - 8:30 am
Registration Desk Open & Continental Breakfast
8:30 am - 8:50 am
Welcome & SCI Update
Steven Artandi, MD, PhD
Director, Stanford Cancer Institute
Lloyd Minor, MD (Recorded message)
Dean, School of Medicine, Stanford University
8:50 - 9:35 am
Session 1: Clinical and Translational Advances
James Ford, MD [Chair]
Professor, Medicine and Genetics
Kara Davis, DO
Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Hematology & Oncology
Uridine as a Targetable Metabolic Dependency in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Melinda Telli, MD
Director, Clinical Research, Stanford Cancer Institute
Leveraging ctDNA-MRD in Early Breast Cancer
Jason Gotlib, MD, MS
Professor, Medicine (Hematology)
Pemigatinib for Myeloid/Lymphoid Neoplasms with FGFR1 Rearrangement
9:45 - 9:55 am
Break
9:55 - 10:40 am
Session 2: Population Sciences
John Witte, PhD, MS [Chair]
Professor, Epidemiology and Population Health, Biomedical Data Science and Genetics
Allison Kurian, MD, MSc
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and Population Health
Leveraging Population-Based Data for High-Impact Clinical Research
Marvin Langston, PhD
Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Population Health
Adiposity, Hypertension, and Renal Cell Cancer: Towards a Cardiometabolic Framework for Prevention and Survivorship
David Rehkopf, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Population Health
Real-World Data Resources at the Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences
10:40 - 11:25 am
Lightning Talks
11:30 - 12:30 pm
Poster Judging and Lunch Break
12:30 - 1:15 pm
Concurrent Breakout Session
1) Stanford Cancer Institute Data Dashboard Demonstration (Main Room)
Alyce Adams, PhD
Associate Director, Cancer Health Equity and Community Engagement, Stanford Cancer Institute
Dinah Trevil, MPA
Executive Director, Office of Cancer Health Equity and Community Engagement, Stanford Cancer Institute
2) Deep Data Needs and Challenges in Precision Health (Room LKSC 208)
Amir Bahmani, PhD, MS
Director, Stanford's Deep Data Research Center
1:15 - 1:25 pm
Break
1:25 - 2:10 pm
Session 3: Cancer Biology
Roeland Nusse, PhD [Chair]
Professor, Development Biology
Paul Mischel, MD
Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Pathology
Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA): Cancer’s Dynamic Circular Genome
Sydney Lu, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medicine (Hematology)
Identifying and Targeting Transcript Alterations Mediated by Oncogenic SF3B1 Mutations
Julien Sage, PhD
Professor, Pediatrics - Hematology & Oncology and Genetics
Functional Interactions Between SCLC Cells and Immune Cells
2:10 - 2:20 pm
Break
2:20 - 3:05 pm
Session 4: New Therapeutic Modalities
Rajat Rohatgi, MD, PhD [Chair]
Associate Director, Basic Science, Stanford Cancer Institute
Katherine Ferrara, PhD
Professor, Radiology and Division Chief for the Molecular Imaging Program
Radiotheragnostic Design and Deployment at Stanford
Gerald Crabtree, MD
Professor, Pathology and Developmental Biology
Rewiring Cancer Drivers to Activate Cell Death
Steven Banik, PhD
Associate Professor, Chemistry
Detecting and Rewiring Cellular Interactomes
3:05 - 3:15 pm
Break
3:15 - 4:15 pm
Session 5: Cancer Immunotherapy
Edgar Engleman, MD [Chair & Speaker]
Professor, Pathology and Medicine
Deciphering the Tumor Immune Landscape
Lingyin Li, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry
Innate Immune Checkpoint Blockade With an ENPP1 Inhibitor
Ansuman Satpathy, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Pathology
Designer Genes and Cell States for Cancer Immunotherapy
Allison Betof Warner, MD, PhD
Director, Stanford Advanced Melanoma Program
Ushering in the Era of Solid Tumor Cell Therapy
4:15 pm
Closing Remarks
Steven Artandi, MD, PhD
Director, Stanford Cancer Institute
4:15 - 5:15 pm
Poster Session & Reception
Stanford Cancer Institute Data Dashboard Demonstration (Main Room)
The Stanford Cancer Institute Data Dashboard is an interactive tool that offers access to a wide range of publicly available cancer data, focusing on cancer burden and social determinants of health. Through the Tableau application, it provides data for the 10-county area served by the Institute, as well as statewide cancer data. The dashboard features online mapping, tables, and download options, making it a valuable resource for researchers, community partners, and others to support cancer control research and interventions.
Speakers:
Alyce Adams, PhD
Associate Director, Cancer Health Equity and Community Engagement, Stanford Cancer Institute
Dinah Trevil, MPA
Executive Director, Office of Cancer Health Equity and Community Engagement, Stanford Cancer Institute
Deep Data Needs and Challenges in Precision Health (Room LKSC 208)
We are at the early stages of a generation-defining revolution in biology. Over the past two decades, breakthroughs in genetics and genomics—paired with advances in AI and machine learning—have created unprecedented opportunities to transform global healthcare. Data has become a digital specimen, but as the volume and variety of biomedical data continue to grow across diverse formats and platforms, we face critical challenges in integration, storage, computation, and security.
This talk will explore approaches to managing large-scale medical studies in a secure and scalable manner. Through key examples, we will examine the current landscape, highlight promising research directions, and discuss the broader impact of these challenges on bioinformatics from a computer science perspective.
Speaker:
Amir Bahmani, PhD
Director, Stanford's Deep Data Research Center
