Mentorship Commitment Continues with 21st Annual Young Investigator Symposium

The annual ECOG-ACRIN Young Investigator Symposium will take place virtually via Zoom on Friday, October 22 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM ET, as part of the Virtual Fall 2021 Group Meeting. The Mentoring Program Committee reviewed 23 submitted abstracts and selected eight for this year’s program (shown below). The abstracts cover a diverse array of clinical and translational research areas.

Each young investigator will give a pre-recorded 10-minute oral presentation of their research, followed by a live question-and-answer period with attendees.

The Symposium introduces young investigators to ECOG-ACRIN and provides them with a forum to present their research in a formal manner and obtain feedback. Through this event, young investigators meet experienced investigators and learn about potential research opportunities early in their careers. Their oral presentations bring interesting ideas and novel approaches of young scientists from across a variety of disciplines to the attention of the ECOG-ACRIN community.

The Symposium tradition is to honor two of the presenters with awards of distinction, based on research merit, presentation quality, and command of the topic. This year’s winners will be announced in the November newsletter.

The 2021 Young Investigator Symposium Presenters

Tharakeswara Bathala, MD, MBBS
Associate Professor, Department of Abdominal Imaging
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Defining Diagnostic Criteria for Prostatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma on Multiparametric MRI

Mathieu Gigoux, PhD
Research Fellow, The Jedd Wolchok Lab
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
MHC-I Skewing in Mutant Calreticulin-Positive Myeloproliferative Neoplasms is Countered by Heteroclitic Peptide Cancer Vaccination

Michael Kammer, PhD
Research Fellow, Interdisciplinary Training Program in Lung Research
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Optimization of Follow-Up Strategy of Pulmonary Nodules at Risk of Cancer When Using Longitudinal Radiomic Analyses

Natalie Klar, MD
Fellow, Hematology and Medical Oncology
NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center
Stromal Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes Analysis by Race and Ethnicity in Triple Negative Breast Cancers from 2 Phase III Randomized Adjuvant Breast Cancer Trials: ECOG-ACRIN E2197 and E1199

Adam Yuh Lin, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology
Northwestern University
Combination of Immune Adjuvant Toll-Like Receptor 9 Agonist Nanoparticle Classes for the Treatment of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Catherine Meador, MD, PhD
Fellow, Medical Oncology
Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Olaparib and Temozolomide in Small-Cell Lung Cancer: Updated Results from Phase I/II Study

John Peipert, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medical Social Sciences
Northwestern University
Change in a Single-Item Indicator of Treatment Tolerability in Cancer is Associated with Early Treatment Discontinuation

Caner Saygin, MD
Fellow, Hematology-Oncology
University of Chicago
Clonal Hematopoiesis is a Precursor Lesion for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Adults

ECOG-ACRIN has an established history of supporting young investigators in their pursuit of career development opportunities in clinical and translational research. Learn more at ecog-acrin.org.