22nd Annual Young Investigator Symposium to Feature a Diverse Array of Clinical and Translational Studies

Early-career investigators will travel to Washington, DC, to present their research at the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group's annual ECOG-ACRIN Young Investigator Symposium on Wednesday, October 26, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM ET, as part of the ECOG-ACRIN Fall 2022 Group Meeting. This year’s presenters will bring exciting ideas and novel approaches from across a variety of disciplines to the attention of the ECOG-ACRIN community. All meeting attendees are encouraged to attend.

The Mentoring Program Committee reviewed 19 abstract submissions and selected eight for this year’s program (shown below). Criteria for judging include scientific innovation, significance, and ultimate potential for clinical impact.

The Symposium introduces investigators to ECOG-ACRIN early in their career and provides them with a forum to obtain feedback. Each person will give a 10-minute live oral presentation of their research, followed by a question-and-answer period with attendees. Virtual meeting attendees may stream the session via Zoom and ask questions through the chat module.

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 during the Group Meeting’s General Session on Thursday, October 27, from 5:30 PM to 7:15 PM ET.

Sina Bagheri, MD
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Pennsylvania
Development of a Semi-Automated Method to Correlate Pathologic Measurements of PARP-1 with Radioligand Binding to Active Protein

Florian J. Fintelmann, MD
Associate Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School
Radiologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
Sybil: A Validated Deep Learning Model to Predict Future Lung Cancer Risk from a Single Low-Dose Chest Computed Tomography

Nicholas J. Hess, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Predicting Relapse and Graft Versus Host Disease Using Post-Transplant T Cell Specific Biomarkers and Machine Learning

Mahsa Kiani, MD
Visiting Scholar
University of Pennsylvania
Innovative Surgical Techniques to Facilitate Patient-Derived Xenograft Generation
 

Megan Melody, MD, MS
Hematology/Oncology Fellow
Northwestern University
Delayed Engraftment in Patients with Very High CD34-Positive Cell Content of Apheresis Product
 

Sandhya Prabhakaran, PhD
Research Fellow
Moffitt Cancer Center
Distinct Tumor-Immune Ecologies in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Predict Progression and Define a Clinical Biomarker of Therapy Response

Frederique St-Pierre, MD, CM
Hematology/Oncology Fellow
Northwestern University
FLIPI-3: A New PET-Based Prognostic Index for Follicular Lymphoma Based on Results from a Validation Study with the ECOG-ACRIN E2408 Cohort

Joanna M. Streck, PhD
Clinical Psychologist
Massachusetts General Hospital
Cigarette and Alternative Tobacco Product Use Among Adult Cancer Patients Enrolled in Ten ECOG-ACRIN Therapeutic Trials

The Young Investigator Symposium, part of the Mentoring Program, seeks to stimulate engagement in publicly funded cancer research through the National Cancer Institute and the NCI Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). Funding for this program is provided by the ECOG Research and Education Foundation. Learn more at ecog-acrin.org.