Industry And Academic Leaders Gather To Accelerate New Cancer Cures

Damon Runyon scientists and manufacture partners gathered connected Tuesday, March 24, for nan 2026 Accelerating Cancer Cures Research Symposium, hosted by Amgen successful Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Accelerating Cancer Cures (ACC) is simply a multi-million-dollar collaborative task aimed astatine supporting a caller procreation of objective investigators arsenic they construe nan latest technological discoveries into caller diagnostics and therapeutics for patients. Founded successful 2011 and led by nan Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, nan inaugural has included participants from AbbVie, Amgen, ARIAD, Celgene, Eli Lilly and Company, Genentech, Gilead, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, and Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Co., successful summation to scientists from nan nation's apical universities and investigation institutes. The yearly ACC Research Symposium is designed to foster connection and collaboration betwixt crab researchers successful manufacture and academia.

Damon Runyon President and CEO Yung S. Lie, PhD, Damon Runyon Board of Directors personnel and President of Research and Development astatine BioNTech Richard B. Gaynor, MD, and Executive Vice President of Research and Development astatine Amgen James Bradner, MD, welcomed symposium attendees to footwear disconnected nan day's events.

Dr. Bradner, a erstwhile Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator and grant action committee member, highlighted nan beardown pipeline of Damon Runyon scientists into Amgen's ranks. "We've started to deliberation of Damon Runyon arsenic nan triple-A squad for Amgen. The scientists supported by this statement are nan champion of america - nan astir brave, nan astir committed, nan astir scholarly, nan astir impassioned."

Following opening remarks from Oliver Thiel, PhD, Vice President of Operations Commercialization astatine Amgen, Damon Runyon scientists Mark Yarmarkovich, PhD, Lucas Farnung, PhD, Mary M. Mullen, MD, and Ziyang Zhang, PhD, presented updates connected their research. Each is moving toward a clearer molecular knowing of crab genomics and cistron look successful bid to create much precise targeted therapies.

In a motivating keynote address, Anna Farago, MD, PhD, Vice President of Early Development successful Oncology astatine Amgen, and Julie Bailis, PhD, a erstwhile Damon Runyon Fellow and Vice President of Oncology Research astatine Amgen, discussed Amgen's efforts to beforehand promising caller therapeutics.

"It's really nan relationship betwixt nan pre-clinical information predicting really a therapeutic will execute and what accusation comes backmost from nan session that will thief america beforehand caller treatments," noted Dr. Bailis astir nan value of bringing laboratory subject and objective investigation into dialogue.

Attendees besides heard from Damon Runyon scientists Megan A. Morrissey, PhD, Srivatsan Raghavan, MD, PhD, and Jonathan Chou, MD, PhD, each of whom are exploring caller therapeutic avenues for treating recalcitrant cancers specified arsenic pancreatic cancer.

Later successful nan afternoon, Catherine Sabatos-Peyton, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Larkspur Biosciences, moderated a fireside chat among Jennifer Lauchte, MD, Global Head of Translational Oncology astatine Novartis, Alex R. Shoemaker, PhD, Executive Director of Oncology Discovery Research astatine AbbVie, and Louis Vermeulen, MD, PhD, Vice President of Discovery Oncology astatine Genentech astir pathways to nan improvement of breakthrough therapies.

Commenting connected what makes for a fruitful collaboration, Dr. Lauchte said, "If you're gathering pinch conscionable 1 person, you're not gathering pinch nan correct people. You should beryllium interacting pinch those who are moving nan objective trial, those that discovered nan medicine - you should person that multi-disciplinary squad pinch you sharing, sharing, sharing, truthful you're headed successful nan correct direction."

Dr. Lie and Margaret Faul, PhD, Vice President of Drug Substance Technologies and Site Head of Amgen Massachusetts, closed nan gathering and thanked guests for attending.

"We each use erstwhile world researchers and their counterparts successful manufacture are successful speech pinch 1 another," says Dr. Faul of nan Accelerating Cancer Cures initiative. "Basic scientists, translational scientists, and clinicians each person peculiar insights that tin animate 1 another's research. Amgen is simply a leader successful crossing disciplines to create innovative caller therapeutics for patients, and Accelerating Cancer Cures is conscionable 1 of nan ways we use this strategy for nan betterment of patients."