Plenary Speakers
Fireside Chat
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D.—Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and professor in the departments of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology, University of California, Berkeley
We’re excited to announce that Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D., the co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, will join us for a live fireside chat on the first day of the 24th Annual Meeting!
Dr. Doudna is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and a professor in the departments of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She and Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., received the Nobel Prize in October for their 2012 discovery of the genome-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9.
View the May 11 Program
George Stamatoyannopoulos Memorial Lecture
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Michel Sadelain, M.D., Ph.D.—Director of the Center for Cell Engineering; Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
ASGCT is honored to welcome Michel Sadelain, M.D., Ph.D. – director of the Center for Cell Engineering and the incumbent of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center – as the George Stamatoyannopoulos Memorial lecturer Wednesday, May 12, 2021.
Sadelain’s research focuses on the mechanisms governing transgene expression, stem cell engineering, and genetic strategies to enhance immunity against cancer. His laboratory has made several seminal contributions to the field of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), from their conceptualization and optimization to their clinical translation for cancer immunotherapy. His group was the first to publish dramatic molecular remissions in patients with chemorefractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia following treatment with autologous CD19-targeted T cells.
Sadelain is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Inserm International Prize, the Jacob and Louise Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine, the Cancer Research Institute’s Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Tumor Immunology, the Sultan Bin Khalifa International Award for Innovative Medical Research on Thalassemia, the NYPLA Inventor of the Year award, the Passano award and the Pasteur-Weizmann award. He previously served on the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee and as President of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy.
View the May 12 Program
Presidential Symposium
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Robert L. Martuza, M.D.—William and Elizabeth Sweet Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School; Chief Emeritus, Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital
ASGCT proudly announces Robert Martuza, M.D. as presenter of the Presidential Symposium on Thursday, May 13, 2021. Martuza is the William and Elizabeth Sweet Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School, and Chief Emeritus of Neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
Dr. Martuza spent 12 productive years on the neurosurgical staff at MGH, where he was instrumental in starting the Neurofibromatosis Clinic and the Brain Tumor Center. Along with Jim Gusella and colleagues Bernd Seizinger and Guy Rouleau, he helped to define the different forms of the neurofibromatoses. Dr. Martuza noted the association between the multiple meningiomas and acoustic neuromas in NF2 relative to the unilateral isolated acoustic neuroma in the general population. In a paper in Nature in 1986, they demonstrated that the gene for acoustic neuroma was on chromosome 22. This was the first demonstration of the DNA localization of any gene as the cause of a brain tumor. The next year in a paper in Science, they went on to demonstrate a common pathogenetic mechanism for three tumor types in what is now know as type 2 neurofibomatosis (or NF2). In that same year in a PNAS paper, they demonstrated that this same genetic abnormality also was responsible for meningioma development and in another Nature paper that this gene was the cause of the syndrome of NF2 itself.
At this point, Dr. Martuza began to explore the possibility that these molecular techniques might be used not only for understanding the biology of these tumors but also for therapy. He took an in-house sabbatical and worked in the lab full time, and then with Don Coen and Jim Markert published a paper in 1991 in Science describing for the first time a new concept of a genetically-engineered selectively replicating virus for cancer therapy. These are now known as oncolytic viruses. They are designed to selectively replicate within and kill cancer cells while not harming normal tissue. This class of novel therapeutic agents has entered multiple advanced clinical cancer trials, spawned several companies, and has led to a large and developing field with multiple laboratories worldwide studying oncolytic viruses of various types for cancer therapy.
In 1991, Dr. Martuza became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Georgetown University School of Medicine. In 2000, he returned to Boston as Chief of the Neurosurgical Service at MGH, Director of the MGH Brain Tumor Center, and the William and Elizabeth Sweet Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. In 2013, he was one of the founders of the Department of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School and was appointed as the first Chairman of the HMS Department of Neurosurgery Executive Committee. He has had over 30 years of continual NIH research funding. Dr. Martuza has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and reviews, and he and his colleagues hold 17 patents on much of this technology. He has been a Director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and has been the recipient of the Von Recklinghausen's Award from the National Neurofibromatosis Foundation, the NF Inc. Scholar Award, the Grass Award from the Society of Neurological Surgeons, the Bittner Award in brain tumor biology from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and the Golden Virus Award from the International Oncolytic Virus Conference.
In 2017, after more than 25 years as a department chair, Dr. Martuza stepped away from administrative and clinical functions. He remains active in the laboratory with continued R01 grant funding and also as a sculptor.
View the May 13 Program