The Landscape of Cancer Research: Advances in Immuno-oncology 2025

Dr. Sangeeta Goswami is a physician-scientist at the Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and the Department of Immunology, Division of Cancer Medicine, at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She obtained her medical degree from Gauhati Medical College in Assam, India, and earned a PhD in Immunology from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Goswami completed her Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and a Medical Oncology Fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. A dedicated researcher and clinician, Dr. Goswami has published numerous original research articles and reviews in top-tier journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, Science, Nature Reviews Immunology, and Science Translational Medicine. Her research has significantly contributed to the development of novel combination immunotherapies for cancer patients. Her clinical focus is on treating patients with renal cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma, while her laboratory in the Department of Immunology investigates the cellular dynamics of the tumor-immune ecosystem and its influence on immune checkpoint therapy responses. Dr. Goswami has also designed and is leading several investigator-initiated clinical trials based on her pre-clinical findings. Dr. Goswami was recently elected to the “Extended Leadership Team” for the Break Through Cancer (BTC) GBM team, a collaborative research initiative between MD Anderson, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, MIT, Johns Hopkins, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In this role, she leads discovery science on myeloid cell biology to explore new therapeutic approaches for glioblastoma. She has received several accolades for her work, including the Andrew Sabin Award in 2021 for high-risk, high-impact research for emerging leaders.

Sigrun Badrnya is a Manager in Research & Development at the Thermo Fisher Scientific Center of Excellence for Immunoassays in Vienna, Austria. Sigrun received her Ph.D. in vascular biology from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. She continued as postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden and within an industry-academia joint project where she focused on the development of multiplex protein biomarker assays. In her current role, she is supervising an R&D team to develop immunoassays across diverse platforms including Invitrogen™ ELISA, ProcartaPlex™ and ProQuantum™ technologies.   

Michael Traxlmayr did his undergraduate studies at BOKU University (Vienna, Austria), followed by a PhD in the field of antibody engineering in the lab of Prof. Christian Obinger (BOKU). Next, he worked as a postdoc in the lab of Prof. Dane Wittrup at MIT (Cambridge, USA), where he engineered non-antibody-based domains for specific antigen binding. After returning to Vienna, he started to apply his protein engineering skills in the field of CAR T cell cancer immunotherapy in collaboration with Dr. Manfred Lehner (CCRI, Vienna). Since 2019, Michael Traxlmayr is the head of the BOKU-module of the "CD Laboratory for Next Generation CAR T Cells" and his current research focuses on engineering novel protein tools to enable regulation of CAR T cell activity with small molecule drugs and to improve the tumor specificity of CAR T cells.

Hoa Giang oversees the product portfolio of Twist Biopharma Solutions as its Product Leader. Most recently, she was Senior Director of the Antibody Engineering Department of Twist Biopharma Solutions, leading the in vitro antibody discovery and optimization team. She has over 17 years of antibody discovery experience, primarily utilizing phage display technology for early stage research programs. At XOMA, she helped build naïve human scFv and Fab phage display libraries which were used for lead generation of internal targets as well as generating 3 libraries that were out-licensed to small and large Pharma companies. Previously, Hoa led the Antibody Discovery and Engineering group at Curia to help partners discover and affinity mature lead antibodies.

Dr. Link currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) where his work is primarily focused on mechanistic studies and clinical trials to evaluate Syncromune’s SYNC-T Therapy based therapeutic principles. Dr. Link has conducted research in DNA repair and focused on translational research to develop new cancer treatment approaches. He has designed and conducted clinical studies focused on cancer vaccine technology utilizing the alpha(1,3)galactosyl-epitope to activate the immune response. Prior to joining Syncromune, Dr. Link was the previous Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NewLink Genetics, a clinical-stage company focused on the development of new immuno-oncology treatments. Dr. Link co-founded NewLink Genetics in 1999 with the idea of leveraging the body’s immune system to fight cancer. He also founded BioProtection Systems Corporaton and led the in-licensing of vaccine technologies for life threatening viral infections. Dr. Link is a highly sought after board member, most recently on the board of NovaScan Corporation in Chicago, QSAM Bioscience (sold to Telix Pharmaceuticals in 2024) and Viewpoint Molecular Targeting, Inc in Iowa (which merged with a NASDAQ company in 2023 to create Perspective Therapeutics). Dr. Link immensely enjoys spending time with his wife, four children and two grandchildren.

Dr. Jamie Spangler is The Brody Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Spangler earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and went on to earn a PhD in Biological Engineering at MIT. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Spangler launched her independent research group at Johns Hopkins University in 2017, jointly between the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. Her lab, located in the Translational Tissue Engineering Center at the School of Medicine, applies structural and mechanistic insights to re-engineer existing proteins and design new proteins that therapeutically modulate the immune response. In particular, her group is interested in engineering immune molecules such as cytokines, growth factors, and antibodies for targeted treatment of diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders.

Prithwish Pal is the Director of Marketing at Bio-Rad Laboratories, where he leads a team for development of Digital Droplet PCR (ddPCR) assays for oncology applications across the patient journey continuum. With over 15 years of experience in the industry, Prithwish combines his scientific expertise with commercial acumen to bridge the gap between technical knowledge and market needs in precision oncology. Prior to this, he held multiple roles at Illumina including product marketing for cloud-based software platforms, market development and medical affairs for clinical oncology, and portfolio strategy for biopharma and oncology markets. He has also led sales and marketing for molecular testing products in the heme-onc and worked as scientists to develop advanced nanopore technologies. Prithwish holds PhD in Biophysics from the University of Rochester, NY and has performed his post-doctoral work at University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Ethan Shelkey, Ph.D. is a Research Scientist with the Bioscience Division at Lonza. As part of the team at the primary human cell isolation site, Ethan works to develop new assays for cell use and new protocols for improved cell characterization. He is the technical subject matter expert many of the projects involving immunology or genomics. Previous to his role at Lonza, he worked to create immune-competent 3D models of patient tumors to test immunotherapy efficacy.

Biography: Dr. Thomas Heineman began his time at Oncolytics as Global Head of Clinical Development and Operations in August 2020 and was promoted to Chief Medical Officer in December 2021. Prior to joining Oncolytics, he was Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical Development at Denovo Biopharma. before his time at Denovo, he served as Vice President and Head of Clinical Development at both Genocea Biosciences and Halozyme Therapeutics. At Halozyme, Dr. Heineman was also Head of Translational Medicine and oversaw clinical trials in indications such as breast and pancreatic cancer. Dr. Heineman’s experience further extends to big pharma and academia, as he previously worked as Senior Director, Global Clinical Research and Development at GlaxoSmithKline and as an Associate Professor at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Dr. Heineman has co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications and is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. He completed his fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health and his internship and residency at the University of Maryland. Dr. Heineman earned his MD and PhD in Virology at the University of Chicago.

Aurita Menezes, PhD is a Sr. market Development manager within the Marketing team at Lonza. In her role she is responsible for identifying products and product improvements that will serve the biologics and preclinical markets. Her portfolio focuses on hematopoietic immune and stem cells. She works closely with the Lonza R&D team to drive innovation with new primary cell products and assays. Aurita received her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from University of Mississippi where she researched the major histocompatibility complex of Ictalurus punctatus. Previous to her role at Lonza she was a Sr. product manager at Integrated DNA technologies leading the development of qPCR gene expression and genotyping products.

Robert Blanshard is passionate about leveraging scientific innovation to increase our understanding of health and disease mechanisms. As an experienced Product Manager with a PhD in Genome Damage and Stability, he has a proven track record of developing, commercialising and supporting sample-to-insight product solutions for genetic health research.

David A. Braun is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Pathology and Urology, and the Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman Yale Scholar at the Yale School of Medicine. He is a medical oncologist specializing in the care of patients with kidney cancer, and the principal investigator of a laboratory in the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology.