Judith Tam ALK Lung Cancer Research Initiative News

Presentations
November 13 - 16, 2024: Dr. Sunitha Nagrath attended AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Liquid Biopsy: From Discovery to Clinical Implementation in San Diego, CA. She also participated in the Plenary Session 1: Biology Behind Circulating Tumor Cells, presenting Early cancer dissemination: Circulating tumor cells in ductal carcinoma in situ patients.

October 16-18 2024: Dr. Sofia Merajver attended The Molecular Analysis for Precision Oncology Congress 2024 in London, UK. At a poster session, she presented Precision medicine drug testing platform to guide the treatment of EML4-ALK fusion lung cancers
September 19, 2024: Dr. Sofia Merajver presented at the Mathematics Seminar at Rey Juan Carlos, in Móstoles, Spain.
This is the abstract: "For the last 25 years, we have tried to advance cancer care to be guided by the molecular changes that can be detected in tumors. From a beginning understanding focused mainly of mutations, as technologies have progressed and we can understand how much of each gene is expressed, the molecular characterizations have become increasingly more sophisticated. Recently, we have tried to overlay functional assessment of drug sensitivity to gene expression, hoping to be able to predict who will respond to which drug. I will show data from breast, bladder, brain metastases, and lung cancer to exemplify the problems and challenges to matching the right drug to the right patient. Computational methods are needed to enhance the robustness of the predictions".

August 09, 2024: Dr. Sofia Merajver stands by the ALK Initiative poster 2024 ASCO Breakthrough abstract 215, “Precision medicine-based platform to guide the treatment of EML4-ALK driven lung cancers and other NSCLC in real time” at the ASCO Breakthrough Conference in Yokohama (August 10 - 24, 2024) Abstracts & Posters | ASCO Breakthrough

July 20, 2024: Dr. Angel Qin participates in the Key Opinion Leader (KOL) Panel w/ Case-based segments and Asks the Experts Breakout Session at the ALK Positive Summit in Nashville, TN. ALK Summit 2024 — ALK POSITIVE

July 19-20, 2024: ALK Initiative team members Stacy Fry, Mary Horn, Habib Serhan, LiWei Bao, and Dr. Sofia Merajver travel out to the ALK Positive Summit in Nashville, TN to host an unprecedented in-field research blood collection.
July 11, 2024: The Science and Research Communications team at ASCO announced they will highlight Dr. Sofia Merajver's 2024 ASCO Breakthrough abstract 215, “Precision medicine-based platform to guide the treatment of EML4-ALK driven lung cancers and other NSCLC in real time” at the ASCO Breakthrough Conference in Yokohama (August 10 - 24, 2024).

April 24, 2024: Merajver Lab undergraduates Sohair Holman and William Bieneman awarded Blue Ribbon for research on cell signaling pathways in EML4-ALK+ NSCLC at the UROP 2024 Spring Research Symposium.

April 10, 2024: Hamadi Madhi and Habib Serhan discuss variable ALK NSCLC therapeutic strategies at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024.

March 20, 2024: ALK Initiative Retreat; Team meets at UM North Campus Research Complex to discuss publications, project goals, and future directions.

October 17, 2023: Dr. Sofia Merajver (pictured with Delta Airlines CEO Mr. Ed Bastian) at the Delta-Breast Cancer Research Foundation Town Hall, which took place at Delta World Headquarters in Atlanta. Dr. Merajver spoke about her research and answered questions from Delta employees who are cancer survivors. Mr. Bastian's father suffered and died from non-smokers lung cancer. Sofia explained how her team is putting all the advances they have achieved in breast and other cancers to improve our understanding of lung cancer.

October 16-17, 2023: Dr. Angel Qin (pictured second row from bottom; second from left) meets with colleagues at the 2023 LUNGevity Fall Science Meeting to discuss breakthroughs in lung oncology and the future of the field.

October 4-6, 2023: Drs. Sofia Merajver and Nathan Merrill present at The 2023 Molecular Analysis for Precision Oncology Congress in Paris: Drug resistance and novel treatments for ALK-positive lung cancer.”
September 10, 2023: Laura Goo to present on the Judith Tam ALK Lung Cancer Research Initiative’s infrastructure, goals, and methods at the 2023 IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer in Singapore.
August 14, 2023: Andrew G. Shuman, M.D., FACS, HEC-C appointed assistant dean for veteran affairs in the medical school. Shuman is an associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, associate chief of staff for education at the VA Ann Arbor Health System (VAAAHS), and co-chief of the clinical ethics service in the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine.

August 7, 2023: Drs. Sofia Merajver and Nathan Merrill meet with researchers at the National Cancer Center East in Tokyo, Japan.
August 3-5, 2023: Dr. Nathan Merrill and Dr. Sofia Merajver present at the ASCO Breakthrough meeting in Yokohama, Japan: Precision medicine-based platform to guide the treatment of EML4-ALK fusion lung cancers and other non-small cell lung cancers.

April 18, 2023: Yuru Chen presents on “Expansion and characterization on ALK positive NSCLC circulating tumor cells isolated using a size based inertial microfluidic Labyrinth device” at the 114th Annual American Association for Cancer Research Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
February 23, 2023: Dr. Angel Qin presents at the 2023 IASLC Targeted Therapies of Lung Cancer Meeting in Santa Monica, California about ALK resistance, ongoing research, and clinical trials.
June 9, 2022: Dr. Angel Qin presents the Judith Tam ALK Lung Cancer Research Initiative at the Hawaii Lung Cancer Summit hosted by DAVA Oncology.
Meeting Attendance
November 13 - 16, 2024: Drs. Sunitha Nagrath and Ananya Banerjee attended AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Liquid Biopsy: From Discovery to Clinical Implementation in San Diego, CA.
September 13-17, 2024: Dr. Sofia Merajver attends the ESMO 2024 conference in Barcelona, Spain and met with ALK Positive Advocates.

July 19-20, 2024: ALK Initiative team members Stacy Fry, Mary Horn, Habib Serhan, LiWei Bao, and Dr. Sofia Merajver travel out to the ALK Positive Summit in Nashville, TN to host an unprecedented in-field research blood collection.

April 10, 2024: ALK Initiative researchers present JTARI progress at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 in San Diego, CA.

June 2, 2023: Dr. Sofia Merajver and Dr. Vincent Lam (Johns Hopkins) meet at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting in Chicago, IL.