David B. Agus, M.D.
Dr. Agus received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He then spent 2 years at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute-NIH Research Scholar and did his medical internship and residency training as part of the Osler Housestaff Research Program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Agus completed his oncology fellowship training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where later he served as an attending physician in the Department of Medical Oncology and as head of the Laboratory of Tumor Biology. Dr. Agus has received the American Cancer Society (ACS) Physician Research Award, Clinical Scholar Award from the Sloan-Kettering Institute, and International Myeloma Foundation Visionary Science Award, among others. He was the founder of Oncology.com and Navigenics (a consumer-targeted health care technology and wellness company) and cofounder (with Danny Hillis) of Applied Proteomics. Dr. Agus currently serves as Research Director of the Prostate Cancer Center, Director of the Spielberg Family Center for Applied Proteomics and the Sumner Redstone Center Prostate Cancer Research Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and Associate Professor of Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), School of Medicine. His research focuses on the application of proteomics and genomics to the study of cancer and the development of new therapeutics for cancer.

Randy Atkins
Mr. Atkins is Senior Media/Public Relations Officer for the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE), where he assists journalists with coverage of stories about engineers and engineering. He is leading a high-profile effort, involving a blue-ribbon committee of leading thinkers chaired by former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, which recently identified 21st Century “Grand Challenges for Engineering” (http://www.engineeringchallenges.org). Mr. Atkins was involved in the conception and design of the nationwide workshop series “News & Terrorism: Communicating in a Crisis” and is the project leader, working in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Radio- Television News Directors Foundation. He does weekly reports called “Innovative Engineering” on the Washington, D.C., region’s most listened to radio station WTOP (FM/AM), an all-news format CBS affiliate, and on Federal News Radio, WFED (1050 AM). Before joining the NAE, Mr. Atkins worked as Senior Science Writer at the American Chemical Society and Senior Media Relations Coordinator for the American Physical Society. Previously, he was a producer and reporter of the nationally distributed “Inside Science TV News” and an on-air television reporter for the NBC network affiliate WVVA-TV. Early in his career, Mr. Atkins worked as a microbiologist in laboratories at the NIH and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He attended Bucknell University and the University of Florida and holds a degree in microbiology.

Robert H. Austin, Ph.D.
Dr. Austin is Professor of Biophysics at Princeton University. His research focuses primarily on the use of microarrays and nanotechnology to further the physical understanding of biological processes such as the dynamics of DNA and DNA-protein interactions. Specific examinations include studying protein dynamics, energy transport in biomolecules, DNA-protein interactions and topology, applications of microlithography to biology, and cell signaling. In addition to authoring many scientific publications, Dr. Austin is a co-inventor of several patents based on his technology research. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois.

Anna D. Barker, Ph.D.
Dr. Barker serves as Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and as Deputy Director of the NCI’s Advanced Technologies and Strategic Partnerships. She has developed and implemented multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary programs in the strategic areas of cancer biology and advanced technologies, including the Nanotechnology Alliance for Cancer, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and the Clinical Proteomics Technologies Initiative for Cancer. Dr. Barker participates actively in these programs and serves in a team leadership role for TCGA. She has also led and collaborated on the development of contemporary resources for cancer research in the areas of biospecimens and bioinformatics to support molecularly based personalized medicine. Dr. Barker has a long history in research and in the leadership and management of research and development in the academic, nonprofit, and private sectors. She served as Senior Scientist and subsequently as Senior Executive at the Battelle Memorial Institute for 18 years, where she developed and led a large group of scientists working in drug discovery and development, pharmacology, and biotechnology, with a major focus in oncology and NCIsupported programs. Dr. Barker cofounded and served as CEO of a public biotechnology drug development company and founded a private cancer technology-focused company. Her research interests include small-molecule experimental therapeutics, tumor immunology, and free-radical biochemistry in cancer etiology and treatment. Dr. Barker completed her M.A. and Ph.D. at The Ohio State University (OSU), where she trained in immunology and microbiology.

Andrew L. Belmonte, Ph.D.
Dr. Belmonte did his undergraduate work at the University of Chicago, where he studied physics. After working for a year at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, he began his studies at Princeton University where he obtained his Ph.D. on turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection with Albert Libchaber. As a postdoc at the Institut Non-Lineaire de Nice in France, Dr. Belmonte turned his attention to reactiondiffusion systems, specifically the dynamics of chemical spiral waves in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. His other postdoctoral projects included turbulence in soap films (University of Pittsburgh) and the dynamics of falling paper (Weizmann Institute). In 1998 Dr. Belmonte came to Pennsylvania State University as an Assistant Professor, where he works in the W.G. Pritchard Laboratories of the Department of Mathematics (tenured in 2004). Awards include an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (2000) and an NSF CAREER grant (2001). He has held visiting positions at the Ecole Superieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles (Paris, France, 2004) and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University (2007). Dr. Belmonte’s research focuses on the dynamics of complex viscoelastic fluids, including self-assembling and chemically reacting systems, and on extreme instabilities in solids, such as fragmentation in brittle materials and crack propagation in soft solids.

Thomas Benthin
Mr. Benthin is an organizational development consultant who supports groups, teams, and organizations that are facing tough problems and daunting opportunities. He collaborates with clients in designing and facilitating meetings, retreats, and extended change processes that tap the group’s wisdom to build sustainable agreements and catalyze change. As an accomplished graphic facilitator and recorder, Mr. Benthin is adept at using the full range of large-format graphics to enhance meeting productivity and group performance. In meetings, he uses graphic formats as an integral support to the group process, deepening participants’ experience and creating a powerful shared working space in real time. Mr. Benthin also designs graphic charts and templates to facilitate group work and creates information graphics that communicate vital organizational messages and stories. His work as a consultant has been strongly influenced by his studies with Sam Kaner, with the Action Design Institute, and by his work with David Sibbet and colleagues at Grove Consultants International. Mr. Benthin frequently partners with Grove, working with them both as a consultant and as a workshop instructor.

Mina J. Bissell, Ph.D.
Dr. Bissell is a pioneer in the area of the role of extracellular matrix (ECM) and microenvironment in regulation of tissue-specific function, with special emphasis in breast cancer, where she has changed some established paradigms. She earned an A.B. with honors in chemistry from Harvard/Radcliffe College and a Ph.D. in bacterial genetics from Harvard University. Dr. Bissell joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1972, became Director of Cell and Molecular Biology in 1988, and was appointed Director of the Life Sciences Division in 1992. Upon stepping down as Life Sciences Division Director, she was named Distinguished Scientist. Dr. Bissell is also the OBER/DOE Distinguished Scientist Fellow in Life Sciences. She has authored more than 280 publications, is a member of 5 international scientific boards, is on the editorial boards of a dozen scientific journals (including Science magazine), and has given more than 80 named and distinguished lectures. Dr. Bissell’s awards include the Lawrence Award and Medal, Mellon Award from the University of Pittsburgh, Eli Lilly/Clowes Award from AACR, the first Innovator Award from the U.S. Department of Defense, Brinker Award from the Komen Foundation, Discovery Health Channel Medical Honor and Medal, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center Ted Couch Lectureship and Award, the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research, 2008 Excellence in Science Award from FASEB, and 2008 Mina J. Bissell Award from the University of Porto in Portugal. She is a Fellow of AAAS, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society. Dr. Bissell served as President of the American Society of Cell Biology and the International Society of Differentiation and has received honorary doctorates from Pierre & Marie Curie University in Paris and the University of Copenhagen.

Kenneth H. Buetow, Ph.D.
Dr. Buetow received a Ph.D. in human genetics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1985. From 1986 to 1998 he was at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, where his group generated and electronically distributed the human genetic map. Dr. Buetow serves multiple roles at the NCI. He is NCI Associate Director for Bioinformatics and Information Technology, Director of the NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT), and Chief of the Laboratory of Population Genetics (LPG). Dr. Buetow’s research interests include the application of genetics and genomics tools to understand the genetic basis of complex traits, specifically human cancer. As NCI Associate Director, Dr. Buetow is responsible for coordinating bioinformatics and information technology efforts throughout the NCI. The CBIIT coordinates and deploys informatics in support of NCI research initiatives. Its goal is to maximize the interoperability and integration of NCI research and related information. The LPG conducts human genetic and genomics research, both at the bench and using informatics tools. The major goal of this research program is to apply and extend human genetic analysis methods and resources to better understand the genetics of complex phenotypes, specifically human cancer. Dr. Buetow has spearheaded efforts of the Genetic Annotation Initiative, an attempt to identify variant forms of cancer genes identified through the NCI Cancer Genome Anatomy Project. He is particularly interested in genetic variations that make individuals more susceptible to liver, lung, prostate, breast, and ovarian cancers. Dr. Buetow’s group combines computational tools with benchtop laboratory findings to understand how genes and the environment interact to increase cancer risk.

Andrea Califano, Ph.D., Laureate in Physics
Dr. Califano’s doctoral thesis in physics at the University of Florence was on the behavior of highdimensional dynamic systems. From 1986 to 1990, as a Research Staff Member in the Exploratory Computer Vision Group at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, he worked on several algorithms for machine learning, more specifically for the interpretation of 2D and 3D visual scenes. In 1990 Dr. Califano started his activities in computational biology and in 1997 became Program Director of the IBM Computational Biology Center, a worldwide organization active in several research areas related to bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, complex biological system modeling/simulation, microarray analysis, protein structure prediction, and molecular dynamics. In 2000 he cofounded First Genetic Trust, Inc., to actively pursue translational genomics research and infrastructure-related activities in the context of largescale patient studies with genetic components. In 2003 Dr. Califano joined Columbia University. His scientific interests are in the investigation of systems biology, using a variety of physics and knowledgebased methods. Since 1998 Dr. Califano has been especially active in the development of integrative methodologies for the investigation of human B-cell lymphomas. Specifically, he is interested in the reverse engineering of Bcell cellular networks and in their use for the dissection of biological processes related to oncogenesis and tumor progression.

Ann F. Chambers, Ph.D.
Dr. Chambers is Distinguished Oncology Scientist at the London Regional Cancer Program; Canada Research Chair in Oncology at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; and Director of the Pamela Greenaway Kohlmeier Translational Breast Cancer Research Unit. She received her undergraduate degree in botany and her Ph.D. in zoology (studying sea urchin embryology), both from Duke University, and then moved to Canada for postdoctoral studies in cancer, prior to assuming her position at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Chambers’ laboratory studies the mechanisms of cancer metastasis using molecular approaches and novel imaging modalities. Her lab also studies the role of the integrin-binding protein osteopontin in breast and other cancers and its potential as a biomarker and target for treatment. Dr. Chambers has published over 200 scientific articles and is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences. She has a particular interest in multidisciplinary research and communication. As Director of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Unit, she is charged with facilitating communication between basic and clinical researchers. In Dr. Chambers’ own research, she heads several multidisciplinary teams of researchers from diverse fields, including cell and molecular biology, genetics/epigenetics, clinical research, medical biophysics, and multiple imaging modalities, including optical imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, and 3D high-frequency ultrasound. She also works closely with breast cancer survivors in facilitating communication with the lay public. Dr. Chambers is Associate Editor of several journals, including Cancer Research and the International Journal of Cancer. She also is Past-Chair of the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) Advisory Committee on Research, a member of the Executive of the NCIC Clinical Trials Group’s Investigational New Drug Committee, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Metastasis Research Society.

Sha X. Chang, Ph.D.
Dr. Chang is Associate Professor and Chief of the Physics and Computing Division in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. After finishing her Ph.D. in experimental solid-state physics in 1989, she received her medical physics postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, with a focus on radiotherapy physics. For near two decades, Dr. Chang has been directly involved in performing and directing physics applications in a large variety of clinical applications and innovative research development in radiation oncology. Since 2000, in collaboration with material scientist Otto Zhou of the UNC Department of Physics and Astronomy and cancer biology researchers at UNC, she spearheaded the application of carbon nanotube field emission technology in novel radiation delivery system development for basic and preclinical cancer research. The nanotechnology-based irradiation systems under development include a multipixel cellular irradiator and a small-animal, image-guided, intensity-modulated irradiator. The research projects are supported by several grants from the NCI and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Dr. Chang’s research interests include using a multidisciplinary approach that organically utilizes medicine, biology, physics, chemistry, and computer science for a better understanding of cancer and cancer treatment. Specifically, she is interested in nanotechnology-based, radiation-producing delivery technology development for novel imaging and irradiation for basic, preclinical, and clinical applications; microbeam radiotherapy research at the basic and preclinical levels; and an integrated approach to improve tumor killing and normal tissue sparing in radiotherapy.

Leland Chung, Ph.D.
Dr. Chung is Professor of Urology, Biochemistry, and Hematology/Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine. He also is Distinguished Georgia Cancer Scholar and Clinician, Director of the Molecular Urology and Therapeutics Program, Department of Urology, and Director of the Prostate Cancer Program at the Winship Cancer Institute. He was formerly Professor of Urology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and of Urology and Cell Biology at the University of Virginia. Dr. Chung received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon Health & Science University and his B.S. degree from National Taiwan University. He did his postdoctoral fellowship at the Brady Urological Institute at the JHU School of Medicine and served as Assistant Professor at McGill University and Associate Professor at the University of Colorado. Dr. Chung has received various honors and awards, including the Ben Rogers Award for Excellence in Research, Hubert L. and Olive Stringer Professorship in Cancer Research, and John Kluge Distinguished Professor in Urology and Cancer Research. Dr. Chung’s research focuses on the development of novel therapies for cancer metastasis, including the use of gene therapies, molecular signal-derived therapy, and the development of natural products that may interfere with cancer growth and metastasis. Dr. Chung’s laboratory efforts have contributed to the fundamental understanding of tumor microenvironment interaction, the development of animal and cell culture models mimicking cancer growth and metastasis in patients, and the development of concepts cotargeting tumor and host microenvironment as an approach for the treatment of cancer metastasis. He has published over 300 original articles, reviews, book chapters, and editorials and is an inventor on 15 issued and pending patents. He has edited two books, Prostate Cancer and The Biology of Skeletal Metastases.

Michael J. Cima, Ph.D.
Dr. Cima is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. He earned a B.S. in chemistry in 1982 (Phi Beta Kappa) and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1986, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Cima was awarded the Norton Chair at MIT in 1988 in the Materials Science and Engineering Department as Assistant Professor. He became Director of the Ceramics Processing Research Laboratory in 1989 and received a tenured appointment from MIT in 1992. He was promoted to full Professor in 1995, was elected as a Fellow of the American Ceramics Society in 1997, and was recently awarded the Sumitomo Electric Industries Chair at MIT. Dr. Cima is author or coauthor of over 160 scientific publications and 20 patents and is a recognized expert in the field of materials processing. He has been the principal investigator (PI) on several large defense research projects and many other sponsored research programs at MIT. Dr. Cima’s research focuses on advanced forming technology, ceramic thin film processing, MEMS devices for medical electronics and drug delivery, and high-throughput development methods for formulations of materials. Forming methods for complex macrodevices and microdevices are of particular interest, including MIT’s three-dimensional printing process. Dr. Cima and collaborators are developing implantable MEMS devices for unprecedented control in the delivery of pharmaceuticals. Most recently, his group has been working on methods to speed the development of materials systems that are based on complex formulations. Through Dr. Cima’s consulting work, he has been a major contributor to the development of a high-throughput system for the discovery of novel crystal forms of pharmaceuticals.

Donald S. Coffey, Ph.D.
Dr. Coffey is Professor of Urology, Oncology, Pathology and Pharmacology, and Molecular Sciences at the JHU School of Medicine. A prominent urological scientist, he was appointed as the Catherine Iola and J. Smith Michael Distinguished Professor of Urology at the JHU School of Medicine. Dr. Coffey is also a member of the principal professional staff at the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory. He served as Director of the Research Laboratories in the Department of Urology for 32 years from 1972 to 2004. Dr. Coffey received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the JHU School of Medicine in 1964. He is Past-President of both the American Association for Cancer Research and the Society for Basic Urologic Research. For 19 years Dr. Coffey served as a member of the NCI’s National Prostatic Cancer Program and as National Chairperson from 1984 to 1988. He has received the Robert Edwards Award from The Tenovus Institute, Fuller Award and Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Urological Association, Society of International Urology-Yamanouchi Research Award, and a 2001 ACS Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Coffey is an Honorary Member of the AOA. He has received two NIH Merit Awards. Dr. Coffey was recently appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Board. He has published more than 250 research publications.

Carolyn C. Compton, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Compton is Director of the Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research and Acting Director of the NCI’s Office of Technology and Industrial Relations (OTIR). She oversees many of the strategic initiatives of the Center for Advanced Technologies, including the Biospecimen Research Network, Clinical Proteomics Technologies for Cancer Program, Nanotechnology Alliance, and Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies Program. At McGill University, she was the Strathcona Professor and Chair of Pathology and the Pathologist-in-Chief of the McGill University Health Center. She received her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and trained in anatomic pathology and clinical pathology at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Compton’s research involves translational studies in colon cancer and human biospecimen science. She has held several national and international leadership positions, including the Commission on Scientific Affairs, Chair of the Cancer Committee of the College of American Pathologists, and Chair of the Pathology Committee of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B. Dr. Compton is a member of the ASCO Cancer Research Committee and now chairs the Biospecimens Committees of the Interagency Oncology task Force and the AACR-NCI-FDA Biomarkers Collaborative as well as the Executive Committee of the AJCC. She serves on the editorial boards of Cancer, Journal of Clinical Proteomics, AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, and ASCO Compendium, among others. Dr. Compton has been the lead pathologist on more than 16 national clinical cancer trials in the United States and has published more than 350 original scientific papers, reports, review articles, books, and abstracts.

Jennifer Couch, Ph.D.
Dr. Couch is Program Director in the Structural Biology and Molecular Applications Branch in the Division of Cancer Biology, NCI, NIH and the Integrative Cancer Biology Program (ICBP), NCI, NIH. Her expertise is in the areas of genomics, bioinformatics/computational biology, mathematical modeling, and technology development. Dr. Couch serves as the NCI representative to the NIH Biomedical Information and Technology Initiative Committee (BISTIC) and the National Centers for Biomedical Computing (NCBC) Roadmap Oversight Committee. She received her Ph.D. in genetics from the Pennsylvania State University and did postdoctoral work in molecular evolution and genomics at the University of British Columbia and the Genome Sequencing Center at the Washington University in St. Louis prior to joining the NIH. Dr. Couch has worked as Program Director, first in the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis and currently in the Division of Cancer Biology, NCI, and serves on a wide variety of informatics- and technology-related NIH and NCI committees. She currently focuses on several topics, including integrative cancer biology, computational modeling of cancer processes, and software and data integration as well as the new area of multiscale cancer biology, which emphasizes modeling, technology development, and biological exploration at the interface between molecular mechanisms and cellular properties.

Vittorio Cristini, Ph.D.
Dr. Cristini is Associate Professor of Health Information Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston; of Systems Biology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas, Austin. He was formerly on the faculty of Biomedical Engineering and Applied Mathematics at the University of California, Irvine (2002-2006) and Applied Mathematics and Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota (2000-2002). He earned a Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering (2000) from Yale University; he is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Nanomedicine. Dr. Cristini is an expert in the fields of complex fluids, microfluidics, complex (bio)materials, and mathematical/computational modeling of cancer and nanomathematics, for which he has organized numerous domestic and international conferences. He has been on the editorial boards of journals that include Lab on a Chip, Physical Review Letters, Journal of Computational Physics, Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, and NeuroImage and a number of mathematical and theoretical biology journals. He has published 4 book chapters and 50 articles. Dr. Cristini has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics (American Physical Society, 2000). He is also featured in the Thomson-Scientific Essential Science Indicators. Dr. Cristini has graduated three Ph.D. students in biomedical engineering and applied mathematics and several master’s and B.S. students. Four of his students have received honors and awards for their theses. Dr. Cristini’s research has been supported by the NSF, the NCI, the U.S. Department of Defense, the State of California, the State of Texas, Orqis Medical, Dekk-Tec, and Merck.

Paul Davies, Ph.D.
Dr. Davies is a British-born theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, and best-selling author. He held academic appointments at the Universities of Cambridge, London, and Newcastle upon Tyne until 1990, when he moved to Australia as Professor of Mathematical Physics at The University of Adelaide. Later, he served as Professor of Natural Philosophy at Macquarie University in Sydney, where he helped establish the NASA-affiliated Australian Centre for Astrobiology. Dr. Davies joined Arizona State University in 2006 as Director of Beyond, a research center devoted to exploring the “big questions” of science, such as the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and the nature of time. His research has focused on the theory of quantum fields in curved spacetime, with applications to black holes and the inflationary era of the very early universe. Dr. Davies was one of the first to champion the idea that life on Earth may have originated on Mars. He has written or cowritten 27 books, both specialist and popular works. The most recent is Cosmic Jackpot: Why our universe is just right for life (published under the title The Goldilocks Enigma in the United Kingdom). Dr. Davies writes regularly for newspapers, journals, and magazines in several countries and has made numerous radio and television documentaries in the United Kingdom and Australia. In 1995 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for his work on the deeper meaning of science. Dr. Davies also received the Faraday Prize from The Royal Society and the Kelvin Medal from the United Kingdom Institute of Physics. In June 2007 he was named a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s birthday honors list. The asteroid 1992 OG was renamed (6870) Pauldavies in recognition of his work on cosmic impacts.

Micah X. Dembo, Ph.D.
Dr. Dembo holds a doctorate in biomathematics obtained from Cornell Medical College in 1977. Subsequently, he was Director’s Fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and was promoted to full scientific staff member in the Theoretical Division of LANL in 1979. Dr. Dembo continued his work at Los Alamos until January 1996, later taking a position as full Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering of Boston University. Dr. Dembo has made notable contributions on the theoretical aspects of various topics, including the mechanism of allosteric enzymes, the role of transport in development of tumor resistance to chemotherapy, dynamics diffusion-reaction processes, numerical methods for solving large systems of partial differential equations, quantitative analysis of viral infectivity, the mechanisms of cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion, receptor-mediated signal transduction, and cellular processing and storage of information. His major research focus for the past 20 years has been the biophysics of motion and force production in amoeboid cells. Dr. Dembo has authored upward of 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters. He frequently served as a consultant to the NIH and NSF for purposes of evaluating grant applications. Dr. Dembo also served for two terms on the editorial board of Biophysical Journal. In addition to training a small cadre of doctoral and postdoctoral students, he has developed and taught graduate-level courses on topics such as cytomechanics, mathematical modeling and computer applications in biology, and physiological fluid mechanics and mass transport. Dr. Dembo is the recipient of several prizes and awards for outstanding research and of numerous competitive research grants.

Joseph M. DeSimone, Ph.D.
Dr. DeSimone is the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and Professor of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University. He has published over 220 scientific articles and has over 110 issued patents in his name. In 2005 Dr. DeSimone was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the 2005 ACS Award for Creative Invention. Dr. DeSimone is Co-PI of the NCI-funded Carolina Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at the UNC, along with Dr. Rudy Juliano, as well as Director of the Institute for Advanced Materials. He and his group are taking a pharmacoengineering systems approach to develop next-generation delivery systems with programmable multifunctional capability. They have pioneered the development of a technique called PRINT (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates), a top-down particle fabrication technique that has its roots in the fabrication techniques used in the microelectronics industry to make transistors. PRINT is a highresolution molding technique that allows the fabrication of precisely defined nanoparticles with control over particle size, particle shape, particle composition, particle cargo, particle modulus, and particle surface properties. Extensive in vitro and in vivo studies are focused on fundamental cellular uptake and intracellular trafficking of particles; in vivo biodistribution as a function of size, shape, surface chemistry, and deformability; and in vivo tissue and cellular targeting for cancer treatment and diagnosis (PET/CT, MR). PRINT particles are being explored in three areas: (1) delivery of siRNA and other nucleic acids, (2) targeted delivery of imaging agents and therapeutics for applications in oncology, and (3) targeting of dendritic cells and T lymphocytes for the study of autoimmune diseases.

Emmanuele DiBenedetto, Ph.D.
Dr. DiBenedetto is the Centennial Professor of Mathematics and Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University. His research interests include analyses in mathematical biology, signal transduction, biophysics of motion of second messengers, cell cycle, and complexity in endothelial cell cignaling. Previously, Dr. DiBenedetto served as Director of Vanderbilt University’s Biomathematics Study Group and was Professor at Northwestern University and the University of Rome. His research interests also encompass partial differential equations of elliptic and parabolic type, degenerate and singular equations, local and global behavior of solutions, Harnack-type estimates, calculus of variations, quasi-minima, potential theory, phase transition, free-boundary problems, fluid dynamics, conductionconvection, Navier-Stokes equations, motion in porous media, ill-posed problems, thin-film dynamics, classical mechanics, mathematical biology, signal transduction, biophysics of motion of second messengers, cell cycle, complexity in endothelial cell signaling, mathematical homogenization, and concentrated capacity in visual transduction.

Ken A. Dill, Ph.D.
Dr. Dill is Professor of Biophysics and Associate Dean of Research in the School of Pharmacy at UCSF. His research focuses on the physical properties of proteins, RNA molecules, water, and in aqueous solvation, and his lab’s work involves computational biology and statistical mechanical modeling. Dr. Dill has received numerous awards for his research and has over 200 articles published in research journals. In the research area of protein properties, Dr. Dill’s laboratory is exploring: (1) the molecular forces that drive proteins to fold into their biological native structures, (2) how amino acid sequences encode those structures, (3) the thermodynamic factors that stabilize proteins against unfolding and aggregation, and (4) the rates and mechanisms by which proteins fold. Knowledge of these physical properties can contribute to computer-based methods for predicting protein structures, dynamics, conformational changes, and their biological mechanisms. Regarding the properties of water, his lab is interested in the structure and physical properties of water. In particular, Dr. Dill and his group have been developing simplified models that can be explored analytically and through Monte Carlo computer simulations, for the properties of pure water, for understanding hydrophobic interactions, and for ion solvation. He and his colleagues believe that better understanding of water as a solvent will have value in improving models in computational biology for the folding of proteins and RNA molecules and for ligand docking and drug design. Dr. Dill has also published the physical chemistry textbook Molecular Driving Forces: Statistical Thermodynamics in Chemistry and Biology.

Dennis E. Discher, Ph.D.
Dr. Discher received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1993, was a postdoctoral fellow in Physics/Biophysics in Vancouver, and is currently Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Bioengineering and the Graduate Groups in Physics and Cell and Molecular Biology. He is coauthor of 150 publications that range in topic from biochemical physics of stem cells and single proteins to self-assembling polymers and have appeared recently in Cell, Science, and Nature Physics, among other journals. Grant support has been provided by the NIH’s NHLBI, NIBIB, and NCRR, and past honors include a Presidential Award from the NSF and the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award from the Humboldt Foundation of Germany.

Travis M. Earles, M.S., M.B.A.
Mr. Earles is a National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) representative in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (www.ostp.gov), where his primary areas of focus are nanobiotechnology and related environmental, health, safety, communications, and ethical issues. Mr. Earles is Co-Chair of the NSTC Subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology (NSET), providing key leadership in the interagency coordination of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI, www.nano.gov). Mr. Earles builds and manages biomedical technology development initiatives and partnerships across agencies and sectors to accelerate cancer research and shift the paradigm for cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. He was instrumental in planning, coordinating, and implementing the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer (http://nano.cancer.gov). Mr. Earles also led the planning and execution of six Cancer Nanotechnology Symposia held across the country to inform the program planning process and facilitate communications and interdisciplinary team formation, connecting cancer biology, clinical oncology and the physical sciences. He leads the communications, outreach, and training programs of the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer and manages nanotechnology-related partnerships and policy development with the NSF, FDA, and other members of the NNI. Before coming to the NIH, he gained 3 years of clinical experience in a teaching and patient treatment setting at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes. Mr. Earles holds a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, as well as a master’s degree in technology management and an M.B.A. from the University of Maryland.

Thomas Earnest, Ph.D.
Dr. Earnest is Senior Scientist and Group Leader of the Structural Proteomics Development group in the Physical Biosciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). He received his Ph.D. in physics from Boston University, then spent 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). At LBNL Dr. Earnest established the biological crystallography program, directed the construction and operation of the five initial PX experimental stations, and led the team that pioneered the development of high-throughput structural biology. Dr. Earnest’s current research is in the areas of structural systems biology and sciencedriven technology development. Leading a team of physicists, systems engineers, molecular biologists, and biochemists at LBNL, and with collaborators at Stanford and UCLA, the group is investigating microbial protein-protein interaction networks, including structural information from crystallography, solution x-ray scattering, and coherent x-ray diffractive imaging to complement information from affinity purifications and from cell biology. As biological assemblies in the cell are often dynamically localized and highly regulated, it is critical to interrogate structural information across a wide range of lengths (atomic to cellular), as well as their assembly, localization, and regulation. The use of biologically inspired nanomachines, which can provide a wide range of technological solutions in health, energy, and the environment, will benefit from the understanding of the interactions and structures of complexes and how they function in the cell and in vitro. The study of eukaryotic complexes involved in development and growth is being pursued primarily though studies of proteins and protein complexes from the Wnt pathway.

Sadik C. Esener, Ph.D., M.S.
Dr. Esener is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Nano Engineering, and Materials Sciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He holds a Ph.D. degree in applied physics and electrical engineering from UCSD (1987). Dr. Esener is Director and PI of the NanoTumor Cancer Nanotechnology Center funded by the NCI. Previously, he served as Director of the Center for Heterogeneously Integrated Photonics Systems (CHIPS), a multiuniversity, DARPA-funded optocenter for biophotonics and nanophotonics. From 1997 to 2001 Dr. Esener served as Director of the Opto- Electronic Stacked Processors industry/university consortium on Free Space Optical Interconnects and on the development and integration of Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser arrays. From 1998 to 2002 he served as Director of the Fast Read-out Optical Data Storage Consortium Industrial Consortium. Under Dr. Esener’s direction, his research group at UCSD has made many pioneering contributions to the fields of optical interconnects, spatial light modulation, optical data storage, biooptoelectronics as applied to gene chips, cell sorting and manipulation, and heterogeneous integration of photonics, electronics, and biological components. He has published more than 350 journal and conferences articles and has given more than 250 presentations at international scientific meetings, 75 of which were invited; he holds 15 issued patents and has authored many book chapters, edited several proceedings, and chaired and organized over 15 scientific international conferences.

Omid C. Farokhzad, M.D.
Dr. Farokhzad is Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS), a practicing physician in the Department of Anesthesiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and a project leader in the MIT-Harvard Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence. He is a graduate of the Boston University School of Medicine and completed his postgraduate clinical and research training, respectively, at BWH/HMS and in the laboratory of Professor Robert Langer at MIT. Dr. Farokhzad has pioneered the application of microtechnologies and nanotechnologies for high-throughput development and screening of targeted drug delivery systems for myriad clinical applications, most notably cancer. His research group is focused on the development and engineering of “smart” nanoparticles for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Other areas of focus include drug target identification and validation and high-throughput synthesis and screening of nanomaterials for drug delivery. Recent work from Dr. Farokhzad’s group includes the development of targeted nanoparticles capable of recognizing prostate cancer specifically and able to eradicate tumors in mouse models of prostate cancer and the engineering of targeted nanoparticles for breast, pancreatic, and ovarian cancers and cardiovascular indications. Dr. Farokhzad’s work has been the subject of extensive press coverage including approximately 200 written articles and being featured on the cover of Popular Science. He has been featured on multiple national and international TV and radio news shows, including national ABC coverage in the United States. Dr. Farokhzad has authored approximately 30 publications and is an inventor on 15 patent applications.

Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D.
Dr. Ferrari serves as Professor, Brown Institute of Molecular Medicine; Chairman, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Professor of Experimental Therapeutics, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston TX; Professor of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston TX; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston TX; and President of the Alliance for NanoHealth, Houston TX. He is a founder of biomedical nano/microtechnology, especially in its applications to drug delivery, cell transplantation, implantable bioreactors, and other innovative therapeutic modalities. Dr. Ferrari has published more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and 6 books and has more than 20 issued patents. Dr. Ferrari’s contributions have been recognized by a variety of honors, including the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, Shannon Director’s Award of the NIH, and Wallace H. Coulter Award for Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Dr. Ferrari began his academic career at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), where he tenured in materials science, civil engineering, and bioengineering. Upon recruitment to OSU, he served as Edgar Hendrickson Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Professor of Internal Medicine, Mechanical Engineering, and Materials Science; Associate Vice President, Health Sciences Technology and Commercialization; Associate Director of the Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute; and Director of the Biomedical Engineering Center. Dr. Ferrari also served as Special Expert on Nanotechnology at the NCI from 2003 to 2005, providing leadership in the formulation, refinement, and approval of the NCI’s Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. His degrees are in mathematics (Padova, 1985, Italy) and mechanical engineering (UCB, M.S. 1987, Ph.D. 1989). He attended medical school at OSU (2002-03). Dr. Ferrari is Editor-in-Chief of Biomedical Microdevices: BioMEMS and Biomedical NanoTechnology (Springer Publisher), the first academic journal dedicated to these fields. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Springer’s book series on fundamental biomedical technologies.

Daniel Gallahan, Ph.D.
Dr. Gallahan is a molecular and cancer biologist with expertise in the fields of breast cancer, technology development, and science administration. His primary focus is the integration of multiple approaches, tools, and data sets to understand the complexity of cancer. As Deputy Director, Dr. Gallahan helps lead the Division of Cancer Biology in its mission of supporting excellence in cancer research. Previously, he served as Associate Director for Integrative Biology and Chief of the Structural Biology and Molecular Applications Branch at the NCI; he still oversees many of these efforts within the Institute. The major effort in systems biology within the NCI is the Integrative Cancer Biology Program, which embraces computational modeling as an integral part of cancer understanding and management. Dr. Gallahan also assists in the planning and implementation of the NCI’s overall efforts in genomics, proteomics, structural biology, and nanotechnology. In addition, his group acts as liaison with other Government and commercial entities in the areas of technology and systems biology. Dr. Gallahan was trained in molecular biology and biochemistry at the University of Maryland, receiving additional postdoctoral training at the NIH and the German Cancer Research Center. His postdoctoral work included training in proteomics and bioinformatics. Prior to joining the Division of Cancer Biology, Dr. Gallahan had an active NCI intramural career resulting in numerous publications within the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology. He also has experience outside the Government as Director of Molecular Biology and Development for a small biotechnology company.

Sanjiv S. Gambhir, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Gambhir is Professor of Radiology and Bioengineering at Stanford University. He is the Head of Nuclear Medicine and Director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS). He trained at the UCLA Medical Scientist Training Program, where he obtained both his M.D. and Ph.D degrees. Dr. Gambhir completed his medicine and nuclear medicine training at UCLA and was Professor of Molecular Pharmacology, Vice-Chair of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and Director of the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging before moving to Stanford University in 2003. Has translational laboratory focuses on molecular imaging, including new probe development for positron emission tomography and multimodality molecular imaging, including the use of optical imaging. Dr. Gambhir’s laboratory has developed methods to image gene/cell therapy in living subjects, including humans. He has developed many strategies for imaging basic cell/molecular events, including signal transduction, gene expression, and cell trafficking. Dr. Gambhir recently received the 2006 Hounsfield Medal, 2004 gold medal award from the Society of Molecular Imaging, 2004 Distinguished Scientist Award from the Academy of Molecular Imaging, and 2003 Holst Medal for his contributions to the field of molecular imaging. He is President of the Academy of Molecular Imaging and Associate Editor of several journals.

Daniela S. Gerhard, Ph.D.
Dr. Gerhard is a human genetics and molecular cancer biologist. Her current research interests are the identification of genetic risk factors in cancer development and identification of somatic mutations in cancers. Dr. Gerhard received her Ph.D. in genetics and molecular biology from Cornell University in 1982. Her laboratory at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine has published papers on identifying the critical issues in the genetically complex bipolar affective disorder; determined the physical and genetic mapping of human chromosome 11, which is important in the cloning of the gene for multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1; defined some of the genetic risk factors in prostate and cervical cancers; and identified a candidate region that harbors a gene important for cervical cancer development. Dr. Gerhard moved to the NCI in 2002 and in 2003 was named Acting Director and in 2005 Director of the Office of Cancer Genomics (http://ocg.cancer.gov). Her research interests include the identification of somatic mutations in cancer, determination of genetic risk factors in cancer, and identification of which pathways are the same and which are unique in sporadic vs. inherited cancers. Dr. Gerhard’s activities include directing the multicomponent Cancer Genome Anatomy Project (http://cgap.nci.nih.gov), which has provided the cancer community with robust expression databases of cancer tissues; serving as Project Director of the Initiative for Chemical Genetics, a highly effective project that uses small molecules to modulate cellular function as the first step in identifying new cancer drugs; and participating in the NIH’s Molecular Libraries Roadmap Initiative. She is Co-Project Director of and a participant in the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility (CGEMS, http://cgems.nci.nih.gov/) project, which recently published the results of two large genome scans of prostate and breast cancers that identified candidate loci that influence the development of risk. Dr. Gerhard is a member of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA, http://cancergenome.nih.gov) project team involved in the scientific construction and development of the dual-institute project. The goals of this pilot project are to generate a compendium of somatic mutations found in glioblastoma multiforme, squamous cell carcinoma of the lung, and serous cystadenocarcinoma of the ovary. The characterization of the first ~200 GBMs is now publicly available as is the sequencing of ~600 genes. She is a reviewer for a number of journals and has published 75 manuscripts and 8 chapters and reviews.

Robert H. Getzenberg, Ph.D.
Dr. Getzenberg completed his Ph.D. at the JHU School of Medicine and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine under the guidance of Dr. Eric R. Fearon, who, along with Dr. Bert Vogelstein at JHU, has identified many of the genetic marker characteristics of the cancer pathway. Dr. Getzenberg joined the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute in early 1994, where he served as Director of Urological Research of the Department of Urology and Co-Director of the Prostate and Urologic Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute; Professor of Urology, Pathology, and Pharmacology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and Associate Director of the Cellular and Molecular Pathology Graduate Program. In January 2005 Dr. Getzenberg assumed his current position as Director of Research of the Brady Urological Institute. He is The Donald S. Coffey Professor of Urology and Professor of Oncology and Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the JHU School of Medicine. His main research focus is on understanding the role of the nuclear matrix in the pathobiology of urologic cancers and in developing cancer biomarkers focusing on these diseases. Dr. Getzenberg’s laboratory studies the role of hyperthermia-based therapies for advanced cancer. He is the author of many publications related to prostate and bladder cancers as well as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Dr. Getzenberg currently serves as Section Editor for Urology and is on the editorial boards of a number of other journals. He serves as Program Committee Chair for the Prouts Neck meeting on prostate cancer and is Steering Committee Chair for the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases MPSA Consortium focusing on developing novel markers for BPH. Dr. Getzenberg has served as President of the Society for Basic Urologic Diseases and has received several awards, including the 2000 University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award, and was selected as one of the “40 under 40” by Pittsburgh Magazine. He is the recipient of a number of grants from the NIH and other agencies and foundations.

Byron Goldstein, Ph.D.
Dr. Goldstein is Staff Scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. His research focuses on the dynamics of cell surface receptors and how they mediate cell signaling events, with a specific emphasis on receptors that play key roles in the immune response—cytokine receptors and multisubunit immune recognition receptors. Dr. Goldstein received his Ph.D. degree from New York University. Dr. Goldstein is an internationally recognized authority in the fields of mathematical immunology and cell biology. These fields are multidisciplinary frontiers where physics, chemical engineering, mathematics, and computer science are combined quantitatively with biology. He is a pioneer in modeling cell signaling cascades, pursuing cutting-edge research in cell activation, cell-signaling, cell surface receptor-ligand interactions, and the generation of allergic responses. Dr. Goldstein is the recipient of the NIH MERIT Award, which includes 10 years of new funding.

Peter Greenwald, M.D., Dr.P.H.
Dr. Greenwald is Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention at the NCI, NIH, and Assistant Surgeon General in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS). Research areas include basic and preclinical chemoprevention studies through first-in-human to Phase III clinical trials, biomarker discovery and validation, basic nutritional science, biometry, and systems approaches to cancer prevention. Dr. Greenwald received his medical degree from the State University of New York College of Medicine in Syracuse and his master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Greenwald began his career in the USPHS Commissioned Corps as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assigned to the Ohio Department of Health. His best known EIS investigation was of an insulation worker who died of anthrax. Dr. Greenwald also worked on a vanguard study for the smallpox eradication program and tracked down vaccine-associated polio. He then did a medical residency at Boston City Hospital, earned a doctoral degree in cancer epidemiology from Harvard, and was Assistant in Medicine at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. After serving as Director of Epidemiology at the New York State Department of Health (with associated appointments at Albany Medical College and as Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Dr. Greenwald started the NCI American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST) and nutrition education with the 5 A Day program in partnership with industry and the private sector. He also started the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial, which showed that the occurrence rate of breast cancer in high-risk women could be cut in half, and the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, which reported a 25% reduction in prostate cancer from daily use of the drug finasteride. Dr. Greenwald is the author of over 270 scientific papers.

Piotr Grodzinski, Ph.D.
Dr. Grodzinski is Director of Nanotechnology for Cancer programs at the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer in Bethesda, MD. He coordinates program and research activities of the Alliance, which has dedicated $144 million over the next 5 years to form interdisciplinary centers as well as fund individual research and training programs targeting nanotechnology solutions for improved prevention, detection, and therapy of cancer. Dr. Grodzinski is a materials scientist by training but, like many others, found biotechnology and nanotechnology fascinating. In the mid-1990s, he left the world of semiconductor research and built a large microfluidics program at Motorola Corporate R&D in Arizona. The group made important contributions to the development of integrated microfluidics for genetic sample preparation, with its work featured in Highlights of Chemical Engineering News and Nature Reviews. After his tenure at Motorola, Dr. Grodzinski joined the Bioscience Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he served as Group Leader and interim Chief Scientist for the U.S. Department of Energy Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies. Dr. Grodzinski received a Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 1992. He is an inventor on 15 patents and has authored over 100 technical publications and conference presentations. Dr. Grodzinski has been an invited speaker and has served on the committees of numerous bio- and nano-MEMS conferences in past years.

James R. Heath, Ph.D.
Dr. Heath is the Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor and Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA. He received a B.Sc. degree in 1984 (Baylor) and a Ph.D. degree in chemistry (Rice) in 1988, where he was the principal student involved in the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of C60 and the fullerenes. Dr. Heath was a Miller Fellow at UCB from 1988 to 1991, and was on the Technical Staff at IBM Watson Labs from 1991 to 1994. In 1994 he joined the faculty at UCLA. Dr. Heath founded the California NanoSystems Institute in 2000 and served as its Director until moving to Caltech. He has investigated quantum phase transitions and developed architectures, devices, and circuits for molecular electronics. Dr. Heath’s group has recently been applying their nano/molecular electronics work toward addressing problems in cancer and infectious diseases. His many awards include a Public Service Commendation from Governor Grey Davis, the Sackler Prize, Feynman Prize, Jules Springer Prize, and the Arthur K. Doolittle Award.

Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Hood’s research has focused on fundamental biology (immunity, evolution, genomics) and on bringing engineering to biology through the development of five instruments—the DNA and protein sequencers and synthesizers and the ink-jet oligonucleotide synthesizer for making DNA arrays and for deciphering the various types of biological information (DNA, RNA, proteins and systems). At Caltech, he and his colleagues pioneered four of the five instruments mentioned above. In 1992 Dr. Hood moved to the University of Washington as Founder and Chairman of the cross-disciplinary Department of Molecular Biotechnology where he developed the ink-jet oligonucleotide synthesizer, which synthesizes DNA chips and initiated systems studies on cancer biology and prion disease. In 2000 Dr. Hood cofounded the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, WA, to more effectively continue to pioneer systems approaches to biology and medicine, the Lasker Prize in 1987 for his studies on the mechanism of immune diversity, the 2002 Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology for the development of the five different instruments, the 2003 Lemelson-MIT Prize for Innovation and Invention for the development of the DNA sequencer, and the prestigious 2004 Biotechnology Heritage Award. In 2007 he was elected to the Inventors Hall of Fame (for the automated DNA sequencer). Dr. Hood has received 14 honorary degrees from institutions such as JHU, UCLA, and Whitman College. He has published more than 600 peer-reviewed papers; has received 14 patents; has coauthored textbooks in biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology, and genetics; and is finishing a textbook on systems biology. In addition, he coauthored with Dan Keveles a popular book on the human genome project—The Code of Codes. Dr. Hood is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, American Association of Arts and Sciences, Institute of Medicine, and National Academy of Engineering. He has also played a role in founding more than 14 biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Systemix, Darwin, and Rosetta. Dr. Hood is currently pioneering systems medicine and the systems approach to disease.

K. Jimmy Hsia, Ph.D.
Dr. Hsia is Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign (UIUC). He received his B.S. in engineering mechanics from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from MIT. Dr. Hsia has been Visiting Scientist at the Max-Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, Visiting Professor at Nagoya University in Japan, and Visiting Professor at Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Research in China. From 2005 to 2007 he served as Founding Director of the Nano and Bio Mechanics Program at the NSF, where he was instrumental in establishing the Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering initiative for the new Office of Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation in the ENG Directorate. Dr. Hsia also participated in the Interagency Modeling and Analysis Group involving NSF, NIH, NASA, and DOE programs and other multiagency activities. His research interests include deformation and failure mechanisms of materials at the microscale and nanoscale, nanomicromechanics, cell mechanics, and cell-nanomaterial interaction problems. Dr. Hsia has served as Guest Editor/Co-Editor for several special issues of Materials Science and Engineering. He received an NSF Research Initiation Award, a Max-Planck Society Scholarship, and a Japan Society for Promotion of Science Fellowship. Dr. Hsia was named Associate of the Center for Advanced Study at UIUC in 2008.

Srinivas (Ravi) Iyengar, Ph.D.
Dr. Iyengar is the Dorothy H. and Lewis Rosenstiel Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. His research focuses on cellular signaling systems, with a special emphasis on heterotrimeric G proteins. Dr. Iyengar received his Ph.D. in biophysical sciences from the University of Houston and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow and Assistant and Associate Professor at the Baylor College of Medicine. He joined the Department of Pharmacology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine as Associate Professor in 1986. In 1999 Dr. Iyengar was appointed Chair of the Department of Pharmacology, and in 2001 he was named the Dorothy H. and Lewis Rosenstiel Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry. He also served as Dean of Research at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine from 2002 to 2004.

Eric Jakobsson, Ph.D.
Dr. Jakobsson is Director of the National Center for Design of Biomimetic Nanoconductors and Professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. He also has appointments at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Dr. Jakobsson’s lab works on computational studies of membrane biophysics and organization, ion channel function, and ion channel evolution. His group discovered prokaryotic members of the ART-LGIC ligand binding channel family. Dr. Jakobsson’s group also developed an improved protocol for calculating protonation states in cases where there are multiple electrostatically interacting amino acid side chains, utilizing porin as the specific case. They also demonstrated the phenomenon of high-temperature freezing of water by confinement in nanotubes of critical diameter. If controlled, they believe confinement-induced phase change may be a useful switching mechanism in nanoscale conductors. Current collaborations within the Center include work on membrane and channel simulations with Larry Scott and computer-aided design of nanodevices with Narayan Aluru and Umberto Ravaioli. The work of Dr. Jakobsson’s group on automating multiscale calculations of KscA I-V and I-C curves from first principles will be enhanced in collaboration with the Klimeck/McLennan Network for Computational Nanotechnology team. He is responsible for overall coordination of the activities of the Center.

Paul Janmey, Ph.D.
Dr. Janmey is Professor in the Departments of Physiology, Physics, and Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His research focuses on how cell mechanics—most specifically, how the physical effects such as forces applied to the cell or the stiffness of the extracellular matrix— affect cell structure and function. Dr. Janmey has contributed to more than 150 articles in peer journals. He has a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin. His lab studies how physical effects such as forces applied to the cell or the stiffness of the extracellular matrix affect cell structure and function. In one project, they produce soft biocompatible materials, usually hydrogels, to study how the stiffness of surfaces alters cell structure, differentiation, and growth. Endothelial cells, fictoblasts, mesenchymal stem cells, neurons, and astrocytes each show unique dependence on substrate stiffness, and Dr. Janmey’s group seeks to understand how they sense and respond to this mechanical cue. In related work, his group measures the structure and mechanics of cytoskeletal polymers using a variety of imaging, scattering, and rheologic methods. Forces are generally sensed and transduced at the plasma membrane, and transmembrane receptors linked to signaling pathways involving polyphosphoinositides are key elements in mechanotransduction. Some projects in the lab examine how changes in cell membrane structure mediated by inositol phospholipids lead to production of signals that remodel the cytoskeleton. Dr. Janmey and his colleagues have published articles in several scientific journals, including Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, Biomaterials, Trends in Cell Biology, and Biophysical Journal.

Kirk E. Jordan, Ph.D.
Dr. Jordan is the Emerging Solutions Executive in IBM's Deep Computing organization within the Systems and Technology Group. In this role, he has responsibility for overseeing development of applications for IBM’s advanced computing architectures; investigating and developing concepts for new areas of growth for IBM (especially in the life sciences involving high-performance computing); providing leadership in high-end computing and simulation in such areas as systems biology, medical and diagnostic imaging, and high-end visualization; and is the Deep Computing technical representative to IBM’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry unit. In addition to his IBM responsibilities, Dr. Jordan is a computational applied mathematician in the high-performance computing community. He is active on national scientific committees on science and high-perfomance computing issues and has received several awards for his work on supercomputers. Dr. Jordan’s main research interests lie in the efficient use of advanced architectures and computers for simulation and modeling, especially in the area of systems biology.

Rudy Juliano, Ph.D.
Dr. Juliano obtained his Ph.D. in biophysics at the University of Rochester and then did postdoctoral work in experimental pathology at Roswell Park Memorial Institute. He has served on the faculties of the University of Toronto, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, and School of Medicine of the University of North Carolina (UNC). At UNC Dr. Juliano served as Chair of Pharmacology for 16 years and is now a Professor in that department. His research interests include cell adhesion proteins, signal transduction, drug delivery systems, and the molecular therapeutics of cancer. Dr. Juliano was involved in some of the earliest work using lipid nanoparticles (liposomes) as delivery agents for therapy of infectious diseases and cancer. He has served on numerous NIH study sections as well as on the editorial boards of Cancer Research, Pharmaceutical Research, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, Journal of Drug Targeting, Oligonucleotides, Molecular Pharmacology, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, and Journal of Cell Biology.

Mehran Kardar, Ph.D.
Dr. Kardar is Professor of Physics at MIT. His research focuses on the problems in statistical mechanics, including nonequilibrium collective behavior, disordered systems, and biologically motivated problems. Dr. Kardar has nearly 200 articles in publication and has been a visiting professor/lecturer in several universities here and abroad. Dr. Kardar received his Ph.D. from MIT.

John J. Kasianowicz, Ph.D.
Dr. Kasianowicz is a biophysicist and leader of the Nanobiotechnology Project in the Semiconductor Electronics Division, Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD. He received a B.A. with distinction in physics from Boston University, an M.A. in physics, and a Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics from SUNY, Stony Brook. Dr. Kasianowicz’s current research interests include ion transport through membranes, ion channel structure-function, bioenergetics, novel sensing systems, single-molecule detection and characterization, the physics of polymer structure and transport, novel methods for RNA/DNA characterization, and model systems for studying viral infection and protein secretion. Previously, he served as leader of the Biomolecular Materials Group, also at the NIST. Prior to his staff appointments at the NIST, Dr. Kasianowicz was an Office of Naval Research postdoctoral fellow at the NIH and a National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Research Associate at NIST. He is also Visiting Associate Professor at Texas A&M University.

Marc A. Kastner, Ph.D.
Dr. Kastner received his S.B. in chemistry and his Ph.D. in physics, both from the University of Chicago. After 1 year as a Harvard Research Fellow, he joined the Department of Physics at MIT in 1973, where he became the Donner Professor of Science in the Department of Physics in 1989. In 1993 Dr. Kastner was appointed director of the Center for Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, which became the largest of the NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers. He left that position to become Head of the Department of Physics in 1998 and Dean of the School of Science in July 2007. Dr. Kastner’s early research focused on amorphous semiconductors, materials that are useful for solar cells and computer memories. He has also studied the physics of high-temperature superconductivity. In 1990 Dr. Kastner’s group fabricated the first semiconductor, single-electron transistor or lateral quantum dot. His group continues to use these and other semiconductor quantum dots as tools to study the quantum mechanical behavior of electrons confined to nanometer dimensions. Dr. Kastner recently joined the Board of Scientific Advisors of the NCI. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1995 Dr. Kastner received the APS David Adler Lectureship Award, and in 2000 he won the Oliver E. Buckley Prize for condensed matter physics.

Gary J. Kelloff, M.D.
Dr. Kelloff is a special advisor for the NCI working on strategies for developing imaging-based and clinical biomarkers for oncology drug development. From 1983 to 2000 Dr. Kelloff headed the NCI’s research efforts in drug development, focusing on early intervention. Before that, he headed an NCI intramural laboratory in viral immunology focusing on retroviruses and oncogenes. He led a collaboration with the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry on strategies for developing drugs for marketing approval. Dr. Kelloff has cochaired numerous American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) expert working groups, including an AACR task force on the use of intraepithelial neoplasia for drug approvals in cancer prevention research and a successor task force that focused on incorporating new science and multisector, multidisciplinary collaborations into cancer prevention strategies. Recently, he chaired a collaborative private/public sector effort to develop strategies for using surrogate endpoint biomarkers in oncology drug development, and he cochairs ongoing efforts under the NCI/FDA Intra-Agency Oncology Task Force and the FDA/NCI/CMS Oncology Biomarker Qualification Initiative to define the use of biomarkers in cancer drug development and patient management. Dr. Kelloff is a graduate cum laude of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and did his postgraduate training at Emory University.

Christopher Kinsinger, Ph.D.
Dr. Kinsinger serves as Program Specialist of the Clinical Proteomic Technologies Initiative for Cancer, a program in the NCI’s Office of Technology and Industrial Relations. In this role, he oversees the development and assessment of technology platforms for cancer research. Dr. Kinsinger focuses on programmatic goals involving mass spectrometry, informatics, and biospecimens and works with NCI staff members and investigators to optimize proteomics technology, establish policies for sharing data and biospecimens, and generally improve the quality and reliability of proteomic data and samples. He completed his B.S. degree in 1999 at Wheaton College and his Ph.D. degree in chemistry in 2004 at the University of Minnesota. His thesis concerned the quantum mechanical modeling of biomimetic coordination complexes. Prior to joining the NCI’s Clinical Proteomics Management team, Dr. Kinsinger completed postdoctoral training at the NIST, where he researched fragmentation pathways of peptide ions in mass spectrometry. With this background in physical chemistry, Dr. Kinsinger now seeks to improve understanding of the physical sciences in biomedical research to remove technological barriers in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.

Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D.
Dr. Kucherlapati received his Ph.D. from UIUC and fulfilled his postdoctoral work in the lab of Frank Ruddle at Yale University. He was Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemical Sciences at Princeton University and then became Professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. In 1989 Dr. Kucherlapati went to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he was the Lola and Saul Kramer Professor of Molecular Genetics and University Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics, a position he held for 11 years. In 2001 he became Professor of Medicine and the Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School as well as the first Scientific Director of the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics. Dr. Kucherlapati’s research interests include human and mouse genetics and genomics and the cloning of human disease genes and the generation and characterization of mouse models for human disease. The Kucherlapati laboratory was involved in the mapping and sequencing of the human genome, with particular focus on human chromosome 12. With Dr. Oliver Smithies, Dr. Kucherlapati developed methods for gene targeting in mammalian cells and has used these approaches to develop a large number of mouse models for human disease, with particular emphasis on cancer. Dr. Kucherlapati was a member of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research at the National Human Genomics Research Institute and was cochair of the steering committee for the NCI’s Mouse Models for Human Cancer Consortium. He served on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine and was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Genomics. Dr. Kucherlapati is a founder of Cell Genesys, Abgenix, Aveo Pharmaceuticals, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. He currently serves on the boards of Millennium Pharmaceuticals and the privately held AVEO Pharmaceuticals.

Peter Kuhn, Ph.D.
Dr. Kuhn is Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. He also serves as Life Sciences Director at the Scripps PARC Institute for Advanced Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Kuhn has focused his research on developing novel approaches to therapeutic and diagnostic development in cancer and viral infections. The goal of his research is to significantly contribute to making cancer a managed disease. Dr. Kuhn’s research has led to the structural elucidation and characterization of drug targets implicated in cancer, the structural description of numerous proteins of the SARS coronavirus, and the identification and characterization of cancer cells in blood circulation. Most recently, his work, in collaboration with Scripps investigator Ray Stevens and their collaborators at Stanford University, has led to the discovery of the structure of the human β2 adrenergic receptor. This is the first high-resolution structure determination of a recombinantly produced human G-protein-coupled receptor, and this work was one of the top 10 scientific breakthroughs noted by Science magazine in 2007. Dr. Kuhn has coauthored over 100 scientific publications and patents on his research. He leads the implementation of the world’s first compact synchrotron x-ray source as part of a structural biology laboratory at Scripps, with the potential to provide an unprecedented level of real-time feedback and accelerated pace to results in the structural biology- and structure-based drug discovery fields. Dr. Kuhn was Assistant Professor at Stanford Medical School and Stanford University’s Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, where he cofounded and was coleader of the Joint Center for Structural Genomics within the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University in collaboration with Scripps Research. He holds a doctorate in physics from the Wadsworth Center at the New York State Department of Health and the State University of New York. Dr. Kuhn also holds a master’s degree in physicsfrom SUNY. He serves on a number of national and international advisory panels for the U.S. and foreign governments and provides scientific and business strategy advice to biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He cofounded the San Diego Lifesciences ThinkTank SHOUT. His research was recently featured during Microsoft’s Vista with Steve Ballmer at the NASDAQ opening.

Jan Lammerding, Ph.D.
Dr. Lammerding is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and also works in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; in addition he is a lecturer at the Biological Engineering Department at MIT, where he teaches molecular, cellular, and tissue biomechanics. Dr. Lammerding’s areas of interest include subcellular biomechanics and the cellular signaling response to mechanical stimulation. In particular, he focuses on how mutations in nuclear envelope proteins such as lamin can render cells more sensitive to mechanical stress, potentially leading to muscular dystrophy in mechanically strained tissues or increased atherosclerosis in vascular cells exposed to fluid shear stress and vessel strain. Insights gained from this work can lead to a better understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying laminopathies, a diverse group of diseases that includes Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy and Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. Dr. Lammerding received a Diplom Ingenieur degree in mechanical engineering from RWTH Aachen University in Germany and a Ph.D. degree in biological engineering from MIT and completed his postdoctoral training in Dr. Richard Lee’s laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston before becoming a faculty member at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Additional information can be found at his laboratory’s Web site at http://vascular.bwh.harvard.edu/Lammerding/.

Tanmay Lele, Ph.D.
Dr. Lele received his Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, and his B.S. degree in chemical engineering at the University Institute of Chemical Technology at the University of Bombay, Bombay, India. He was a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Donald Ingber’s laboratory at Children’s Hospital, Boston and has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida, Gainesville, since August 2006. The overall goal in the Lele laboratory is to understand how altered cell-microenvironment interactions contribute to cancer. Current research in the Lele laboratory is on determining how the force-generating apparatus in the cellactomyosin bundles called stress fibers is assembled and how the mechanical properties of the microenvironment control this assembly. The focus is on quantifying tensional modulation of actin dynamics in stress fibers inside living cells. This research is novel in part because of the confluence of quantitative molecular imaging inside living cells, mathematical modeling of diffusion and reaction, and mathematical modeling of force generation.

Stuart Lindsay, Ph.D.
Dr. Lindsay is the Edward and Nadine Carson Professor of Physics and Chemistry at the Arizona Institute of Biodesign at the Arizona State University. He specializes in biophysics at the molecular level and scanning probe microscopy. Much of his work is aimed at speedier diagnosis as well as to medical breakthroughs to understand and cure many diseases. Dr. Lindsay holds 27 patents and is a technology advisor for the Atomic Force Microscope Division of Agilent Technologies. Agilent has acquired Molecular Imaging Corporation, which he cofounded in 1993. Dr. Lindsay’s lab conducts innovative research in biological physics, molecular electronics, solar energy, and condensed-matter physics.

Elizabeth Loboa, Ph.D.
Dr. Loboa joined the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in August 2003. Prior to this position, she was Acting Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Dr. Loboa’s research focuses on better understanding of the effects of mechanical loads on mesenchymal tissue and mesenchymal stem cell differentiation with an end goal of functionally tissue engineering structurally robust skeletal tissues that can successfully withstand in vivo loading. Currently, her lab is (1) investigating the effects of different levels of tensile strain in promoting osteogenesis of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), (2) implementing microfluidics as a high-throughput screening tool for testing multiple shear stresses in promoting osteogenesis of hMSCs, (3) investigating the role of palladin in mechanotransduction of hMSCs, (4) optimizing the process of converting image data to functional finite element models for predistraction/presurgical planning prior to distraction osteogenesis procedures, and (5) investigating the roles of hydrostatic pressure in promoting chondrogenesis of hMSCs from both normal and osteoarthritic donors.

Jianping Lu, Ph.D.
Dr. Lu is Professor of Physics and Applied Science at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill and a faculty member of the Biomedical Research Imaging Center at UNC. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics from the City University of New York 1988 and did his postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago and UIUC. Dr. Lu’s research interests cover wide areas of science, including the basic physics of condensed matter and correlated systems; the science of nanoscale materials and phenomena; and the emerging field of nanotechnology and its application in medicine, national security, and electronics. He has published some 100 peer-reviewed articles in physics, applied physics, and medical imaging and is an inventor and holds over a dozen patents on new nanotube x-ray sources and their applications in computed tomography, digital tomosynthesis, and multiplexing x-ray imaging.

Scott R. Manalis, Ph.D.
Dr. Manalis is Associate Professor in the Departments of Biological and Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He received his B.S. degree in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and his Ph.D. degree in applied physics from Stanford University. The Manalis laboratory uses microscale and nanoscale technologies to develop quantitative and real-time techniques for biomolecular detection and single-cell analysis. The lab recently developed a technology that enables mass to be measured in the aqueous environment with a resolution that is a millionfold better than existing methods. This approach, known as the suspended microchannel resonator (SMR), places the fluid inside of the resonator instead of immersing the resonator in the fluid, thereby solving the longstanding problem of signal degradation from viscous drag. This has enabled single cells and nanoparticles to be weighed in solution with femtogram resolution. The Manalis lab is now exploring a wide range of biological applications with the SMR. For example, it is using the SMR’s ability to resolve mammalian cell mass with a precision near ~0.01% to investigate how cells control their size and to classify how cancer cells respond to pathway-directed therapeutics.

Leonid A. Mirny, Ph.D.
Dr. Mirny is the Samuel A. Goldblith Career Development Associate Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on computational structural and system biology, using a multidisciplinary approach that combines firstprinciple physics with the analysis of biological systems such as genes, proteins, and metabolic pathways. Dr. Mirny’s efforts in computational structural biology involve the development of novel computational tools to analyze and predict structures of proteins, their complexes, and protein-DNA interactions. He received his Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University.

Robert J. Mittman, M.S., M.P.P.
As founder of Facilitation, Foresight, Strategy, Mr. Mittman works with groups of organizations to discover and implement shared approaches to complex and intractable problems. He engages audiences in a lively exchange of perspectives to turn simple meetings into forums that allow diverse individuals to work productively together. For nearly two decades, Mr. Mittman has provided strategic advice to health care organizations as Director of the Institute for the Future. Today, he continues to facilitate strategic thinking with nonprofit health organizations, government agencies, and the for-profit health care industry, including the NCI, CDC, American Association for Cancer Research, UCSF School of Medicine, Health Level 7, Pacific Business Group on Health, California HealthCare Foundation, Ascension Health, Kaiser- Permanente. Mr. Mittman’s health care strategic analysis combines both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to examine how the health system will evolve. His forecasts include work on the role of the Internet in health care, investigation of the future of cost and utilization controls across health care practice settings, development of cancer care quality measurements, analysis of the impact of managed care on the practice of oncology, and creation of an index of the penetration of managed care in different regions of the United States. His column Technology Foresight is available on www.ihealthbeat.com, and he is a coauthor of The Internet in Health Care: A Five-Year Forecast and The Diffusion of Innovation in Health Care. Mr. Mittman holds graduate degrees in computer science and public policy analysis and a B.S. degree in electrical engineering, all from UCB.

Larry A. Nagahara, Ph.D.
Dr. Nagahara is Nanotechnology Project Manager for the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, where he oversees the development of promising diagnostics and therapeutics projects and helps turn them into applications that will eventually benefit cancer patients. He has been actively involved in nanotechnology for over 15 years, most notably novel scanning probe microscopy development, carbon nanotube applications, molecular electronics, nanoenergy, and nanosensors. Prior to joining the NCI, Dr. Nagahara was a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Motorola and led their nanosensor effort. He also was a member of Motorola’s Scientific Advisory Board (comprising the top 1.5% of Motorola technologists), an advisory member of U.S. Army Materiel Command Nanotechnology Executive Roundtable, and an industrial liaison for NSF-Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team projects and Semiconductor Research Corporation projects. Dr. Nagahara currently represents the NCI on the NIH Bioengineering Consortium to foster support for bioengineering research and on the Trans-NIH Nano Task Force, which is tasked to develop an NIH-wide scientific and policy vision for nanotechnology. He is also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Arizona State University and Associate Editor of the IEEE Sensors Journal. He has published over 80 technical papers, 3 book chapters, and 1 book pending and has over 15 patents issued/filed in the field of nanotechnology. Dr. Nagahara received his B.S. degree in physics from the University of California, Davis (UCD), and his Ph.D. in physics from Arizona State University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and later joined the Faculty of Engineering as Assistant Professor. In 1994 Dr. Nagahara joined Motorola and spent 3 years at the Joint Research Center for Atom Technology in Tsukuba, Japan, before relocating to Motorola Labs in Arizona. In 2007 he joined the NCI.

John E. Niederhuber, M.D.
Dr. Niederhuber is a widely respected surgeon, professor, researcher, and cancer center director and is the 13th Director of the NCI. Before his Presidential appointment in August 2006, he was Acting Director of the NCI. In 2002 President Bush appointed Dr. Niederhuber Chair of the National Cancer Advisory Board, a position he resigned to become NCI Deputy Director in 2005. Before joining the NCI, Dr. Niederhuber was Professor of Oncology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, where he also served as Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center. He has also served as Professor at Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University (JHU), and University of Michigan. Dr. Niederhuber is a nationally recognized cancer surgeon with a special clinical emphasis in gastrointestinal cancer, hepatobiliary cancer, and breast cancer. He is recognized for his pioneering work in hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy and was the first to demonstrate the feasibility of totally implantable vascular access devices. At the NCI, Dr. Niederhuber remains active in research. His lab focuses on the study of tissue stem cells as the cell-of-origin for cancer and is working to identify, characterize fully, and isolate this population of cells, with the hypothesis that such cells might be a required therapeutic target. The complex relationship between tumor cells and the microenvironment is another component of Dr. Niederhuber’s research program.

Thomas V. O’Halloran, Ph.D.
Dr. O’Halloran is a professor in the departments of chemistry and biochemistry/molecular biology and cell biology at Northwestern University. His research focuses on the cell and molecular biology of transition elements. One of the research approaches is to isolate novel receptors and characterize their function, structure and chemical mechanism. Other strategies include interrogating the vesicular trafficking of these elements by developing vital fluorescent probes that are specific for metal ions such as Zn(II). Dr. O’Halloran received his Ph.D from Columbia University.

James M. Olson, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Olson is a pediatric neuro-oncologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital and leads a research team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. in pharmacology at the University of Michigan, then completed a residency and fellowship in Seattle. Dr. Olson wrote the book Clinical Pharmacology Made Ridiculously Simple, which has been used by approximately a quarter million medical students. His laboratory focuses on developing cancer therapeutics. Utilizing an ex vivo platform that evaluates candidate therapies in primary cells from surgical brain tumor specimens provided by 250 collaborating centers (coupled with genetically faithful mouse models generated by the laboratory), Dr. Olson’s group has advanced four drugs to human clinical trials, including a national Phase III trial that he leads. Recently, his laboratory discovered tumor paint, a bioconjugate composed of the scorpion toxin peptide chlorotoxin and the near-infrared fluorescent tag Cy5.5. Tumor paint is administered systemically and binds with high affinity to brain, breast, colon, prostate, sarcoma, and other types of cancer cells while binding poorly or not at all to normal tissues. The result is that cancer cells emit nearinfrared light, enabling surgeons to identify small foci in the surgical field or lymph nodes. The conjugate has successfully identified metastatic foci as small as 200 cells. Dr. Olson collaborates with Miqin Zhang’s group at the University of Washington on the development of nanoparticles that utilize chlorotoxin as the targeting molecule.

David R. Parkinson, M.D.
Dr. Parkinson is President and CEO of Nodality, a south San Francisco-based biotechnology company focused on the biological characterization of signaling pathways in patients with malignancy to enable more effective therapeutics development and decisionmaking. As Senior Vice President, Oncology Research and Development, at Biogen Idec, he oversaw all oncology discovery research efforts and the development of the oncology pipeline. Previously, Dr. Parkinson served as Vice President, Oncology Development, at Amgen and Vice President, Global Clinical Oncology Development, at Novartis. During his tenures at Amgen and Novartis, he was responsible for clinical development activities leading to a series of successful global drug registrations for important cancer therapeutics, including Gleevec, Femara, Zometa, Kepivance, and Vectibix. Dr. Parkinson worked at the NCI from 1990 to 1997 as Chief of the Investigational Drug Branch, then as Acting Associate Director of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, before leaving for Novartis. He has also held academic positions at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the New England Medical Center (NEMC) of the Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Parkinson received his M.D. (gold medalist) from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1977, with internal medicine and hematology/oncology training in Montreal at McGill University and in Boston at the NEMC. Dr. Parkinson is also former Editor of the Journal of Immunotherapy. He currently serves on the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine and is a member of the FDA Science Board.

Steven Piantadosi, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Piantadosi is Director of the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He previously served as Professor of Oncology at the JHU School of Medicine and as Director of Biostatistics at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at JHU. Dr. Piantadosi is also Professor of Biostatistics and Professor of Epidemiology at the JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health. He earned his medical degree from the University of North Carolina and his Ph.D. degree in biomathematics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Piantadosi has also served on external advisory boards for other prominent cancer centers, including the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the Yale Cancer Center. He is the author of the textbook Clinical Trials: A Methodologic Perspective, which is widely considered a classic text for designing cancer clinical trials. Dr. Piantadosi is the author of more than 230 peerreviewed scientific articles and is Senior Editor of Clinical Cancer Research. Previously, he served on the advisory board for the International Journal of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Piantadosi also holds leadership positions in several prominent multicenter cancer clinical trials, including serving as Vice-Chairman of the National Emphysema Treatment Trial.

Vito Quaranta, M.D.
Dr. Quaranta has been Professor of Cancer Biology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, since May 2003. He is also Director of the Vanderbilt Integrative Cancer Biology Center and Co-Director of the Center for Matrix Biology at Vanderbilt. Dr. Quaranta obtained his M.D. degree and a Hematology Board certification from the University of Bari School of Medicine, Bari, Italy. Dr. Quaranta received postdoctoral training and later held academic positions, including tenure, in the Department of Cell Biology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla for 25 years. He has been honored by the Leukemia Society of America, the ACS, and the Italian-American Medical Education Foundation. His favorite research topic is cancer invasion and metastasis. Dr. Quaranta has authored several relevant chapters in numerous medical books and over 100 scientific articles in the field of cancer biology. He has been an invited lecturer at numerous international congresses and distinguished conferences on cancer biology, including the American Association for Cancer Research, Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, American Red Cross, NCI, Metastasis Research Society, and Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cancer Biology. He is Associate Editor of two scientific journals (Journal of Cellular Physiology and Cancer Research) and regularly reviews articles for prestigious professional journals. Recently, Dr. Quaranta has focused on systems biology approaches to cancer invasion. With substantial NIH funding, he has started and directs the Vanderbilt Integrative Cancer Biology Center, where he is implementing a cutting-edge interdisciplinary effort melding mathematics, engineering, computation, and biology to solve the problem of cancer invasion and metastasis.

Gunaretnam Rajagopal, Ph.D.
Dr. Rajagopal is Executive Director of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ). He develops and deploys state-of-the-art cyber-infrastructure and clinical/bioinformatics support services and leads research in computational/systems biology to advance biomedical research and its translation to the clinic. Dr. Rajagopal was the founding Executive Director of the Bioinformatics Institute at the BIOPOLIS. He moved to Singapore from the University of Cambridge to set up the Bioinformatics R&D&T&E program as well as lead the Singapore Government’s research cyber-infrastructure development efforts to develop Singapore as the leading biomedical research, development, and manufacturing hub in Asia. In addition to his administrative and management responsibilities, he has been responsible for driving various national and international collaborative research initiatives in stem-cell biology, cancer biology, biomedical imaging, and clinical biomarker discovery. Dr. Rajagopal’s current research focuses on the area of systems biology applied to cancer and stem-cell biology (i.e., quantitative modeling of cellular processes to understand how biological systems function in their normal and diseased states). Dr. Rajagopal was Assistant Director of Research at the Cavendish Laboratory, where he conducted research in theoretical and computational physics funded by grants from funding bodies in the United Kingdom, European Union, Silicon Graphics, IBM, and Hitachi. In Cambridge, his duties included leading the Cambridge High-Performance Computing Facility, a university-wide collaboration funded by the British Government and the European Union to advance basic and applied research using high-performance computing. Dr. Rajagopal was a Fellow and Director of Studies in Physics at Jesus College, Cambridge and has coauthored over 50 papers and is a member of various professional scientific organizations. He has been a member of research funding bodies in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Holland, Japan, Singapore, and the European Union. Dr. Rajagopal currently chairs the Bioinformatics Subcommittee for the AACR-NCIFDA Collaborative in Cancer Biomarker Discovery and is Co-Chairman of the Program Committee for the 2009 Annual AACR Meeting.

Mark A. Reed, Ph.D.
Dr. Reed received his Ph.D. in physics from Syracuse University in 1983, then joined Texas Instruments (TI). In 1990 he left TI to join the faculty at Yale University, where he is Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics Departments, Harold Hodgkinson Chair of Engineering and Applied Science, and Associate Director of the Yale Institute for Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering. Dr. Reed’s research activities have included the investigation of electronic transport in nanoscale and mesoscopic systems, heterojunction materials and devices, molecular-scale electronic transport, plasmonic transport in nanostructures, and chem/bio nanosensors. He is the author of more than 175 professional publications and 6 books, has given 20 plenary and over 280 invited talks, and holds 25 U.S. and foreign patents. Dr. Reed has been elected to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering and Who’s Who in the World. His awards include Fortune Magazine “Most Promising Young Scientist” (1990), Kilby Young Innovator Award (1994), Fujitsu ISCS Quantum Device Award (2001), Yale Science and Engineering Association Award for Advancement of Basic and Applied Science (2002), election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2003), and IEEE Pioneer Award in Nanotechnology (2007).

Cynthia A. Reinhart-King, Ph.D.
Dr. Reinhart-King is an Assistant Professor at Cornell’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. The research conducted by Dr. King focuses on elucidating the basic principles of cell adhesion and cellbiomaterial interactions for applications relating primarily to the cardiovascular system. The central mission of this work is to understand the mechanisms that drive tissue formation. This work uses a multidisciplinary approach involving principles from cell biology, biophysics, biomaterials, and biomechanics to guide the development of materials for tissue engineering applications and the development of novel therapeutics. Of particular interest are the physiology of blood vessel formation and the pathophysiology of vascular disease. Dr. Reinhart-King received her Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Henry Rodriguez, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Dr. Rodriguez serves as Director of the Clinical Proteomic Technologies for Cancer initiative within the NCI’s OTIR. In this role, he facilitates the implementation of the clinical proteomic technology programs to advance proteomic technologies for the early detection, diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring, and treatment of cancer. This is to be achieved through the development and optimization of technologies, development of reagents, standards, standard operating procedures, and data. Prior to being named to this position, Dr. Rodriguez was at the NIST, where he held several roles. At the NIST, Dr. Rodriguez developed and was the Leader of the Cell & Tissue Measurements Group, where he successfully established four research programs in the areas of quantitative cell biology, proteomics, gene expression, and bioinformatics. He also played a significant role in developing and managing a tissue engineering program. Dr. Rodriguez helped pioneer new measurement methodologies that utilized liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry for the accurate identification and quantification of a number of DNA lesions at clinically relevant levels. He also served in the Office of the Director at NIST, where he helped in the planning and evaluation of strategic scientific initiatives and partnerships in biotechnology, including interactions with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and Members of Congress. Dr. Rodriguez also participated on DOC efforts in education and/or training in genetics and genetic technologies of professionals for the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society. His interests include cancer research, free radical biology, proteomics, genomics, imaging, nanotechnology, biospecimen cryopreservation, and bioinformatics. Dr. Rodriguez received a B.S. and M.S. in biology from Florida International University, a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from Boston University, and an M.B.A. from the JHU School of Business Management.

Michael L. Roukes, Ph.D.
Dr. Roukes is Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering at Caltech. He was Founding Director of Caltech’s Kavli Nanoscience Institute from 2003 to 2006 and recently stepped down to return to full-time collaborative nanoscience research. Dr. Roukes completed undergraduate majors in both physics and chemistry at UCSC and thereafter earned a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell University, focusing on electron transport in microstructures at ultralow temperatures. Subsequently, he joined Bell Communications Research as a member of the technical staff and Principal Investigator in the Quantum Structures Research Group, where he carried out some of the earliest explorations of the physics of nanoelectronic devices. In 1992 Dr. Roukes joined the tenured faculty at Caltech, where he built nanofabrication facilities and established a large nanoscience research group, now heavily involved in cross-disciplinary collaborations. Dr. Roukes’ scientific interests range from fundamental science to applied biotechnology, with a unifying theme centering on the development, application, and very-large-scale-integration of complex nanostructures. He has published and written extensively on nanoscience and nanotechnology, has lectured at most major research centers world-wide, and is active on many national and international committees that promote this field.

Joseph A. Rudnick, Ph.D.
Dr. Rudnick is Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. His doctoral degree is in condensed matter physics from the University of California at San Diego. His research interests include polymers and random walks; statistical mechanics of finite systems; textures and domain shapes in two-dimensional systems; the physics of disordered systems; and topics in biological physics. Dean Rudnick has served two terms as Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Taher A. Saif, Ph.D.
Dr. Saif received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and Washington State University, respectively, in 1984 and 1986. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in theoretical and applied mechanics from Cornell University in 1993. Dr. Saif worked as a Postdoctoral Associate in Electrical Engineering and the National Nanofabrication Facility at Cornell University from 1993 to 1997. He joined the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the UIUC in 1997. Currently, he is a full Professor in the Department and a Willett Faculty Scholar in the College of Engineering. Dr. Saif’s current research includes mechanosensitivity of single living cells, cell adhesion in cancer cells with different metastatic potential, and exploration of the role of tension in axons (of neuron cells) in neurotransmission, all supported by the NSF. He uses nanomechanical sensors and probes to explore the above questions quantitatively.

Joel H. Saltz, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Saltz is Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at OSU, Davis Endowed Chair of Cancer at OSU, and Senior Fellow of the Ohio Supercomputer Center. Over the past decade, Dr. Saltz has developed a rich set of middleware optimization and runtime compilation methods that target irregular, adaptive, and multiresolution applications. He was the originator of the inspector-executor compilation framework and has extended this framework to handle a wide variety of computationally intensive applications as well as to the optimization of queries that target disk-based multiresolution data sets. Dr. Saltz is PI and Director of the NIH-funded Center for Grid-Enabled Medical Image Analysis, plays a leadership role in the development of the core NCI caBIG grid architecture, is a project leader in the NCI-funded Center on Integrative Medicine, leads the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center Biomedical Informatics core, and is PI on numerous NSF and DOE projects. He also leads a State-funded public/private consortium that develops biomedical informatics grid technology. Dr. Saltz has an extensive funding history with DARPA, NASA, and DOD in high-end computing and biomedical computing projects. Prior to coming to OSU, he was Professor of Pathology and Informatics in the Department of Pathology at the JHU School of Medicine and Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland. Dr. Saltz is trained both as a computer scientist and as a medical scientist. He received his M.D. degree and Ph.D. degree in computer science at Duke University. Dr. Saltz completed a residency in clinical pathology at JHU and is a board-certified clinical pathologist.

Thomas D. Schneider, Ph.D.
Dr. Schneider was trained as a molecular biologist with an interest in understanding the mathematics of biology. His motto is “Living things are too beautiful for there not to be a mathematics that describes them.” In looking for such a mathematics, he found that information theory from Claude Shannon fits biology perfectly, if one is careful in the application and avoids (or learns how to crawl out of) the many pitfalls in this field. Unlike “mathematical biology” or “bioinformatics,” Dr. Schneider’s work on “molecular information theory” goes to the core of what living things do: make precise selections. The key is that we can measure many biological processes in bits of information and then apply mathematical theorems developed by Shannon in the 1940s to understand those processes. Many materials on this topic are available from Dr. Schneider’s Web site.

Michael P. Sheetz, Ph.D.
Dr. Sheetz is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Cell Biology at Columbia University’s Department of Biological Sciences. The focus of much of his work is in the area of cell migration and includes research on cell motility, motor molecules, and integrin-cytoskeleton interactions. Dr. Sheetz received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, San Diego, with Professor S.J. Singer. After starting at the University of Connecticut Health Center, he moved to Washington University Medical School. In 1990 he became Chair of Cell Biology at Duke Medical Center and moved to Columbia University in 2000.

James L. Siegrist, Ph.D.
Dr. Siegrist received his Ph.D. in Physics at Stanford University. He is the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) Associate Lab Director and Physics Division Director. Dr. Siegrist’s personal research areas include elementary particle physics at the ATLAS Experiment at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, and instrumentation development. The LBNL has an enduring interest in research supporting accelerator development and imaging techniques for particle beam-based cancer therapy.

Jonathan W. Simons, M.D.
Dr. Simons is an internationally recognized physician-scientist, oncologist, and acclaimed investigator in translational prostate cancer research. Prior to joining the Prostate Cancer Foundation in 2007, he was Distinguished Service Professor of Hematology and Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine and Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Dr. Simons is Founding Director of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University in Atlanta and Co-Director of the NCI Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Emory and Georgia Tech. He received a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.D. from the JHU School of Medicine. Before entering medical school, Dr. Simons was a Rotary International Postgraduate Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and a Nuffield Foundation Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School and his fellowship in medical oncology at JHU. Dr. Simons is also board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology.

Dinah S. Singer, Ph.D.
Dr. Singer is Chief of the Molecular Regulation Section of the Experimental Immunology Branch and Director of the Division of Cancer Biology, NCI. After receiving her B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. from Columbia University, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Biochemistry, NCI, and a senior investigator in the Immunology Branch, NCI. Dr. Singer serves on a number of scientific and advisory boards, is a member of the American Association of Immunologists, and has served as a senior science officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She has received a number of awards, including the NIH Director’s Award. Her research interests are in the areas of regulation of gene expression and molecular immunology.

James L. Skinner, Ph.D.
Dr. Skinner attended the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), where he obtained a double major in physics and chemistry. At Harvard University he received his A.M. in physics in 1977 and his Ph.D. in chemical physics in 1979. Dr. Skinner did his postdoctoral work at Stanford University under the direction of Hans Andersen and was funded by an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship from 1980 to 1981, whereupon he was appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University. In 1985 Dr. Skinner was promoted to Associate Professor and became Professor of Chemistry in 1986. In 1990 Dr. Skinner moved to the University of Wisconsin as the Joseph O. Hirschfelder Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Theoretical Chemistry Institute. He served as Department Chair from 2004 to 2007. Dr. Skinner has received several awards for both scholarship and teaching. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (1997), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2003), and American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006). Dr. Skinner has given a number of named lectures, has served on the editorial boards of the major journals in physical chemistry, and has served as Chair of the Physical Division of the American Chemical Society (2004) and its Theoretical Subdivision (1996). Dr. Skinner has coauthored over 150 scientific publications, has given over 240 invited lectures (many at international conferences), and has served as advisor to 25 graduate students and 11 postdoctoral researchers. His research interests include the theoretical chemistry of condensed phases, nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, chemical reaction dynamics, exciton and electron transport, dephasing and relaxation processes, and linear and nonlinear spectroscopy.

Peter K. Sorger, Ph.D.
Dr. Sorger obtained his Ph.D. with Hugh Pelham at the MRC Lab in Cambridge, England, and did postdoctoral research with Harold Varmus and Andrew Murray at UCSF. He started his own research group at MIT in 1994 studying the mechanisms of chromosome segregation. More recently, Dr. Sorger’s group’s interest in connections between genomic instability and cancer led them to study the balance between cell division and death in mammalian cells, with a focus on the development of multiscale mathematical models based on high-throughput protein activity data (jointly with Douglas Lauffenburger, MIT). The multi-investigator Center for Cell Decision Processes (CDP) headed by Dr. Sorger develops and applies novel microfabricated instrumentation (a much updated version of the cantilevers in Ferrari) and computational approaches for studying mammalian signaling pathways via dynamical systems, logical network, and regression analysis. More information on these topics are found in a CDP-sponsored Nature guide (http://www.nature.com/focus/systemsbiologyuserguide/index.html). Dr. Sorger recently retired as Chair of the Cell Structure and Function Study Section and continues to serve as an ad hoc member on study sections. He is cofounder of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals and serves on the scientific advisory boards or corporate boards of several technology companies, including Applied Precision of Issaquah, WA, and Nanostring of Seattle. Since Dr. Sorger’s move to Harvard Medical School in 2007, he has applied modeling and measurement to understanding the mechanisms of patient-specific variations in cancer therapy, particularly with respect to new “targeted” drugs (e.g., TRAIL, ABT-737, lapatinib, erolotinib).

Sriram Subramaniam, Ph.D.
Dr. Subramaniam received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Stanford University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Departments of Chemistry and Biology at MIT. Currently, he is Senior Investigator and Chief of the Biophysics Section in the Laboratory of Cell Biology at the Center for Cancer Research at the NCI. Dr. Subramaniam has received many honors, including the NIH Director’s Merit Award, Searle Scholar Award, and a fellowship from the Damon-Runyon Walter-Winchell Foundation. His current research interests focus on developing and applying emerging methods in threedimensional electron microscopy to probe the molecular architecture of cells and viruses. See Dr. Subramaniam’s Web site at http://electron.nci.nih.gov for more information on his research program.

Richard Superfine, Ph.D.
Dr. Superfine, Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, received his B.S. in physics from Lehigh University before working at AT&T Bell Laboratories for 3 years studying iron clusters and conducting polymers. He studied nonlinear optics for his Ph.D. thesis at UCB followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This work included the study of high-temperature superconductors using terahertz radiation generated from femtosecond laser pulses. On arriving at UNC-Chapel Hill, Dr. Superfine began studying nanodevices, including studies of atomic-scale friction and carbon nanotube assembly. This work demanded the ability to manipulate objects at the nanoscale, for which he developed a nanomanipulation system by teaming with the NIH research resource housed in the UNC Computer Science Department. These studies led to the manipulation of biological materials, first viruses and most recently fibrin fibers that form blood clots. This manipulation system, the nanoManipulator, has been commercialized and won an R&D 100 award in 2001. In 2003 he assumed leadership of the UNC NIH resource for Computer Integrated Systems for Manipulation and Microscopy, which develops tools for biomedical sciences. Seeking a more general approach to forces in biological systems, Dr. Superfine has led the development of new magnetic force systems, including single-specimen systems and most recently high-throughput implementation for massive parallel studies of biomedical phenomena. His current research includes single-molecule studies of DNA, cell mechanics, microrheology of biofluids, magnetic drug delivery, and the biophysics of lung defense. For the latter, he is PI of the Virtual Lung Project, leading a team of 15 senior investigators who span the university departments of mathematics, physics and astronomy, computer science, and chemistry and the UNC Cystic Fibrosis Center. Dr. Superfine has served on numerous review panels for the NIH, DOD, DOE, and NSF. He received the Macres Award from the Microbeam Analytical Society, Hettelman Prize for excellence in scholarship from UNC-CH, and Johnson Award for distinguished undergraduate teaching from UNC-CH.

Thomas G. Thundat, Ph.D.
Dr. Thundat is University of Tennessee (UT)-Battelle Corporate Fellow and Leader of the Nanoscale Science and Devices Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He is also Research Professor at the UT, Knoxville, and Visiting Professor at the University of Burgundy, France. Dr. Thundat received his Ph.D. in physics from the State University of New York at Albany in 1987. He is the author of over 220 articles, 45 book chapters, and 25 patents. Dr. Thundat has received many awards, including DOE’s Young Scientist Award, R&D 100 Awards, ASME Pioneer Award, Discover Magazine Award, and FLC Awards. He is a Fellow of both APS and AAAS. Dr. Thundat’s expertise includes the physics and chemistry of interfaces, biophysics, solid-liquid interface, scanning probes, nanoscale phenomena, and quantum confined atoms. His research currently focuses on developing chemical and biological sensors with extreme high sensitivity using nanomechanical phenomena. Recently, Dr. Thundat has been developing miniature, implantable sensors with telemetry and developing nanomechanical sensors that do not use receptors for chemical selectivity. This class of sensors is based on exciting various molecular vibrations of adsorbed molecules and detecting the resulting phonon generation on cantilever sensors. This receptor-free sensor concept combines the high sensitivity of nanomechanical sensing with the high selectivity of infrared absorption spectroscopy. Other currently funded projects include investigating adhesion forces, nanoscale subsurface imaging of cells, and standoff detection of cancer cells.

Thea D. Tlsty, Ph.D.
Dr. Tlsty is Professor in the Department of Pathology, Director of the Program in Cell Cycling and Signaling in the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Director of the Center for Translational Research in the Molecular Genetics of Cancer at the UCSF School of Medicine. She received a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Washington University and trained with Dr. Robert Schimke at Stanford University as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Senior Research Associate in the Department of Biological Sciences before she was recruited to the University of North Carolina as Assistant Professor of Pathology and Member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 1994 she joined the faculty at UCSF. Dr. Tlsty studies the genetic, epigenetic, and functional changes involved in the earliest steps of epithelial cancers and how interactions between stromal components and epithelial cells collaborate to moderate carcinogenesis. Her research studies of human epithelial cells from healthy individuals are providing novel insights into how early molecular events affect genomic integrity and fuel carcinogenesis. Prior work from her laboratory has shown that surrounding stroma can dramatically influence tumorigenesis. Dr. Tlsty investigates how these changes are initiated and moderated, as well as their consequences for clinical disease. These insights are applied in risk assessment, early detection, and prognostic studies. Areas of particular interest include human breast, prostate, pancreatic, and skin carcinogenesis and the role of tumor suppressor genes in regulating premalignant phenotypes. Her studies use molecular, biochemical, and cellular analyses to evaluate primary human cells, develop recombinant models of cell-cell interactions, and apply novel information to intact human tissue.

Yilder Tseng, Ph.D.
Dr. Tseng finished his B.S. degree in physics from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, and received his Ph.D. degree in biophysics at JHU, Baltimore, MD. After a postdoctoral fellowship in Professor Denis Wirtz’s group in the Department of Chemical Engineering at JHU, he became Associate Research Scientist in the same department. Dr. Tseng has been Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida, Gainesville, since August 2005. His research involves using the fundamental concepts of mechanics, transport, and kinetics in biomedical research. Dr. Tseng pioneered the development of intracellular nanorheology as the first method to directly probe the intracellular mechanics in living cells. This method has led to the elucidation of mechanicochemical mechanisms that cause actin-cytoskeleton remodeling during cell migration and cellular response to shear forces. Currently, his research focuses on understanding the correlation of intracellular mechanics and the cellular microenvironment, which will lead to better insight into cancer cell metastasis. Dr. Tseng is also utilizing intracellular mechanics to develop cancer drug screening methods for preventing cancer metastasis.

Clare M. Waterman, Ph.D.
Dr. Waterman is Chief of the Laboratory of Cell and Tissue Morphodynamics, an intramural research program within the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Using quantitative microscopy of protein dynamics in living cells and in vitro biochemistry, her research focuses on better understanding how seemingly distinct cytomechanical systems are integrated with one another to promote the polarized morphogenic activity that drives directed cell movement. Prior to assuming this position, Dr. Waterman was tenured Associate Professor at The Scripps Research Institute’s Department of Cell Biology. She received her Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Valerie M. Weaver, Ph.D.
Dr. Weaver is Director of the Center of Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine at UCSF. She concurrently serves as Associate Professor in UCSF’s Departments of Surgery and Anatomy. As Center Director, Dr Weaver’s mandate is to set up an integrative program to coordinate regenerative surgery research with bioengineering approaches and to do fundamental work into the role of force in tissue injury, regeneration, and chronic disease, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, and stem cell applications. Her area of expertise lies in culturing cells in three-dimensional structures, with a specific focus on the molecular basis for how tissue organization regulates cell differentiation.

David A. Weitz, Ph.D.
Dr. Weitz is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics at Harvard University.where he has a joint appointment in the Department of Physics and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His research focuses on the physics of soft condensed matter, materials which are easily deformed by external stresses, electric, magnetic or gravitational fields, or even by thermal fluctuations. Dr. Weitz received his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University.

Denis Wirtz, Ph.D.
Dr. Wirtz earned a physics engineering degree at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) in 1988 and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1993 at Stanford University for work in polymer physics. He did postdoctoral research at the ESPCI in Paris, France. Dr. Wirtz joined the faculty of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at JHU in 1994 and was promoted to full Professor in 2003. He is author or coauthor of 90 journal articles and reviews in cell biology, molecular cell biophysics, and cell engineering. Dr. Wirtz is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and Associate Editor of Biophysical Journal and Journal of Nanomedicine and Cell Adhesion and Migration. He is Co-Director of the recently created Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology, Associate Director of the IGERT Graduate Training Program in Nanobiotechnology, and Director of the HHMI Graduate Training Program in Nanotechnology for Biology and Medicine at JHU. He is developing novel nanoscale technologies to probe the physical properties of normal and transformed cells.

Cheng Zhu, Ph.D.
Dr. Zhu began his research career as a theoretician building mathematical models of cellular processes. After coming to Georgia Tech, he established his laboratory and is currently conducting research in the full spectrum of integrated experimental, computational, and theoretical studies in bioengineering at the cellular and molecular levels. The goal of Dr. Zhu’s research is to gain a fundamental understanding of important biological processes at the levels of cells and molecules and their relation to human health and diseases. He began at Georgia Tech in 1990 as an Assistant Professor. Prior, he was an Assistant Research Bioengineer at the University of California, San Diego.