Claire Verschraegen is a Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Division of Medical Oncology in the Department of Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She also holds the Diane Nye and Michael Rayden Chair in Innovative Cancer Research at Ohio State and serves as the Associate Director for Translational Research at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is a board-certified medical oncologist who specializes in treating patients with rare and cutaneous cancers. She earned her master's degree and medical degree at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and trained at the Institut Jules Bordet in internal medicine/oncology. She then completed a cancer research fellowship at the Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research and an
internal medicine residency training at the University of Houston, followed by a medical oncology fellowship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Zihai Li received his medical degree from Henan Medical University and Peking Union Medical College, and his Ph.D. in immunology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Now he is a professor and the founding director of The Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology at Ohio State University. He also
holds the Klotz Chair in Cancer Research. His research team has made seminal contributions to understanding the immunological properties of heat shock proteins in cancer immunotherapy and immune tolerance. His team provided the first genetic evidence linking the heat shock response to antigen cross-presentation and adaptive immunity; pioneered the use of autologous, tumor-derived HSP70-peptide complex for the immunotherapy of leukemia; and discovered that gp96, a paralog in the endoplasmic reticulum, is the master molecular chaperone for Toll-like receptors (TLRs). He is internationally recognized as a leader in the field of gp96 biology due to several contributions, such as the discovery of its ATPase activity, peptide-binding properties, and client-binding domain. His current research interests focus on developing better immuno-therapeutics against cancer by reprogramming the tolerogenic tumor microenvironment, including regulatory T-cells, thrombocytes, and unfolded protein response.
Debasish Sundi is a urologist specializing in urologic oncology. He obtained his medical training
at Northwestern University in Chicago and completed his surgical residency in urology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and then he completed a fellowship in urologic oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. As a member of the Cancer Biology Program at OSUCCC – James, his research focuses on exploring the functions of immune-suppressive cells in the
bladder cancer tumor microenvironment (in particular, myeloid-derived suppressor cells) and identifying and blocking MDSC-specific signaling pathways. He also explored the use of beta-catenin inhibitors to modulate the tumor immune microenvironment and study determinants of bladder cancer chemo-sensitivity.
Amir Mortazavi is a genitourinary medical oncologist and a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University. As a member of the Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program at the OSUCCC – James, his research focuses on experimental therapeutics for genitourinary cancers.
