Ulka N. Vaishampayan is the Director of the Phase I program at the Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI. She is a Professor of Internal Medicine and her research is primarily in translational drug development and early phase clinical trials in cancer with a focus on genitourinary malignancies. She attended Wayne State University (WSU) for her residency and fellowship completion. She previously attended medical school at Byramjee Jeejeebhoy in Pune, India, and completed a higher secondary certificate in the field of science at Fergusson College in Pune, India. She has initiated, obtained funding for, conducted, and published many investigator-initiated trials with embedded biomarkers and established multidisciplinary collaboration. She has served as site PI of the UO-1 Early Therapeutics Research Grant at Wayne State University. She was also the Chair of the solid tumor division of oncology at WSU. She has completed a formal leadership training course and is a Fellow of the Advisory Board (FAB). She is the appointed chair of the Advanced Renal Committee of SWOG and a member of the Renal Task Force of the NCI. She is a board member of the Michigan Society of Hematology/Oncology (MSHO) and organizes an annual board review course. Additionally, she has served as track leader for the ASCO education committee GU non-prostate (Renal and bladder cancer) track.
Tobias Else is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He earned his MD degree from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and completed his clinical training at the University of Hamburg (Residency: Internal Medicine) and the University of Michigan (Residency: Internal Medicine, Fellowship: Endocrinology). Dr. Else’s primary research interest lies in the genetics of endocrine tumors. He specializes in the care of patients with benign and malignant endocrine tumors, particularly pheochromocytoma, adrenocortical tumors, and neuroendocrine tumors, as well as accompanying hormone excess syndromes such as Cushing’s syndrome and primary aldosteronism.
He is particularly interested in caring for patients with hereditary syndromes that predispose them to endocrine tumor development, including Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia (MEN) type 1, MEN2A & MEN2B, and Hereditary Paraganglioma Syndrome. Dr. Else attends the Multidisciplinary Endocrine Oncology Clinic, where patients with tumors receive diagnostic procedures and treatment. He is also part of the Cancer Genetics Clinic, which evaluates patients for hereditary syndromes and facilitates regular exams and surveillance for those at risk of endocrine tumors.
Ajjai S. Alva is a Professor at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He received his medical training in India and then performed laboratory research on cancer cell death at the University of Maryland in College Park and the NIH, obtaining an MS degree in Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics. His thesis research on non-canonical forms of cell death and their potential use in cancer therapeutics was published in the journal Science. He went on to complete his Internal Medicine residency in Maryland before joining the University of Michigan for a Hematology and Oncology fellowship which he completed in
2010. He is a recipient of an NCI Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award and past Co-Chair of the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium’s GU Group.
He is a Principal Investigator on 15 active clinical trials including several investigator-initiated precision oncology clinical trials in genomically-defined cancer subsets including a national immunotherapy trial for cancers with CDK12 inactivation (NCT03570619). He also serves as site Principal Investigator on several pan-cancer trials such as ASCO TAPUR and NCI MATCH. Additionally, he serves as the University of Michigan Sponsor Principal Investigator for the P30 Supplement for Access to Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN) Agents at the University of Michigan.
