Dr. Rui Dai is a resident with the Interventional Radiology Residency Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Duke
University in 2013 as an Angier B. Duke scholarship receipient, and her MD/PhD from Duke University School of Medicine in 2022. She joined Massachusetts General Hospital in May 2022 and subsequently completed an internship in Surgery. She has received several awards, including the Paul and Lauren Ghaffari Graduate Fellowship in 2020 and the Dr. Constantin Cope Research Award in 2021.
Dr. David Berger is a colorectal and gastrointestinal surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, Division of General Surgery and an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. His clinical interests are in surgical oncology including cancers of the colon, rectum, liver, pancreas, stomach, and GE junction. He also sees many patients with gallbladder disease, diverticulitis, and gastrointestinal stromal (GIST) tumors. Dr. Berger performs a high volume of operations—more than 800 per year—many of which are performed laparoscopically (minimally invasive surgery). He was raised in Haverford, Pennsylvania. He attended Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Berger completed his residency in Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and served a year as the Chief Resident at the hospital; he completed a year of fellowship training in Nashville, Tennessee before returning to join the surgical staff at Mass General. He serves on several national committees and on the executive council of the New England Surgical Society. In addition, he serves as the general surgical consultant for the New England Patriots, Boston Bruins, and the Boston Red Sox. Dr. Berger has written more than 30 original articles and book chapters and is the editor of the Oxford American Handbook of Surgery published in 2009.
Dr. Andrew Chan is Chief of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit (CTEU) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Director of Cancer Epidemiology at the MGH Cancer Center, Daniel K. Podolsky
Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He also co-leads the Cancer Epidemiology Program at the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center. His research broadly aims to advance epidemiological investigation for the translation of discoveries into effective clinical
interventions. His current focus is on chronic digestive diseases, including gastrointestinal cancer (colorectal, esophageal, gastric), inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis, and gastrointestinal bleeding. His group utilizes molecular approaches encompassing genetic, metabolomic, proteomic, and
biochemical platforms applied to populations ranging from large cohort studies to small biomarker-driven clinical trials. He also has an active program studying the oral and gut microbiomes as a determinant and mediator of chronic disease. He earned his MD from Harvard Medical School and an MPH from Harvard
T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He completed his internal medicine residency, chief residency, and gastroenterology fellowship at MGH. He is the Stuart and Suzanne Steele MGH Research Scholar. He is an Elected Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Investigation.
Dr. David A. Drew is an Assistant Professor of Medicine with the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit (CTEU) and Division of Gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His specific research interests are in the identification, interception, and precision prevention of
gastrointestinal cancers and other diseases. He has a specialized expertise in clinical trial design and implementation, especially with respect to studies on the gut microbiome and precision risk biomarkers. His research is highly collaborative, and his achievements have been nationally and internationally
recognized by professional organizations, including the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Gastroenterological Association, and Aspirin for Cancer Prevention/European Hereditary Tumor Group. He is funded by the NIH/NIDDK (K01DK120742), the American Gastroenterological Association, and is an NIH Loan Repayment Ambassador through the NCI (L30CA209764). He is an early
career investigator on the Stand Up To Cancer Gastric Cancer Early Detection and Interception Team, the Stand Up to Cancer Colorectal Cancer Health Equity Dream Team, and within the Clinical Center for NIH’s Nutrition for Precision Health: The All of Us New England Research Collaborative. He has received past
funding from the MGH Center for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (CSIBD) and a Cancer Epidemiology Training grant (T32CA009001).
Dr. David Ljungman is an associate professor of surgery at Sahlgrenska Academy and consultant colorectal surgeon at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden. His skills and expertise include cancer biology, pancreatic cancer, surgical oncology, colorectal surgery, health
economics, colorectal cancer, global health, health outcomes, health systems, and robotic surgery. He has 25 publications with 283 citations and an h-index of 11 (Scopus, 2 January 2024).
Dr. Rocco Ricciardi, MD, is a board-certified colorectal surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital. His clinical interests include the surgical treatment of colorectal malignancies, diverticulitis, and inflammatory bowel diseases. He provides treatment options through robotics, endoscopic procedures, and other minimally invasive techniques. He is involved in many research trials. He received his MD from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1996. He trained at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Minnesota before joining Lahey Clinic's Department of Colon & Rectal Surgery in 2007. In 2013, he became the Chief Scientific Officer of Lahey Hospital. In 2017, he was appointed Chief of the
Section of Colon and Rectal Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He has served as Councilor of the Massachusetts Chapter of The American College of Surgeons, Program Chair of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, and on the Board of the Research Foundation of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. He has an interest in surgical quality and outcomes, which
harmonizes well with his work in the National Quality Forum. He has authored more than 100 original publications and book chapters and continues to serve on the Editorial Board of Diseases of the Colon and Rectum. His clinical interests include the surgical treatment of colorectal malignancies, minimally
invasive techniques, diverticulitis, and inflammatory bowel diseases.
James C Cusack, MD, FACS, is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Emory University Medical School who trained in surgery at Tufts-New England Medical Center. He completed a Research Fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a Surgical Oncology Fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2000, he joined the staff at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the faculty of Harvard Medical School, and the consulting staff at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is Director of the Peritoneal Surface Malignancy Program and Surgical Director of the Young Adult Colorectal Cancer Program. He served on the Executive Council of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and was Chair of the SSO Scientific Program Committee. He also served on the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Symposium Program Committee. Among Dr. Cusack’s numerous awards for his patient care are Boston Top Doctors, America’s Top Surgeons, America’s Top Doctors for Cancer, and Patients’ Choice Award. The Cusack Laboratory has made landmark contributions to the understanding of molecular mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance. Since 1995, Dr. Cusack’s research has been funded by NIH, American Cancer Society, biotechnology collaborators, and his grateful patients. Current research studies focus on the role of the microbiome on the development of early-onset colon cancer, molecular image-guided surgery, and defining the genetic characteristics of metastatic cancer relative to the primary cancer.
