Kathryn Beal is currently working as an Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, at Weill Cornell Medical College. She received her Master's Degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2000; B.A. from Harvard College in 1994. Her research interests include brain cancer, stereotactic radiosurgery, brain tumors, and gamma knife radiosurgery.
Jonathan P.S. Knisely is a board-certified radiation oncologist who works with the Weill Cornell Medicine Brain and Spine Center to treat patients who require radiation treatments for pathologies of the brain and spine. He earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1986.
Claire I. Vanpouille-Box is an Assistant Professor of Cell Biology in Radiation Oncology. She developed a keen interest in anti-cancer treatments based on the combination of immunotherapy and radiation therapy (RT). Her graduate work at the University of Angers (France), studied a new treatment concept that aims at generating a localized RT via the use of nanoparticles during which she became interested in radiation-induced anti-tumor immunity. She then conducted her postdoctoral training at NYU School of Medicine and at Weill Cornell Medicine whose preclinical studies demonstrated that TGFb is a master regulator of RT-induced anti-tumor immunity and that RT-induced cancer-cell type I interferon is required to elicit durable regression of the irradiated and non-irradiated tumor (i.e., the abscopal effect). She has received many prestigious awards among which the 2014 Marie Curie Award from the Radiation Research Society (RRS) and the 2015-AACR Susan G Komen Scholar-in-training Award from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). She serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Translational Medicine and Radiation Research.
Silvia C. Formenti is Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Weill Cornell, Associate Director of the Meyer Cancer Center and Radiation Oncologist in Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. During the past twelve years She has introduced a paradigm shift in radiation biology, by elucidating the role of ionizing radiation on the immune system, and demonstrating efficacy of combining radiotherapy with immunotherapy in solid tumors. She has translated preclinical work to clinical trials in metastatic breast cancer, lung cancer and melanoma. She has introduced a break-through strategy of recovering an immunological equilibrium in the setting of metastatic disease by converting a metastasis into an in situ, individualized vaccine: in the presence of immune checkpoint blockade (anti-CTLA-4, anti-PDL-1) the irradiated tumor becomes an immunogenic hub, similar to a vaccine. Her work has opened a new field of application for radiotherapy, whereby localized radiation can be used as an adjuvant to immunotherapy of solid tumors and lymphomas. She has been funded by grants from NIH, Department Of Defense, American Cancer Society and Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Another area of her research consists of drastically reducing the risk late cardiovascular toxicity of breast cancer radiotherapy with a prone radiation technique that excludes the heart and lungs from the radiation fields.