Speakers | The Hormel Institute

Keynote Speakers

Catherine Alix-Panabiéres, PhD

Catherine Alix-Panabières, PhD is Professor of Oncology and Director of the Laboratory of Rare Human Circulating Cells and Liquid Biopsy (LCCRH) at Montpellier University Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine. Since 2022, she has also served as a Professor at the University of Hamburg, Germany. A pioneer in circulating tumor cell (CTC) research for over 27 years, she co-introduced the term liquid biopsy in 2010 with Professor KlausPantel. She teaches internationally, has organized numerous conferences, and has contributed over 170 publications, book chapters, and patents. Her landmark work demonstrated the clinical utility of CTCs in breast cancer. Professor Alix-Panabières has received multiple national and international awards, including the “Gallet et Breton” Prize (2012) and the “Berthe Péan, Antoine et Claude Béclère” Prize (2023) from the French Academy of Medicine. In 2020, Nature highlighted her contributions to liquid biopsy as a major cancer research breakthrough of the past two decades.

Kelly Shanahan, MD

In 2008, Kelly Shanahan had everything going for her: a busy and successful ob-gyn practice; a precious 9 year old daughter; and a well used passport from traveling all over the world with her family to attend conferences, with a liberal dose of vacation on the side. When she was diagnosed with stage IIB breast cancer, she considered it a mere bump in the road.

And for five years, breast cancer was an aside, something to put in the past medical history section of forms. Even when she developed sudden back pain, Kelly never thought it could be breast cancer rearing its ugly head – a pulled muscle, a herniated disc maybe, but not what it turned out to be: metastatic breast cancer in virtually every bone in her body, with a fractured vertebrae and an about to break left femur. Kelly was diagnosed in 2013, on her 53rd birthday.

Neuropathy from the chemo cost her her career, but she has found a new purpose in advocacy. Kelly is the president of the board of directors of METAvivor; a member of the Patient Centered Dosing Initiative; a Komen Advocate in Science; on the symptom intervention committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology; on the emerging toxicities working group of MASCC; and is a grant reviewer and research advocate. Currently on her 5th line of therapy, and a past participant in a phase 1 clinical trial, she is passionate about getting patients to the table in the design, implementation, and follow up of clinical trials.

Kelly Shanahan is a mother, a wife, a daughter, a doctor, a woman LIVING with metastatic breast cancer.

Danny R. Welch, PhD

Danny R. Welch, PhD is a cancer biologist whose laboratory studies the genetic basis of metastasis. After receiving a BS in Biology from the University of California-Irvine and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Texas-Houston, Welch worked in the pharmaceutical industry before joining Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. In 2002, his laboratory moved to the University of Alabama - Birmingham. In 2011, he founded the Department of Cancer Biology at the University of Kansas Cancer Center. He is a Komen Scholar Emeritus, Past-president of the Metastasis Research Society and Past-president of the Cancer Biology Training Consortium (CABTRAC) and currently serves as Vice-President/Treasurer of CABTRAC. He served as Editor-in-Chief for Clinical & Experimental Metastasis and as Deputy Editor of Cancer Research and is on the editorial board of 8 other journals.

His laboratory’s major scientific accomplishments include: (1) Discovery of 8 of the 30 functionally defined metastasis suppressors (includes small non-coding RNA); (2) First to identify the pro-metastatic role for neutrophils (now described as myeloid-derived suppressor cells) and pro-invasive/pro-metastasis effect of TGFβ. (3) Wrote the key methods review for performing metastasis assays and defined the first iteration of the hallmarks of cancer metastasis; (4) Described how KISS1 induces dormancy of already disseminated cells and regulates metabolism ; (5) Developed the MNX mouse to study cross-talk between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA for the study of cancer, cardiovascular disease and other complex diseases. Defined mitochondrial genes contributing to metastasis; and (6) Primary mentor for 25 graduate students and 47 postdoctoral fellows, all of whom have obtained research positions in cancer research in academia, industry and government.

Invited Speakers

Grace G. Bushnell, PhD

Grace G. Bushnell, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota investigates breast cancer dormancy and metastasis, focusing on the mechanisms that drive tumor progression and immune system interactions. She earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan, where her doctoral research focused on engineering biomaterial implants to recruit, detect, and study metastatic tumor cells. She then completed a K99/R00 postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Max Wicha at the University of Michigan Medical School, where she developed immunocompetent models of breast cancer dormancy and defined the mechanisms of metastatic latency. Dr. Bushnell also holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, where she conducted research with Dr. Phillip Messersmith. At the University of Minnesota, she leads the Bushnell Oncomaterials Research Group (BORG), integrating cancer biology, biomaterials, and immunology to uncover new insights into metastatic dormancy.

Matthew P. Goetz, MD

Matthew P. Goetz, M.D., is a consultant in the Department of Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Goetz holds the academic rank of Professor of Oncology and Pharmacology and is recognized with the distinction of the Erivan K. Haub Family Professorship in Cancer Research Honoring Richard F. Emslander, M.D.

Dr. Goetz is the Director of the Mayo Breast Cancer SPORE. Additionally, he is the Enterprise Deputy Director of Translational Research within the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and Research Chair for the Department of Oncology.

Dr. Goetz has been extensively involved in laboratory and translational research as well as in the conduct of early and late-phase clinical trials, with a focus on the development of new endocrine approaches for the treatment of ER+/HER2 negative breast cancer.

In addition to his clinical and research roles, Dr. Goetz is active in professional organizations. He is a former member of the NCI Breast Cancer Steering Committee and currently serves on the Executive Committees of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium and the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group.

Ningling Kang, PhD

Ningling Kang, PhD is a Professor at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota. Trained in molecular medicine and tumor biology (Beijing Normal University; Free University Berlin/Max Delbrueck Center; Mayo Clinic), Dr. Kang leads an NIH-funded research program focused on how the liver microenvironment regulates metastatic growth. Her lab investigates the molecular and mechanobiological mechanisms that drive activation of hepatic stellate cells into metastasis-promoting fibroblasts, with the goal of identifying therapeutic targets that disrupt pro-metastatic niches in the liver.

Dr. Kang’s work has been published in journals including The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Cell Reports, and her early studies using genetic mouse models produced first-authored papers in Science and Cancer Cell. She serves the field through NIH and international grant review panels and editorial leadership in molecular medicine and gastroenterology.

David A. Largaespada, PhD

Dr. Largaespada is an authority on mouse genetics, gene modification, cancer genes, and disease models. He is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, co-director of the Brain Tumor Program and Center for Genome Engineering, and Deputy Director of the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota. He holds the Hedberg Family/Children’s Cancer Research Fund Chair in Brain Tumor Research. Dr. Largaespada has co-founded four biotechnology companies. He was awarded the American Cancer Society Research Professor Award in 2013. His group developed methods for forward genetic screening for tumor development and metastasis in mice using the Sleeping Beauty transposon. Using this method, they’ve identified new genes and genetic pathways that cause osteosarcoma, peripheral nerve sheath tumors, brain tumors, and other tumors. This technology is now being used to find methods to improve adoptive cell therapies. His lab is also using small molecule and genetic screens to find selective drug sensitivity or synthetic lethal relationships with loss of tumor suppressors. A special focus of the lab is the cancer predisposition syndrome, Neurofibromatosis Type 1.

Gina Razidlo, PhD

Dr. Gina Razidlo is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She is a cancer cell biologist and investigates mechanisms of tumor cell invasion and pancreatic cancer through interrogation of cell signaling, cytoskeletal dynamics, and metabolic organelles. Her research program focused on pancreatic cancer is funded by the National Cancer Institute, and she is an Emerging Leader in the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Kaylee Schwertfeger, PhD

Dr. Kaylee Schwertfeger received her PhD from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, CO followed by post-doctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX where she developed an interest in understanding how activation of oncogenic signaling pathways in breast cancer cells drives tumor promoting alterations within the tumor microenvironment. Dr. Schwertfeger joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 2006 is currently a Professor in the Department of Lab Medicine and Pathology and the Co-Leader of the Cellular Mechanisms Program in the Masonic Cancer Center. The overarching research focus of her laboratory is to define key tumor-stromal interactions that drive breast cancer initiation, growth and malignant progression. Her current work is focused on using spatial technologies to define key niches within the tumor microenvironment that impact tumor progression and therapeutic response.

Linghua Wang, MD, PhD

Dr. Linghua Wang is a Professor with tenure in the Department of Genomic Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Co-Lead of the Institute for Data Science in Oncology (Focus Area 2: Single-Cell & Spatial Multi-Omics), and an Associate Member of the James P. Allison Institute. Her expertise spans translational genomics and AI, computational oncology, AI-enabled digital pathology, single-cell and spatial biology. Her lab specializes in deep profiling the complexity and dynamics of the tumor ecosystem to unravel tumor-cell heterogeneity, plasticity, and tumor–immune interactions that drive disease progression and therapy response. They utilize cutting-edge single-cell and spatial omics technologies, cellular and molecular imaging, digital pathology, and AI/ML methods, integrated with advanced bioinformatics tools and frameworks, to drive transformative discoveries. Dr. Wang’s group has published numerous groundbreaking studies in top-tier journals with more than 66,000 citations overall. Her scientific contributions have been recognized with multiple prestigious honors, and she serves on the Cancer Cell Advisory Board and as a Scientific Editor for Cancer Discovery.

Branden Moriarity, PhD

Dr. Branden Moriarity is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology. He graduated from Saint Olaf College in 2007 with a BA in Biology, Chemistry, and Biomolecular sciences. He received his PhD in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology & Genetics at the University of Minnesota in 2012. From 2012-2014 he was a postdoctoral fellow in David Largaespda's lab, where he worked on identifying the genetics of pediatric sarcomas. He joined the Department of Pediatrics Faculty in 2014.

Dr. Moriarity runs a basic/translational research laboratory working to develop novel cellular therapeutics for gene therapy and cancer immunotherapy with the goal of translating new therapeutics to the clinic. To accomplish these goals, the Moriarity lab uses cutting edge genome engineering technologies, including CRISPR/Cas9, base editor technology, transposons, and rAAV. These tools allow for high frequency gene knockout, gene knock-in, induction of targeted sequence changes, and activation and/or repression of endogenous gene expression. Target cells for engineering include T cells, B cells, NK cells, Monocytes, and hematopoietic stem cells. In addition to developing cellular based therapeutics, the Moriarity lab also performs preclinical drug testing for pediatric cancers, such as osteosarcoma, in order to launch new clinical trials using antibody therapies rather than toxic chemotherapy.