Turning Points

Eytan Ruppin received his MD and PhD from Tel Aviv University, where he started his lab in 1995, conducting computational multi-disciplinary research. In 2018, he moved to the US National Cancer Institute as the chief of its Cancer Data Science Lab, before recently moving to the Translational Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai. His research is focused on AI approaches to advance precision oncology, and developing low-cost biomarkers for cancer treatment responses.

Elaine Fuchs is renowned for her research in skin biology, stem cells and associated disorders, including cancers and inflammation, and has published over 380 articles. She received her PhD in biochemistry from Princeton University, did postdoctoral research in cell biology at MIT, and has been on the faculty at the University of Chicago and now Rockefeller University. Her awards include the National Medal of Science, L’Oréal-UNESCO Award, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Innovation Award, the Canada Gairdner International Award and the Franklin Medal. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, American Philosophical Society, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society.

Angela Nieto received her PhD from Universidad Autónoma in Madrid in 1987. After short postdoctoral stays in Madrid and at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich, she joined the National Institute for Medical Research in London in 1989 and returned to Spain in 1993 to lead a research group at the Cajal Institute. She moved to the Neurosciences Institute in Alicante in 2004 as full professor and head of developmental neurobiology. She currently leads the cell plasticity in health and disease program and coordinates the Spanish National Research Council Cancer Hub.

Ron DePinho received his MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed his medical and postdoctoral training at Columbia University. He was the founding director of the Belfer Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. As president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, he launched the Cancer Moonshot initiative. He currently serves as a professor of cancer biology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and was elected to the National Academies of Sciences and Medicine. He is the co-founder of several biotech companies and an advocate for innovation-driven healthspan solutions for the underserved.

Ralph DeBerardinis obtained an MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, then trained in Pediatrics and Medical Genetics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) in 2008, serving as Chief of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism from 2013 to 2024. He became an Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2018 and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020. DeBerardinis’s current roles at UTSW include directing the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development and the Genetic and Metabolic Disease Program in the Children’s Research Institute.

Sarah-Maria Fendt received her doctoral degree from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and she conducted her postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. She is currently a principal investigator at the VIB Center for Cancer Biology and a full professor at KU Leuven, Belgium.

Johanna Joyce received her PhD from the University of Cambridge, and did postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco. She then joined the faculty at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, becoming a tenured member in 2014. She moved to Switzerland in 2016, where she later served as the inaugural executive director of the Agora Cancer Center Lausanne. She is currently a member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and a professor at the University of Lausanne.

Anirban Maitra obtained his medical degree from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, in 1996; this was followed by residency and fellowships in pathology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. From 2002 to 2013, he served as faculty in the departments of pathology and oncology at Johns Hopkins, before being recruited to the MD Anderson Cancer Center as Professor of Pathology and Translational Molecular Pathology and Scientific Director of the Sheikh Ahmed Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research.

Rebecca Fitzgerald completed her medical degree at the University of Cambridge, followed by doctoral research at Stanford University, and then postdoctoral research alongside specialist training in gastroenterology at Barts and the London Hospitals. She started her own independent group the MRC Cancer Unit in 2001 with an honorary gastroenterology consultant position at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. In 2014, she was elected to chair in cancer prevention, and in 2022 inaugural director of the department of oncology at the Early Cancer Institute, University of Cambridge.

Charles Swanton obtained a PhD from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories (now the Francis Crick Institute) in 1998 and completed his medical oncology and Cancer Research UK (CRUK)-funded postdoctoral clinical scientist training in 2008. He was appointed chair in personalized cancer medicine at the UCL Cancer Institute, and consultant thoracic medical oncologist at UCL Hospitals in 2011. In 2016, he was awarded a Napier Professor in Cancer by the Royal Society, and in 2017 he was appointed principal group leader of the Francis Crick Institute. He is co-director of the Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, and chief clinician of Cancer Research UK.

Charles Rudin completed his MD, PhD, medical and oncology training at the University of Chicago, where he joined the department of medicine faculty in 1998. He directed the lung, esophageal and head and neck cancer program at Johns Hopkins University from 2003 to 2013, while also serving as associate cancer center director for clinical research. He joined Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2013 as chief of thoracic oncology, co-director of the Druckenmiller Center for Lung Cancer Research, and the Sylvia Hassenfeld Chair in Lung Cancer Research.

Mark A. Dawson obtained his medical degree from the University of Melbourne, followed by a PhD from the University in Cambridge. From 2010 to 2014, he was a Wellcome-Beit fellow at the University of Cambridge, and thereafter he joined the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre as a consultant hematologist and group leader of the cancer epigenetics laboratory. In 2016, he was appointed co-program head of the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Program, and in 2019 as associate director for research.

Elaine R. Mardis earned her PhD at the University of Oklahoma, in the laboratory of Bruce Roe. After postgraduate work at Bio-Rad Laboratories in California, she joined the Washington University School of Medicine faculty in 1993. In 2016, she moved to Nationwide Children’s Hospital and is a Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University. She was elected to the US National Academy of Medicine in 2019.