In early March, members from team eDyNAmiC traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, to attend the Cancer Grand Challenges annual Summit. Team members had the opportunity to network and meet members of the other funded teams, listen to engaging keynote speakers, gain insights from panel discussions, and reconnect with old and new colleagues. A highlight of the Summit was learning about the seven new challenges: AI-human collaborations in cancer, cancer avoidance, the dark proteome, mechanisms driving mutational signatures, the nervous system and cancer, rewiring cancer cells and TME dynamics. Learn more about the new challenges on the CGC website.

Team eDyNAmiC members presented four posters during the poster session. Future leader, Hyerim Yi, from the Mischel lab presented work showing the link between ecDNA and gene fusion; Nnenna Kanu, a co-investigator from UCL, presented her teams’ work on ecDNA heterogeneity and the evolution of non-small cell lung cancer; Katell Maguet, a patient advocate, presented the advocates’ work highlighting their pivotal role in bridging the gap between team eDyNAmiC’s cutting-edge research and the public’s awareness and understanding of ecDNA; and Bafna lab project scientist and future leader, Jens Luebeck, shared how AmpliconSuite can be used as an end-to-end workflow for analyzing focal amplifications in cancer genomes. Action shots from the evening’s session are shared below. 

On Friday, March 7th, team eDyNAmiC gave its update to the Summit highlighting key achievements in year 3 and outlining the plan for year 4. Team lead, Paul Mischel; co-investigators, James Chen and Nnenna Kanu; and future leader, Jens Luebeck, all presented. 

We are delighted and honored to be part of the Cancer Grand Challenges community and look forward to next year’s Summit!