AACR Annual Meeting 2025 Nextgen Stars

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has announced its 2025 NextGen Stars

The AACR NextGen Stars program is an initiative by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) aimed at highlighting and promoting the work of early-career investigators

AACR NextGen Stars: Information for Selected Presenters

Selected applicants for the AACR NextGen Stars program will have the opportunity to present their research during the AACR Annual Meeting as part of the Major Symposia or Advances Sessions, depending on the topic of their abstract. Below are the key details:

Presentation Format:

Talk Duration:

– Most talks will be 15 minutes, followed by 5 minutes for discussion.
– The exact duration may vary depending on the session requirements.

Session Placement:

– Talks will be incorporated into relevant sessions based on the subject matter of the abstract.

Benefits for Selected Presenters:

1. Travel Support:
– Financial assistance for travel to the meeting.
2. Complimentary Registration:
– Free registration for the AACR Annual Meeting.

Key Opportunities:

– Gain exposure to a global audience of cancer researchers and clinicians.
– Enhance professional visibility through inclusion in high-profile sessions.
– Build connections with leading experts in the field of cancer research.

AACR Nextgen Stars 2025

Edmond Chan – Exploiting dysregulated ribosomal homeostasis in chromosome 9p21.3 deleted cancers and microsatellite unstable cancers

Dr. Edmond M. Chan is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, specializing in gastrointestinal cancers. He holds an M.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and is board-certified in Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine.

Dr. Chan is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. His research centers on the genetic networks that drive cancer development and cell survival, particularly in gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Chan has identified new therapeutic targets, such as the WRN RecQ helicase, which has become a potential target for treating microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) cancers.

His work on WRN has led to a phase I clinical trial testing the WRN inhibitor HRO761 in MSI-H cancer patients. Additionally, Dr. Chan investigates vulnerabilities in ribosomal homeostasis and employs advanced genomic techniques, like optical mapping of CRISPR screens, to examine gene-environment interactions in cancer. His ultimate goal is to uncover the mechanisms that support cancer cell survival and to develop new treatments based on these discoveries.

Yash Chhabra – Harnessing age-and sex-differential changes within the tumor microenvironment to inhibit metastasis and promote therapy responses in melanoma

Dr. Yash Chhabra is a researcher focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying receptor function, particularly the Growth Hormone Receptor (GHR). His work has provided new insights into how GHR regulates physiological functions and contributes to disease, such as its role in lung cancer susceptibility and insulin resistance.

Dr. Chhabra’s research also explores the impact of genetic variations on melanocytic biology and melanoma progression, including the role of pigmentation genes and transcription factors in phenotype switching. His postdoctoral studies further investigate the molecular mechanisms of DNA repair and cellular response to environmental factors.

Karen O. Dixon – Dark lipid kinase PI5P4K is a molecular checkpoint of anti-tumor immunity

Dr. Karen Dixon is an Assistant Professor at the University of Basel, where she specializes in neurology and immunology. Prior to this role, she served as an Instructor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, in collaboration with Mass General Brigham and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Dr. Dixon’s academic career includes being a Marie Skłodowska Curie Global Fellow and a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Kuchroo Lab at the Broad Institute, where she conducted pioneering research in immunology. She is also a Review Editor for Frontiers in Immunology, focusing on antigen-presenting cell biology. Dr. Dixon received her education at Leiden University.

Adam D. Durbin – A genome-derived non-coding reporter of dynamic cancer cell state permits dissection and control of intratumoral heterogeneity and chemoresistance

Dr. Adam D. Durbin is an Assistant Member of the St. Jude Faculty in the Department of Oncology, within the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Molecular Oncology Division. He holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and completed his internship and residency in General Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Boston Medical Center. He also completed a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Durbin’s research focuses on the epigenetic and transcriptional regulation of high-risk pediatric cancers, including neuroblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma. His work also explores chemical biology, functional genomics, and drug discovery for pediatric tumors, as well as the pathogenesis and modeling of rare cancers.

Annina Farkila – Single-cell mapping of tumor ecosystem reveals chemotherapy-induced myeloid-driven spatial exhaustion via NECTIN2-TIGIT ligand-receptor interaction which can be targeted to unleash anti-tumor immunity in ovarian cancer

Dr. Anniina Färkkilä, LT, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Women’s Clinic. She serves as a supervisor in multiple doctoral programs, including the Doctoral Programme in Integrative Life Science, the Doctoral Programme in Biomedicine, and the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Research.

Anand D. Jeyasekharan – The spatial organization of lymphoma cells with MYC-BCL2 co-expression shapes the immune micro environments and determines survival after chemoimmunotherapy

Dr. Anand Devaprasath Jeyasekharan is a clinician-scientist and Assistant Professor at the NUS Centre for Cancer Research, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.

He is also a consultant medical oncologist at the Department of Haematology-Oncology, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore, and a principal investigator at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore.

Dr. Jeyasekharan serves as the head of the Microscopy and Multiplex Assays (MMA) Core at the Cancer Science Institute and co-leads the Translational Research Integration and Support (TRIS) platform within the Singapore Translational Cancer Consortium (STCC).

His research, funded by multiple institutional and national grants, has led to over 50 publications in high-impact journals, including Nature, Cell, Cancer Discovery, and PNAS. Dr. Jeyasekharan’s work is driven by collaborations across Asia, Europe, and North America, and has also received support from industry partners such as Janssen Pharmaceuticals and AstraZeneca UK.

Zuzana Kečkéšová – Cancer-resistant tissues: Powerful approach for novel tumor suppressor identification and therapeutic reactivation

Zuzana Keckesova is a Group Leader at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague), a position she has held since May 2018. She is focused on studying molecular mechanisms, particularly in cancer and metastasis.

Prior to this role, Dr. Keckesova completed an extensive postdoctoral fellowship at the Whitehead Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), under the mentorship of Prof. Robert Weinberg, where she studied the molecular pathways that drive cancer progression.

Dr. Keckesova earned her Ph.D. in Infection, Immunity, and Molecular Biology from University College London (UCL), where she researched HIV and innate immunity in the labs of Prof. Greg Towers and Prof. Robin Weiss. She also completed a Ph.D. internship in virology at Columbia University.

John R. Prensner – Mapping the functional microproteome in cancer

John Prensner is a pediatric oncologist and molecular biologist, currently serving as a faculty member at the University of Michigan. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Tufts University in 2005, followed by his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School in 2014, where his doctoral research focused on long noncoding RNAs in cancer.

Dr. Prensner completed his pediatric residency at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2017, followed by a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at Boston Children’s and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2020. He then conducted post-doctoral research with Dr. Todd Golub at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, developing methods to explore non-canonical translation in cancer.

Elvin Wagenblast – Developmental dependency and metabolic vulnerabilities in NUP98-rearranged pediatric leukemia

Elvin Wagenblast is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences and the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology. He is also a member of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Black Family Stem Cell Institute, Tisch Cancer Institute, Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, and the Center for Advancement of Blood Cancer Therapies.

Dr. Wagenblast received his PhD from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, where he worked with Dr. Greg Hannon. He completed his postdoctoral studies at Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto under the mentorship of Dr. John Dick. His research focuses on human blood stem cells and leukemia, utilizing CRISPR-based genome editing techniques.

Stephanie Z. Xie – Inflammatory memory and selective advantage in human clonal hematopoiesis

Stephanie Xie is an Assistant Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network in Toronto, Canada. She has been with the Centre since 2016, initially as a Research Fellow and later as a Research Associate, before becoming an Affiliate Scientist in 2020. Dr. Xie’s research focuses on cancer biology and translational research. She has also held positions as a Scientist at Harvard Medical School and as a Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Regenerative Medicine.

Di Zhao – Decipher actionable tumor suppressor defects for personalized cancer medicine

Di Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, Division of Radiation Oncology, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. His research focuses on functional cancer genomics, with a particular emphasis on advanced prostate cancer. Dr. Zhao’s lab combines cutting-edge mouse modeling systems and single-cell multi-omics to investigate the genetic factors driving prostate cancer development, metastatic progression, and therapy resistance. His work also explores how cancer genomes influence the tumor immune microenvironment and affect responses to immunotherapies. Dr. Zhao aims to develop biomarker-driven therapies and combinatorial strategies to advance personalized cancer medicine.