Dr. Abdel Karim is the Director of the Phase I Program at Inova Schar Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine-University of Virginia. Her clinical and research interests are focused on Phase I clinical trials and the personalized approach of therapy for lung cancer. She is the study chair of S1929 clinical trial at SWOG that focuses on personalized therapy for SLFN11 small cell lung cancer. Dr. Nagla Abdel Karim received her Medical degree from the University of Cairo- Faculty of Medicine. She subsequently received her training in Internal Medicine/Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute-The University of Cairo and she obtained her Masters of Science degree followed by PhD, where the latter was through a channel program with the University of Washington. She did a year of Post-doctoral fellowship at MD Anderson in Cancer Prevention, followed by one-year Research fellowship at The University of Washington. She did a residency in Internal Medicine at Fairview-Cleveland Clinic Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio followed by a 3-year clinical fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at The University of Cincinnati then became Assistant Professor of Medicine at Ohio State University then re-joined the University of Cincinnati again in September 2011 as an Assistant Professor then Associate Professor till 2018. She has been the Professor of Medicine-Division of Hematology/Oncology and the Director of the Thoracic Oncology at the Medical College of Georgia-Augusta-Georgia since 2018 till 2022. During all that time, she was an Investigator and Co- investigators of several Clinical Trials as well as a lead investigator on several translational research projects.

Dana E. Connors, MSc, PMP is the Senior Scientific Program Manager for Cancer Research Partnerships at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. Drawing on experience in the biotechnology industry, non-profit and federal sectors, he works with Biomarkers Consortium members to set strategy and prioritize project pipelines for cancer initiatives and manages the activities of project teams and working groups to facilitate the advancement and execution of innovative cancer research and biomarker development. In his work with public-private biomedical research partnerships he engages participation from government, industry, academia, patient-advocacy, and private sector organizations to drive international scientific collaboration in multiple disease areas. Ongoing collaborations include analytical validation and clinical utility of liquid biopsy, project opportunities in immuno-oncology biomarkers, development of clinical trial metrics, and Minimal Residual Disease in blood-based cancers.

Dr. Pouliot completed a doctoral degree at the University of Montreal in Human Physiology, followed by a fellowship at McGill University on multidrug resistance in cancer. With broad experience in clinical development, he worked on numerous phase I – III programs leading to innovative drug approvals, including Imatinib in chronic myelogenous leukemia, Temozolomide in brain tumors, and Pembrolizumab in melanoma and lung cancer. Hover the years, fostered numerous academia-industry collaborations and investigator-driven initiatives across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. At Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, he leads the global medical affairs team in lung cancer and other solid tumors.