Dr. Aakash Desai, MBBS, MPH is hematology and medical oncology fellow at MayoClinic, Rochester. His research focuses on evidence base in oncology, clinical trials, drug development, cancer care quality and healthcare delivery, with a special focus on Thoracic Oncology . Dr. Desai received his medical degree from the prestigious B.J Medical College in Ahmedabad, India. He holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. Following this Dr. Desai completed his residency at the University of Connecticut. At the University of Connecticut, he also completed certification in Health Professions Education from University of Connecticut. Subsequently in 2020 he joined the fellowship program in oncology and hematology at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Desai received the 2021 Conquer Cancer Foundation ASCO Young Investigator Award and 2021 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Early Career Award. He has also received the Education award at the Targeted Therapies in Lung Cancer Conference 2022 (TTLC22), and the International Cancer Foundation scholarship for the ESMO Targeted Anticancer Therapies (TAT) 2022. Dr. Desai continues to focus on clinical and patient-oriented research in thoracic malignancies with a keen interest in drug development and clinical trials. He is also one of the founding members of the grassroots consortium focusing on COVID19 in cancer patients now known as the COVID19 and Cancer Consortium. He was also the patient education ambassador for cancer GRACE in 2021-2022.

Dr. Amy Moore serves as LUNGevity Foundation’s Vice President of Global Engagement and Patient Partnerships. She is a PhD-trained virologist and cancer researcher who has spent over a decade working on large-scale initiatives to build research capacity and improve cancer outcomes. In her role with LUNGevity, Dr. Moore is working to strengthen collaborations with international partners, particularly in the areas of biomarker testing and precision medicine as well as in improving access to clinical trials, so that all patients receive optimal cancer care no matter where they live. Given her background in virology, Dr. Moore has also been a sought-after expert throughout the pandemic on issues at the intersection of COVID-19 and lung cancer and is part of a large NCI-funded grant to study the quality of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination among patients with lung cancer. Dr. Moore serves on a number of advisory boards and frequently presents at major national and international conferences.

Postdoctoral fellow in Clinica Universidad de Navarra and Center for Applied Medical Reseach, Pamplona, Spain. My research focuses in the study of circulating tumor cells in haematological neoplasms, particularly in multiple myeloma.

Alessandro Russo, MD, PhD is a medical oncologist at the Medical Oncology Unit, A.O. Papardo, Messina, Italy. His research interest is focused on thoracic malignancies, immunotherapy and liquid biopsies. Dr. Russo degreed as M.D. at the University of Messina and there he completed his residency in Medical Oncology. He had his PhD in 2019 in Medical and Surgical Biotechnologies at the University of Messina and joined as Visiting Researcher the Division of Thoracic Medical Oncology and Early Clinical Trials at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (Baltimore, USA). He is member of several national and international scientific societies. Dr. Russo is co-author of more than 70 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, three book chapters and he is actively involved in clinical research in advanced NSCLC.

Dr. Bruna Pellini is an Assistant Member at the Department of Thoracic Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute and an Assistant Professor at Morsani College of Medicine at the University of South Florida. She received her medical degree from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and completed her residency at University of Central Florida College of Medicine, where she was awarded the “Clinical Skills Award” in 2015 and was inducted into the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society in 2016. Dr. Pellini completed her medical oncology fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, where she worked at the laboratory of Aadel Chaudhuri, MD, PhD conducting research on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) for minimal residual disease (MRD) detection across different solid tumors. Dr. Pellini is an active member of the Lung Cancer Center of Excellence and the Molecular Medicine Committees at Moffitt Cancer Center. She specializes in the care of patients diagnosed with lung cancer. Her research interest lies in the development of clinical trials with novel therapeutics targeting genomic alterations in non-small cell lung cancer and to study liquid biopsies as a biomarker to monitor treatment response and detect MRD and their implementation into clinical trials.

Sarah has 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry working for multiple Fortune 500 companies including Cardinal Health and Novartis (previously Genoptix). For the last 13 years Sarah has worked in the oncology and genetic diagnostic space with a focus on billing, collections, patient assistance program creation, market access and reimbursement specifically for laboratories such as Adaptive Biotechnologies and Cooper Genomics. At Pierian, Sarah addresses clients reimbursement needs and concerns, works directly on launching successful revenue cycle packages and helps to create managed care dossiers and Medicare Technical Assessment submissions.