2022 AACR Annual Meeting Features DCEG Research
, by Elise Tookmanian, Ph.D.
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting took place in-person in New Orleans, Louisiana. Virtual attendance was also supported through live-streamed sessions and availability of virtual posters. From April 8-13, DCEG scientists presented their research on the theme, “Decoding cancer complexity, integrating science, transforming patient outcomes,” received awards, and networked with other scientists.
From left to right: Jeanny Wang, Wayne Lawrence, Zeinab Farhat, Stephen Chanock, Brittany Lord, Jongeun Rhee, and Mohammad Rahman.
From left to right: Jeanny Wang, Amber Hurson, Ned Sharpless, Jongeun Rhee, Stephen Chanock, Batel Blechter, and Mohammad Rahman.
Mustapha Abubakar presenting NextGen Star talk.
From left to right: Wayne Lawrence and Jongeun Rhee.
Stephen Chanock presenting in NCI "Meet the Experts" series.
Brittany Lord presenting her poster.
Research fellow in the Integrative Tumor Epidemiology Branch, Mustapha Abubakar, M.D., Ph.D., was recognized as a NextGen Star. He gave an invited talk during the Metabolic and Nutritional Regulation of Cancer and Immunity Symposium titled, "Double-edged “soil”: Stromal microenvironment in breast cancer development."
Wayne Lawrence, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., postdoctoral fellow in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch, was elected to the AACR Associate Member Council. Dr. Lawrence’s appointment began at the annual meeting induction ceremony.
Director Stephen J. Chanock, M.D., chaired an educational session titled, Polygenic Risk Scores: Considerations for Development and Evaluation, and gave the first talk titled, "Facts and fiction of polygenic risk scores in cancer." Additionally, Dr. Chanock participated in the National Cancer Institute’s Meet the Expert series, giving a talk titled, "Cancer susceptibility and epidemiology."
Three fellows were honored with highly competitive AACR Scholar-in-Training Awards, which recognize young investigators presenting outstanding papers at the annual meeting.
Jongeun Rhee, Sc.D., M.S., research fellow in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB), received the June L. Biedler Scholar-in-Training Award for her abstract titled, "Circulating immune markers and risks of non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes: A pooled analysis."
Jeanny Wang, M.P.H., postbaccalaureate fellow in the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch, received the Scholar-in-Training Award for her abstract titled, "Eosinophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and cancer risk in the UK Biobank."
Jason Wong, Sc.D., research fellow in OEEB, received the John and Elizabeth Leonard Family Foundation Scholar-in-Training Award for his abstract titled, "Alu retroelement copy number, leukocyte telomere length, and lung cancer risk in the prospective Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer (PLCO) Screening Trial."