Symposia

On June 28, 2024, the Yale Head and Neck SPORE held its annual Career Enhancement and Developmental Research Programs Symposium at The Anlyan Center Auditorium at Yale.

Nearly 50 head and neck research investigators across three participating institutions — Yale University, Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC)/Temple University, and University of North Carolina (UNC) — joined in-person and via Zoom.

The SPORE developmental research programs are directed by Barbara Burtness, MD and Karen Anderson, PhD and career enhancement by Kathryn Ferguson, PhD and Curtis Pickering, PhD. Each program is designed to recruit and promote investigators in head and neck cancer research and the symposium aimed to strengthen future collaborations that advance knowledge of the biology and treatment of head and neck cancers.

The 2024-2025 investigators chosen for the programs presented their projects and discussed their future plans with an engaged audience at the auditorium. Talks included:

• Three career enhancement awardees: Yale’s Michael Chiorazzi, Md, PhD and Thuy Tran, Md, PhD and Pedro Torres-Ayuso, PhD (FCCC/Temple)
• Investigators leading developmental research projects: UNC’s Lee Graves, PhD, Travis Schrank, MD, PhD and Natalia Issaeva, PhD and Yale’s He (Peter) Wang, MD, PhD and Curtis Pickering, MD, PhD.

Presentations by pilot project awardees:

• Michael Chiorazzi, MD, PhD (Yale) “Investigation of the HNSCC Tumor Microenvironment and Response to Therapy with Autologous Humanized”
• Jeffrey Ishizuka, MD, DPhil (Yale) “Overcoming inflammatory immune dysfunction in head and neck cancer"
• Megan King, PhD / Patrick Lusk, PhD (Yale) “Nuclear integrity as a novel modulator of the radiation response in head and neck cancer”
• Jong Woo Lee, PhD (Yale) “Regulation of autophagy to optimize AURKA inhibition-mediated therapeutics in head and neck cancer“
• Travis Schrank, MD, PhD (University of North Carolina) “Double-strand break repair deficiency as a driver of genomic copy number heterogeneity in HPV associated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma”
• Pedro Torres-Ayuso, PhD (Fox Chase Cancer Center) “Testing understudied kinase TNIK as a target in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma"
• He Wang, MD, PhD (Yale) “Electronic cigarette exposure on oral mucosa

carcinogenesis “

On June 17, 2022, the Yale Head and Neck SPORE held their annual Career Enhancement and Developmental Research (CEP and DRP) Symposium at West Campus.

More than 65 head and neck investigators across three participating institutions — Yale University, Fox Chase Cancer Center/Temple University, and University of North Carolina (UNC) joined in-person and via Zoom.

The CEP and DRP are designed to recruit and promote investigators in head and neck cancer research. The first two cycles of awardees, six DRP and eight CEPs, presented their projects and discussed their future plans with a very dynamic and engaged audience.

“We were thrilled by the range of projects and the pace of progress reflected in the talks presented at this symposium. Our pilot funds are pulling together a wonderful group of scientists who are advancing our knowledge of head and neck cancer biology and treatment,” said Barbara Burtness, MD, principal investigator of the YHN SPORE.

Kathryn Ferguson, PhD, Director of the CEP program said, “It was great to see how integrated these awardees have already become in the Head and Neck SPORE team, and to hear ideas for future collaborations.”

The new recipients for the 2022-2023 CEP and DRP were announced at end of the Symposium.