Solid Tumors 2025: Technologies, Diagnostics & Therapeutics

Charles Keller, Scientific Director, Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute

Charles Keller Biographical Sketch

Charles’ research focuses on the development of more effective, less toxic therapies for childhood cancers. His special interest is advanced disease that has spread beyond the initial location of the cancer or which makes the tumor unresectable. Charles has co-chaired the brain tumor developmental therapeutics committee (CNS-DVL) of the Children’s Oncology Group and is a member of the soft tissue sarcoma (STS) committee of Children’s Oncology Group. He has also regularly been a standing or ad hoc member of NIH/NCI Study Sections.

Charles attended Tulane University where he received a degree in Biomedical Engineering prior to attending Baylor College of Medicine where he received his M.D. degree. After completing his internship and residency in Pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital, Charles trained in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at the University of Utah and with 2007 Nobel laureate, Mario Capecchi. Charles has authored over 150 scientific publications and is a recognized expert in the biology of childhood sarcomas and the preclinical investigation of childhood cancers. Charles is also a co-founder of Artisan Biopharma (a company helping translate drug discoveries to clinical use) and Tio Companies that improves drug safety and cancer drug effectiveness*.

* overlap between cc-TDI, Artisan Biopharma, Teo Therapeutics and Tio Companies is overseen by a conflict of interest management committee.

Hervé Tiriac, Researcher, University of California-San Diego

Hervé Tiriac Biographical Sketch

Dr. Tiriac received his Ph.D. from UC San Diego studying pre-mRNA splicing and transcription with Dr. Tracy Johnson. Herve’s research focuses on developing systems for precision medicine that may be utilized in the fight against pancreatic cancer. Herve did his postdoctoral fellowship with David Tuveson at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where he collaborated with Hans Clevers to establish protocols for PDAC organoid generation and testing.

Michael Graner, Professor, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Michael Graner Biographical Sketch

Michael Graner received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois followed by post-doctoral and research faculty work at the University of Arizona, shifting gears from the Drosophila extracellular matrix to cancer immunotherapy. He then took at faculty position at Duke University’s Tisch Brain Tumor Center, followed by his current position as Professor in Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado Denver (Anschutz Medical Campus). He is also a member of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, the MAVRC Program, and holds a Visiting Professorship Appointment at the Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital (China) and an adjunct faculty appointment at Colorado State University. Graner has a long-standing interest in cell stress responses, which led to cancer vaccine development (including one in clinical trials), which somehow led to the world of extracellular vesicles (EVs). His lab currently concentrates on signaling mechanisms involving EVs, in particular the transfer of stressed phenotypes from stressed tumor cells to unstressed ones via EVs.

Roger Royse, Partner, Haynes & Boone, LLP

Roger Royse Biographical Sketch

Roger Royse is a startup lawyer in Silicon Valley and a pancreatic cancer patient. Roger was diagnosed with stage 2B pancreatic adenocarcinoma in July 2022 after taking a multi cancer early detection blood test. After 6 months of chemotherapy and surgery and an experimental cancer vaccine, Roger currently has no evidence of disease.

Roger has been active for many years with the Leukemia Lymphoma Society having been its Bay area Man of the Year in 2012. Since his diagnosis, Roger has become the Silicon valley Advocacy Chair for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCan) and has joined the board of the Cancer Patient Lab.org, a nonprofit dedicated to evidence based therapies. Roger also hosts www.cancerstartup.com, a platform for cancer therapy technology startups to demo their solutions. Roger has since testified to an FDA Advisory committee on multi cancer early detection and has been featured in many publications including the Wall Street Journal on MCED.

Roger believes in the patient being proactive and taking personal responsibility for their health and being very involved in their treatment decisions based on evidence based treatments.