Damon Runyon scientists and industry partners gathered on Tuesday, March 24, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the 2026 Cancer Care Advancement Research Symposium hosted by Amgen.
Accelerated Cancer Cures (ACC) is a multi-million dollar collaborative project aimed at supporting a new generation of clinical researchers who translate the latest scientific discoveries into new diagnostics and treatments for patients. Founded in 2011 and led by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the initiative includes scientists from the nation’s top universities and research institutions, as well as participants from AbbVie, Amgen, ARIAD, Celgene, Eli Lilly and Company, Genentech, Gilead, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, and Takeda Pharmaceutical International. The annual ACC Research Symposium aims to foster communication and collaboration between cancer researchers from industry and academia.
Yung S. Lie, Ph.D., Damon Runyon President and CEO, Richard B. Gaynor, M.D., Damon Runyon Board Member and President of BioNTech Research and Development, and James Bradner, M.D., Amgen Executive Vice President of Research and Development, welcomed the symposium attendees to begin the day’s events.
Dr. Bradner, a former Damon Runyon Rachleff Innovator and award selection committee member, emphasized the strong pipeline of Damon Runyon scientists joining Amgen. ”We’re starting to think of Damon Runyon as Amgen’s Triple-A team. The scientists this organization supports are some of our brightest, bravest, most dedicated, most scholarly, and most passionate.. ”
Following opening remarks from Oliver Thiel, Ph.D., Amgen’s Vice President of Business Commercialization, Damon Runyon scientists Mark Yarmarkovic, Ph.D., Lucas Fernung, Ph.D., Mary M. Mullen, MD, and Ziyang Zhang, Ph.D., presented research updates. Each is working towards a clearer molecular understanding of cancer genomics and gene expression in order to develop more precise targeted therapies.
In an inspiring keynote address, Anna Farago, MD, Amgen’s vice president of early development in oncology, and Julie Bayliss, PhD, former Damon Runyon Fellow and vice president of oncology research at Amgen, discussed Amgen’s efforts to advance promising new treatments.
”It’s actually a link between preclinical data that predicts how a treatment will work and information returned from the clinic that helps advance new treatments.” Dr. Bailis said of the importance of bringing experimental science and clinical research into the conversation.
Attendees also heard from Damon Runyon scientists Megan A. Morrissey, Ph.D., Srivathan Raghavan, MD, Ph.D., and Jonathan Chow, Ph.D., who are exploring new therapies to treat intractable cancers such as pancreatic cancer.
Later in the afternoon, Larkspur Biosciences Chief Executive Officer Katherine Sabatos-Payton, Ph.D., moderated a fireside chat about paths to development with Jennifer Raute, MD, Global Head of Translational Oncology at Novartis, Alex R. Shoemaker, MD, Executive Director of Oncology Discovery Research at AbbVie, and Louis Vermeulen, MD, Vice President of Discovery Oncology at Genentech. A revolutionary treatment.
Commenting on what makes for a fruitful collaboration, Dr. Laufte said, “If you’re meeting with just one person, you’re not meeting the right people. You should be interacting with the people who are running the clinical trials, the people who discovered the drug. That multidisciplinary team should be together and sharing, sharing, sharing. Then you can move in the right direction.”
Dr. Lee and Dr. Margaret Fall, vice president of drug substance technology and site director for Amgen Massachusetts, closed the meeting and thanked the guests in attendance.
”We all benefit when academic and industry researchers talk to each other.” says Dr. Foll of the Accelerated Cancer Treatment Initiative.Basic scientists, translational scientists, and clinicians all have specific insights that inspire each other’s research. Amgen is a leader in developing innovative new treatments for patients across sectors, and accelerating cancer treatment is just one way we apply this strategy to improve patients.. ”
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Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
