As a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Immuno-Oncology at the National Cancer Institute, I have led and contributed to multiple projects evaluating novel immunotherapeutic combinations, including tumor-targeted and anchored IL-12 strategies combined with chemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors. This work has resulted in peer-reviewed publications and has directly supported the advancement of immunotherapy concepts toward clinical translation. I work closely with clinicians and translational scientists to integrate rigorous preclinical data into NIH-supported clinical trials. My contributions include experimental design, execution of animal studies, immune profiling, data analysis, and manuscript preparation, including co-first-author and first-author publications.

Previously, during my doctoral training, I investigated molecular mechanisms driving cancer progression and therapy resistance in ovarian cancer and inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), employing RNA-based therapy, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, and nanoliposomes-based delivery systems. This background provides me with a strong mechanistic foundation that informs my current immuno-oncology research.

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She is the Head of Patient Engagement in Research at Sant Joan de Déu Chidren’s Hospital (Spain). She has long experience in the field of the involvement of patients and families in research initiatives. She has also a personal story as a cancer patient, and as a caregiver and patient advocate because is the sister of a young adult with cerebral palsy.

Her areas of expertise are focused on paediatric patients’ involvement in research and specifically in the field of clinical trials and in health innovation. She is currently a PhD student in the patient involvement in paediatrics field, specifically in a thesis project about the rights of children and young people accessing cross-border clinical trials.

Other relevant background of her profile is: Fellow of EUPATI (first cohort) and member of its Academic Cluster, Founder Member of eYPAGnet (European Young Patients Advisory Group Network – www.eypagnet.eu), Coordinator of Kids Barcelona - YPAG, Co-chair of Children’s Medicines Working Party of EFPGCP, co-Chair of the Patients, and Families working group and Chair of the Cross-Border Access to Paediatric Clinical Trials of EnprEMA (European Network of Paediatric Research of EMA).

The main aim of all the activities led or participated by Begonya is to achieve a better quality of life for the paediatric patients thanks to research and new therapies, and ensuring their active involvement to perform patient-centric clinical research and innovation.

Trishan Arul is the Chief Executive Officer of Picture Health, where he leads a team developing AI biomarkers from routine medical imaging for use in real-world oncology practice and drug development. A startup operator and investor with over 25 years of experience, Trishan has founded, scaled, and backed multiple companies. He co-founded Picture Health to ensure that AI tools are commercialized and adopted by oncologists and biopharma to meaningfully improve patient outcomes.

As a Patient Insights Specialist, Ana Santana’s work centers on understanding the perspectives of people living with disease and integrating their insights into research and development. She has been a member of the Patient Insights team at Lundbeck since 2023, driving research activities to collect patient experience data related to unmet needs, meaningful outcomes, and clinical trial design. Prior to this, she focused on researching decision-making, behavior, and health during her PhD in Psychology at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and her master’s degree at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). She is particularly interested in finding better ways to work with patients and carers to improve their healthcare experiences.

John (Bobby) Goulding, MPhil, PhD; Director of Corporate Strategy at Fate Therapeutics, plays a central role in shaping external partnering strategy, informing clinical positioning across oncology and autoimmune indications, and aligning next-generation platform innovation with clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, and commercial objectives.

Dr. Goulding brings deep experience in engineered immune cell therapies, spanning discovery, IND-enabling development, cGMP process translation, and early clinical execution. Previously, he served as Director of Immunology at Fate Therapeutics, leading multidisciplinary R&D teams to develop multi-edited iPSC-derived cell therapies, and has previously held senior scientific roles across numerous biotech and academic settings. His recent work has focused on building innovative, accessible, and economically viable cell-based products, key requirements for translating cellular therapies into broad and community-based patient populations.

He earned his BSc (Biochemistry) and PhD at Imperial College (London) and completed postdoctoral training at UC San Diego and the La Jolla Institute, with research focused on leukocyte biology, immune microenvironment biology, and host–pathogen interactions. He also holds an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. Dr. Goulding has authored extensively in top-tier peer-reviewed journals, is a named inventor on multiple patents and is recognized for bringing a pragmatic, end-to-end perspective on how to translate complex scientific concepts into commercially viable advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs).

Dr Daniel Baker completed his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania with Dr. Carl June and Dr. Zoltan Arany. There he combined the fields of cellular therapy, synthetic biology, and artificial intelligence to create the next generation of cell therapies. He pioneered the approach of integrating cellular atlases with large language models (LLMs) to inform and accelerate CAR T cell therapy discovery, bridging the arc of computational target discovery, biological validation, through to translational cell therapy development.

Anna F. Farago, M.D., Ph.D., is Vice President of Early Development Oncology at Amgen. She previously held leadership roles at Novartis and served as an attending physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Farago earned her M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard and completed medical oncology fellowship training at Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Center and postdoctoral training at MIT. She has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and remains active in global oncology research and clinical development.

Lisbeth Snede is President and co-founder of PiCC United (Patient Involvement & Collaboration Community United), an international, non-profit organisation working to advance meaningful and ethical partnerships across healthcare, research, and policy.

Through PiCC United, she focuses on lowering barriers to involvement and enabling broader participation in health and research — both nationally and internationally. Lisbeth works at the intersection of patient leadership, shared decision-making, and healthcare innovation, with a strong emphasis on embedding lived experience as a strategic and value-creating element within health systems.

She is an active member of Shared Decision-Making networks in Denmark and the UK and regularly contributes to international discussions on patient partnership, digital health, and participatory models of care. Lisbeth also serves as team lead of the EU-X-CT initiative, supporting cross-border collaboration to improve access to and participation in clinical trials across Europe.

Lisbeth has co-authored and contributed to publications, white papers, and articles on patient engagement, shared decision-making, ethical use of health data, and patient-centered innovation, and is a frequent speaker at international conference and professional forums.

Gunnar Schroefel is Senior Director Patient Advocacy at Daiichi Sankyo and Head of the European Patient Advocacy Team. Gunnar and his team in Europe and in the countries build and execute the company’s partnerships with patient advocacy groups and patient representatives in Oncology across tumor types. In that they bring the perspective of people living with cancer to all disciplines of the company, from early development to patient access to new treatments.

Gunnar has 15+ years of practice in collaborating with patient communities on multi-stakeholder initiatives to understand and respond to patient needs and to foster patient education and disease awareness.

Gunnar’s credo is “Engaging with patients helps us to make our work truly relevant to patients.”

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