
Eric S. Lander
Following the successful completion of the Human Genome Project, the challenge now is to decipher the information encoded within the human genetic code — including genes, regulatory controls and cellular circuitry. Such understanding is fundamental to the study of physiology in both health and disease. At the Broad Institute, his lab collaborates with other to discover and understand the genes responsible for rare genetic diseases, common diseases, and cancer; the genetic variation and evolution of the human genome; the basis of gene regulation via enhancers, long non-coding RNAs, and three-dimensional folding of the genome; the developmental trajectories of cellular differentiation; and the history of the human population.

Michelle Monje
Dr Michelle Monje, MD, PhD, is a professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She is recognized as an international leader in the pathophysiology of glioma, especially diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG)/H3K27M-mutated diffuse midline gliomas and a pioneer in the emerging field of Cancer Neuroscience. Her clinical focus is on childhood glial malignancies and cognitive impairment after childhood cancer therapy.
Her laboratory studies neuron-glial interactions in health and disease, with a particular focus on mechanisms and consequences of neuron-glial interactions in health, glial dysfunction in cancer therapy-related cognitive impairment and neuron-glial interactions in malignant glioma. Together with these basic studies, Michelle’s research program has advanced preclinical studies of novel therapeutics for pediatric high-grade gliomas and cancer therapy-related cognitive impairment in order to translate new therapies to the clinic. She has led several of her discoveries from basic molecular work to clinical trials for children and young adults with brain tumors including a promising clinical trial of CAR T cell therapy for DIPG and diffuse midline gliomas.

Kodi Ravichandran
Dr. Kodi S. Ravichandran is an immunologist known for his groundbreaking research in efferocytosis, a process responsible for clearing billions of dying cells from our bodies daily. Efferocytosis critically influences inflammatory diseases such as lupus, arthritis, airway inflammation, atherosclerosis, and colitis. Currently Dr. Ravichandran is the Robert L. Kroc Professor and Chief of the Division of Immunobiology at Washington University in Saint Louis, USA. Dr. Ravichandran started with a Veterinary Medicine degree from India, followed by a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Massachusetts.
His postdoctoral work at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute under Dr. Steven Burakoff led to his discoveries on T cell signaling and adapter proteins. In 1996, Dr. Ravichandran joined the University of Virginia, where he rapidly advanced to Full Professor and served as Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology. He moved to Washington University in St. Louis in early 2022. The contributions from Dr. Ravichandran’s laboratory have resulted in >190 publications, and recognition as a “Highly Cited Researcher.” Beyond research, Dr. Ravichandran has mentored over 60 young scientists, many of whom now hold esteemed positions globally, embodying his commitment to developing the next generation of leaders in immunology.

Laurence Zitvogel
Professor Laurence Zitvogel is a clinical oncologist and immunologist, and a full professor at Paris-Saclay University. After qualifying in medical oncology in 1992, she began her scientific career at the University of Pittsburgh (USA), where she specialised in both translational and fundamental immunology.
In 1998, she was appointed Director of Research at Inserm (U1015), and in 2020, became Scientific Director of the Clinicobiome programme at Gustave Roussy. Her work has played a key role in advancing cancer immunology and immunotherapy. With her team, she has pioneered several major concepts, including immunogenic cell death and the impact of the gut microbiota on cancer immunosurveillance and treatment response.
Her cutting-edge research has been recognised with numerous awards, including the INSERM Prize for Translational Research, the ASCO-SITC Award, the Brupbacher Prize (2017), the ESMO Immuno-Oncology Award (2017), the Baillet Latour Prize (2019), the Griffuel Prize (2019), the Duquesne Prize from the French Cancer League, and the German ITOC9 Award. In 2019, she was named an Officer of the Legion of Honour by the French Ministry of Health, and in 2021, she was elected to the French National Academy of Medicine.
Professor Zitvogel is among the world’s most cited scientists, according to Clarivate Analytics, appearing on the Highly Cited Researchers list since 2016. She has an h-index of 173, with over 599 publications listed on PubMed and more than 165,000 citations. She is also the scientific founder of the biotech company everImmune, dedicated to the clinical development of microbiota-based therapies in oncology.