SNOG-FIBTRA SYMPOSIUM 2022
Multidisciplinary Neuro-Oncology
Keynote speakers

Professor Frank Furnari, University of California San Diego (UCSD) and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, San Diego, USA
Professor Frank Furnari will present how the genome engineering of human pluripotent cells allows the generation of brain cancer avatars for research and therapeutic intervention. His research group studies the fundamental pathways that drive initiation and progression of glioblastoma and other brain tumors and aims to discover novel therapeutically actionable targets for these malignancies by taking intra-tumoral heterogeneity also into account.
Doctor Itay Tirosh, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Doctor Itay Tirosh will talk about the interactions between cancer and immune cells within the glioblastoma microenvironment. His research group has together with his collaborators revealed multidirectional crosstalk between glioblastoma and immune cells which alters the phenotypes on both sides. They are leveraging experimentation, especially single cell technologies, computational approaches, and clinical collaborations to characterize important tumor subpopulations such as cancer stem cells, drug resistant cells, invasive cells and immune cells in the tumor tissue.
Professor Roel Verhaak, Jackson Laboratory, Farmington, CT, USAand Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Professor Roel Verhaak will talk about longitudinal evolution of glioma in adult patients. He has been one of the key PIs in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project, which has been instrumental in characterizing diffuse gliomas and other malignancies, revealed their heterogeneity and different tumor subtypes. This work has also been relevant for the renewal of diffuse glioma classification based on the genetic markers. He is leading a computational cancer biology group with a research focus on the analysis of cancer genomics data to understand the progression of diffuse glioma.
Professor Frank Winkler, University Hospital Heidelberg and German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
Professor Frank Winkler will talk about malignant cell networks in the brain and ways to target them therapeutically. His research group have made seminal discoveries on the role of communicating brain tumor cell networks, hijacking of neurodevelopmental pathways for tumor progression, and the key steps of brain metastasis formation in a manner that helps to partly explain therapy resistance and provide new avenues for treatment. They are utilizing advanced imaging approaches in their work to study tissue and cell dynamics over several months from a variety of perspectives.
Other speakers will cover a variety of topics, ranging from brain tumor epidemiology to improved neurosurgery applications, tumor biology, potential biomarkers, and up-to-date treatment modalities.
Invited speakers

Professor Anssi Auvinen, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Orcid
Tuni Research Portal
Doctor Jiri Bartek, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
Research page
Professor Martin van den Bent, ErasmusMC Cancer Institute, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Orcid
Hersen Tumor Center
Doctor Petter Brandal, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Professor Monika Hegi, University of Lausanne and Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland
Laboratory of Brain Tumour Biology and Genetics – LBGT
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monika-hegi-4747227/
Orcid
Doctor Hanna Koivunoro, Neutron Therapeutics Finland, Helsinki, Finland
Doctor Sara Kinhult, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Associate Professor Miikka Korja, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
Doctor Päivi Koroknay-Pal, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
Adjunct professor Nea Malila, Director of the Finnish Cancer Registry, Cancer Society of Finland, Finland
Finnish Cancer Registry
Adjunct professor Simone Niclou, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg and University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Simone Niclou Research Group
Orcid
Professor Hans Skovgaard Poulsen, The DCCC Brain Tumor Center, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
Professor Ole Solheim, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim, Norway
GoogleScholar
Doctor Manuel Valiente, CNIO, Madrid, Spain
Brain Metastasis Group
Manuel Valiente Laboratory
Doctor Joachim Weischenfeldt, Rigshospitalet and University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Orcid
Research group
Please note, that the program might still change due to exceptional circumstances. Latest version and updates are presented here on the symposium web pages.
