The Landscape of Cancer Research: Advances in Immuno-oncology 2025

Dr. Sangeeta Goswami is a physician-scientist at the Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and the Department of Immunology, Division of Cancer Medicine, at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She obtained her medical degree from Gauhati Medical College in Assam, India, and earned a PhD in Immunology from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Goswami completed her Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and a Medical Oncology Fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. A dedicated researcher and clinician, Dr. Goswami has published numerous original research articles and reviews in top-tier journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, Science, Nature Reviews Immunology, and Science Translational Medicine. Her research has significantly contributed to the development of novel combination immunotherapies for cancer patients. Her clinical focus is on treating patients with renal cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma, while her laboratory in the Department of Immunology investigates the cellular dynamics of the tumor-immune ecosystem and its influence on immune checkpoint therapy responses. Dr. Goswami has also designed and is leading several investigator-initiated clinical trials based on her pre-clinical findings. Dr. Goswami was recently elected to the “Extended Leadership Team” for the Break Through Cancer (BTC) GBM team, a collaborative research initiative between MD Anderson, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, MIT, Johns Hopkins, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In this role, she leads discovery science on myeloid cell biology to explore new therapeutic approaches for glioblastoma. She has received several accolades for her work, including the Andrew Sabin Award in 2021 for high-risk, high-impact research for emerging leaders.

Michael Traxlmayr did his undergraduate studies at BOKU University (Vienna, Austria), followed by a PhD in the field of antibody engineering in the lab of Prof. Christian Obinger (BOKU). Next, he worked as a postdoc in the lab of Prof. Dane Wittrup at MIT (Cambridge, USA), where he engineered non-antibody-based domains for specific antigen binding. After returning to Vienna, he started to apply his protein engineering skills in the field of CAR T cell cancer immunotherapy in collaboration with Dr. Manfred Lehner (CCRI, Vienna). Since 2019, Michael Traxlmayr is the head of the BOKU-module of the "CD Laboratory for Next Generation CAR T Cells" and his current research focuses on engineering novel protein tools to enable regulation of CAR T cell activity with small molecule drugs and to improve the tumor specificity of CAR T cells.

Ethan Shelkey, Ph.D. is a Research Scientist with the Bioscience Division at Lonza. As part of the team at the primary human cell isolation site, Ethan works to develop new assays for cell use and new protocols for improved cell characterization. He is the technical subject matter expert many of the projects involving immunology or genomics. Previous to his role at Lonza, he worked to create immune-competent 3D models of patient tumors to test immunotherapy efficacy.

David A. Braun is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Pathology and Urology, and the Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman Yale Scholar at the Yale School of Medicine. He is a medical oncologist specializing in the care of patients with kidney cancer, and the principal investigator of a laboratory in the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology.

Dr. Jamie Spangler is The Brody Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Spangler earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and went on to earn a PhD in Biological Engineering at MIT. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Spangler launched her independent research group at Johns Hopkins University in 2017, jointly between the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. Her lab, located in the Translational Tissue Engineering Center at the School of Medicine, applies structural and mechanistic insights to re-engineer existing proteins and design new proteins that therapeutically modulate the immune response. In particular, her group is interested in engineering immune molecules such as cytokines, growth factors, and antibodies for targeted treatment of diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders.

Aurita Menezes, PhD is a Sr. market Development manager within the Marketing team at Lonza. In her role she is responsible for identifying products and product improvements that will serve the biologics and preclinical markets. Her portfolio focuses on hematopoietic immune and stem cells. She works closely with the Lonza R&D team to drive innovation with new primary cell products and assays. Aurita received her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from University of Mississippi where she researched the major histocompatibility complex of Ictalurus punctatus. Previous to her role at Lonza she was a Sr. product manager at Integrated DNA technologies leading the development of qPCR gene expression and genotyping products.