Anil K. Sood, MD
Dr. Anil K. Sood is Professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is co-director of the Center for RNA Interference and Non-Coding RNA at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. He is also Director of the multi-disciplinary Blanton-Davis Ovarian Cancer Research Program and co-leads the Ovarian Cancer Moonshot Program.
Dr. Sood received his medical degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A major and consistent theme of his scientific research has been on understanding human cancer biology and converting lab discoveries into novel therapeutics. His research group has made several seminal research contributions in the fields of tumor microenvironment, nanomedicine, and neuroendocrine effects on cancer biology. Dr. Sood has received recognition for his research accomplishments including the Hunter Award, and the GCF/Claudia Cohen Research Foundation Prize for Outstanding Gynecologic Cancer Researcher. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Association of American Physicians (AAP). Dr. Sood was selected as an American Cancer Society Research Professor in 2017 and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in 2021.
Yolanda Sanchez, PhD
Yolanda (Yoli) Sanchez, PhD, carried out her graduate work at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Stephen Elledge's laboratory, she used yeast and mammalian cells to dissect the signaling pathways that regulate S phase and Mitosis following DNA damage where she cloned the mammalian and yeast checkpoint kinase 1 genes. The human Chk1 kinase and the Chk1/Atr pathway are being explored as oncology targets in clinical trials. Dr. Sanchez's first faculty appointment was at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, where she was granted tenure in 2004 before being recruited in 2006 to Dartmouth's Medical School now known as the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. Sanchez was named a PEW Scholar in 2001. Her laboratory continues to study the DNA damage response pathways and more recently her laboratory has focused on targeting the Achilles heel of cancers driven by dysregulated Ras signaling using synthetic lethal chemical screens.
Dr. Sanchez also brings several years of leadership experience at the Dartmouth Cancer Center (DCC, formerly known as the Norris Cotton Cancer Center) and SYNERGY (Dartmouth's CTSA). Dr. Sanchez is the Associate Director of Basic Sciences at DCC and serves on the steering committee of the Early Phase Trial Clinical Oncology Group (EPTCOG), which ensures that opportunities for translational research are explored and supported by pilot funding and that effective clinical collaborations for translational research are nurtured. Dr. Sanchez's roles include fostering bidirectional translation, and in 2015 she spearheaded a seed-funding program to support multi-investigator multi-disciplinary programs. This initiative, which involves peer review of a written application as well as site-visit style team presentations, has supported interdisciplinary programs in immuno-engineering, imaging and image-guided surgery, flash radiotherapy, breast cancer, and global health. Investment in a multi-PI team focused on early-stage breast Cancer and flash radiotherapy resulted, thus far, in over 5 million dollars in direct costs for multi-PI grants and a recently funded U01. Dr. Sanchez worked with the Cancer Center, Dartmouth Health, and Medical School's leadership teams on two successful renewals of the Cancer Center Support Grant from the NCI in 2014-15 and 2018-19.
Outside of Dartmouth Dr. Sanchez has served on numerous NIH panels and has participated in the review of P01 and SPORE applications. She is co-inventor on several patents and provisional patents.
Kathleen Moore, MD, MS
Kathleen Moore, MD, MS, is the Virginia Kerley Cade Endowed Chair in Cancer Development and Professor of Gynecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She currently serves as the Associate Director of Clinical Research and the Director of the Oklahoma TSET Phase I Program at the Stephenson Cancer Center. She also serves as the Program Director of the Gyn Oncology Fellowship Program in the Section of Gyn Oncology of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. She completed her gynecologic oncology fellowship at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in 2007 and was recruited to join the faculty. Her primary areas of interest are in new drug development and Phase I clinical trials.
Barbara Burtness, MD
Barbara Burtness, MD is Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) at the Yale School of Medicine and Interim Associate Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Yale Cancer Center. She serves as Co-Leader of the Developmental Therapeutics Program, Leader of the Disease Aligned Research for Head and Neck Cancer, and Director of the Yale Head and Neck Specialized Program of Research Excellence. Dr. Burtness is internationally recognized for her research in head and neck cancer. She chairs the ECOG-ACRIN Cooperative Group Head and Neck Cancer Therapeutics Committee, and leads national and international trials of targeted therapy in head and neck cancer. Her laboratory studies synthetic lethal therapeutic strategies in head and neck cancer and the targeting of aurora kinase A to overcome adaptive resistance to EGFR inhibition and - in lung cancer- to direct KRAS inhibition.
