Raffit Hassan, MD
Chairman

Dr. Hassan, is an Investigator and Chief of the Solid Tumor Immunotherapy Section in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Hassan is a medical oncologist whose laboratory and clinical research is focused on developing novel therapies for the treatment of mesothelioma. Work done by him and his collaborators has shown that mesothelin, a tumor antigen which was discovered at the NCI, is a useful target for tumor-specific therapy of malignant mesothelioma. His group is presently conducting clinical trials of three different agents targeting mesothelin namely, SS1P an anti-mesothelin immunotoxin, MORAb-009 a chimeric anti-mesothelin monoclonal antibody and CRS-207 a mesothelin tumor vaccine.

National Cancer Institute
Building 37, Room 5116
Bethesda, MD 20892

Steven Albelda, MD

Dr. Albelda is the William Maul Measey Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Associate Director of the Pulmonary Division, Director of Lung Research, and Co-Director of the Thoracic Oncology Laboratories. Dr. Albelda is recognized as one of the leading researchers in gene therapy for mesothelioma.

University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
Abramson Research Building, Room 1016B
3615 Civic Center Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-4318

H. Richard Alexander, MD

Dr. Alexander is an internationally recognized surgical oncologist and clinical researcher. He treats cancer patients at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center and is associate chairman for clinical research in the University of Maryland Department of Surgery.

Dr. Alexander is recognized for developing innovative techniques to treat patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma.  His clinical research program has been instrumental in establishing that operative cytoreduction and intra-operative hyperthermic perfusion with chemotherapy is associated with durable clinical benefit.  His laboratory is focused on identifying new therapeutic interventions based on elucidating the molecular profiles and cellular pathways that are activated in peritoneal mesothelioma.

University of Maryland School of Medicine
22 S. Greene Street S4B05
Baltimore, Maryland  21201

Julie R. Brahmer, MD

Dr. Brahmer is an Assistant Professor of Oncology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Brahmer is an active clinical leader in the treatment of lung cancer and mesothelioma at SKCCC.  She is in charge organizing the multidisciplinary thoracic malignancy conference whose members meet weekly to discuss thoracic malignancy cases that need a multidisciplinary review/approach.  She is also a part of the oncology pain team headed by Dr. Stuart Grossman.

Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins Bunting/Blaustein Cancer Research Building
1650 Orleans Street, G94
Baltimore, MD 21231

V. Courtney Broaddus, MD

Dr. Broaddus holds the positions of Chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the San Francisco General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.  She started in research with an interest in pleural disease and the pathologic role of the mesothelial cell, first in their production of inflammatory cytokines and then in phagocytosis of asbestos and their resulting cell death via apoptosis.  She currently studies mesothelioma cells, in particular their resistance to apoptosis that contributes to their resistance to therapy and their surface markers and antibodies that can target them. 

Lung Biology Center
Box 0854 UCSF
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA  94143-0854

Michele Carbone, MD

Michele Carbone, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Hawaii Medical School, and the Interim Director of the Cancer Research Center of the University of Hawaii. He was born in Rome, Italy. He received his MD and Ph.D. from the Medical School of Rome “La Sapienza”.  He is board certified in Anatomic Pathology in both, Italy and US.  He came to the US in 1986 as a recipient of a Fogarty Fellow Award and worked in the Viral Pathogenesis section at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda MD until 1994.  He moved to the University of Chicago in 1994 and in 1997 moved to the Cancer Center of the Loyola University of Chicago where he was a Professor of Pathology and the Director of Thoracic Oncology.  In June of 2006 he left Loyola to join the University of Hawaii. Dr. Carbone has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers: most of them deal with the pathogenesis of mesothelioma. 

Dr. Carbone’s research team receives over 50% of the total US Federal grant funding for research on asbestos and mesothelioma. Dr. Carbone has the honorary title of Knight of Italy that he received in 2003 for his achievements in Science and Medicine.

Cancer Research Center of Hawaii
Department of Pathology John A. Burns School of Medicine
651 Ilalo St, BSB 231-H
University of Hawaii
Honolulu HI 96813                                                                                                     

Petr F. Hausner, MD, PhD

Dr. Hausner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Hausner’s major clinical interests center on the management of patients with solid cancers in particular mesothelioma and other thoracic malignancies including lung cancer as well as melanoma and other skin cancers including Kaposi sarcoma. To advance the management of these cancers and offer patients with these cancers optimal care, he performs clinical trials for these diseases. 

His laboratory research is centered on the cellular and tissue level of cancer growth. He studies gap junctional intercellular communications and their function in drug resistance.  Phenotypic changes related to the epithelial mesothelial transition are studied in melanoma and mesothelioma. He also studies milky spots of the pleural and peritoneal cavities to better understand the pathogenesis and spread of mesothelioma. Another focus is tumor stem cells as the ultimate object of cancer therapy.

University of Maryland School of Medicine
22 S. Greene Street, Suite S9D04
Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Hedy Lee Kindler, MD

Dr. Kindler is a medical oncologist at the University of Chicago. She is also the Chair of the Mesothelioma Program of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, a national clinical trials research group. Her research is focused on the evaluation of novel drugs for the treatment of mesothelioma, including angiogenesis inhibitors and epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors.

University of Chicago Medical Center
Section of Hematology/Oncology
5841 S. Maryland Avenue, MC 2115
Chicago, IL 60637

Robert A. Kratzke, MD

Dr. Kratzke is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School in the Section of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation.  In 2004, Dr. Kratzke was established as the first holder of the John Skoglund Chair in Lung Cancer Studies at the University of Minnesota. 

Dr. Kratzke’s research has centered around molecular abnormalities in lung cancer and mesothelioma, focusing primarily on cell cycle regulator genes and their loss of function in cancer.  He has studied gene replacement therapy for mesothelioma using murine models resulting in curative treatment in the animal model.  Dr. Kratzke has been an invited speaker on mesothelioma at International Mesothelioma Interest Group biennial meetings, as well as the biennial meetings of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

University of Minnesota Medical School
MMC 480, 420 Delaware St, SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Lee Krug, MD

Lee M. Krug, M.D. is an Assistant Attending Physician in the Division of Thoracic Oncology, Department of Medicine, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York where he completed a fellowship and chief fellowship in medical oncology. Dr. Krug has investigated multimodality approaches for patients with early stage malignant pleural mesothelioma. He led a multicenter U.S. trial of induction chemotherapy before extrapleural pneumonectomy, and he has a current study testing the feasibility of chemotherapy followed by pleural radiation. Dr. Krug also has a strong interest in novel therapeutics for patients with more advanced disease. He conducted a phase I trial with a WT-1 peptide vaccine and he is currently the principal investigator of an international, phase III trial of a histone deacetylase inhibitor, vorinostat.                                                                                                                                         

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
1275 York Ave.
New York, NY 10065 

Steven E. Mutsaers, MD, PhD

Dr. Mutsaers is a Senior Scientist and Research Group Leader at the Lung Institute of Western Australia and University of Western Australia and Laboratory Head in the Dept of Anatomical Pathology, PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA. Dr. Mutsaers has an international reputation in mesothelial cell biology and mesothelioma having worked in the field for over 20 years, and is the Secretary of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group. He is on the committee of several scientific societies and is an international advisor on the International Pleural Newsletter. He receives regular invitations to chair sessions and present his work at national and international scientific meetings and has collaborations in leading laboratories around the world.

PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA                 
Ground Floor J Block, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital  
NEDLANDS WA 6009      
AUSTRALIA

University of Western Australia
4th Floor G Block
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
Hospital Avenue
NEDLANDS WA 6009
AUSTRALIA

Luciano Mutti, MD, PhD

Since 1999 Dr. Luciano Mutti M.D, Ph.D has been the Chief of  the Dept of Medicine  and Head of the Lab of Clinical Oncology of Vercelli  General Hospital in Italy.

He is the Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Buzzi Foundation for research on Mesothelioma and of the Italian Group for the Research and therapy of Mesothelioma (GIMe), Italian Director of the International Mesothelioma  Interest Group (IMIG) and expert leader of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) for Chemotherapy and novel therapies for Mesothelioma

Dr. Mutti began his research investigating the immune response against mesothelioma  cells and over the last years has been coordinating a multidisciplinary  team-oriented approach to mesothelioma  ranging from molecular epidemiology to cell  signaling transduction and novel translational  therapies for this tumor. (Imatinib Mesylate, Bortezomib, Antiangiogenics and anti-CTLA4)

Local Health Unit 11, Vercelli Hospital (I)
P.le Lora 1
Borgosesia (Vc) Italy , postal code 13011

David Rice, MD

Dr. Rice is the Director of the Mesothelioma Surgical Program at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He is a thoracic surgical oncologist with extensive experience in the multimodality treatment of mesothelioma patients. His interests include outcomes based clinical studies and translation research.

Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Box 445
1515 Holcombe Blvd.
Houston, TX 77025

Victor Roggli, MD

Dr. Roggli is an internationally recognized pathologist who specializes in the diagnosis of mesothelioma. He is professor of pathology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC and receives consultations from throughout the United States and around the world.

Dr. Roggli is recognized for his work in developing new techniques for the diagnosis of mesothelioma and for determining disease causation.  His research has been instrumental in establishing criteria for the accurate diagnosis of mesothelioma and its distinction from other cancers.  His laboratory is focused on identifying amounts and types of fibers in lung tissue samples and correlating this information with patient exposure histories and types of asbestos-related diseases.

Duke University Medical Center
M255 Davison Bldg., 200 Trent Dr.
Durham, NC  27710

Daniel H. Sterman, MD

Dr. Sterman is currently Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine in Surgery, and the Director of the PENN Interventional Pulmonology Program and Clinical Director of the Thoracic Oncology Gene Therapy Program of the Center for Lung Cancer and Related Disorders of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. His clinical interests are related to the treatment of thoracic malignancies, specifically as they apply to the synergy of molecular medicine and novel technologies in Interventional Pulmonology. His research interests are in the translation of laboratory discoveries from the bench to the bedside: conducting human clinical trials of gene therapy and vaccine therapy for lung cancer, mesothelioma, and other pleural malignancies.

University of Pennsylavania Medical Center
833 West Gates Building
3400 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
19104-4283  USA

Robert N. Taub, MD, PhD

Dr. Taub is a medical oncologist who directs the Connective Tissue Oncology Program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, where there are a number of ongoing multimodality studies of patients with pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma. Dr. Taub is the Vivian and Seymour Milstein Professor of Clinical Medicine.

Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons
161 Fort Washington Avenue, 9-930
New York, New York 10032

Joseph R. Testa, MD, PhD

Dr. Testa is internationally known for his research on genomic alterations in malignant mesothelioma.  He directs the Human Genetics Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Testa is recognized for identifying recurrent molecular genetic alterations that play a critical role in the development and progression of malignant mesothelioma.  His group has uncovered mechanisms by which alterations of specific cellular pathways contribute to the uncontrolled growth, spreading, and chemoresistance of mesothelioma cells.  His laboratory has also developed a mouse model of asbestos-induced mesothelioma that recapitulates molecular features of the human disease and, thus, may serve as a valuable preclinical model for testing new therapeutic agents.

Fox Chase Cancer Center
333 Cottman Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19111