Keynote Speakers
Dr. Michelle Monje, MD, PhD
Michelle Monje, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Neurology at Stanford University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She received her M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford and completed her residency training in neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School Partners program, and then returned to Stanford for a clinical fellowship in pediatric neuro-oncology.
Her research program focuses at the intersection of neuroscience, immunology and brain cancer biology with an emphasis on neuron-glial interactions in health and oncological disease. Her laboratory studies how neuronal activity regulates healthy glial precursor cell proliferation, new oligodendrocyte generation, and adaptive myelination; this plasticity of myelin contributes to healthy cognitive function, while disruption of myelin plasticity contributes to cognitive impairment in disease states like cancer therapy-related cognitive impairment.
Her lab discovered that neuronal activity similarly promotes the progression of malignant gliomas, driving glioma growth through both paracrine factors and through electrophysiologically functional neuron-to-glioma synapses. Dr. Monje has led several of her discoveries from basic molecular work to clinical trials.
Her work has been recognized with numerous honors, including an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences and election to the National Academy of Medicine.
Research Links
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Leanne Friesen
Leanne is the author of the book “Grieving Room: Making Space for All the Hard Things After Death and Loss,” and the host and curator of the popular Instagram page @grieving.room where she offers grief support to 37,000 followers. A grief educator and ally, Leanne is passionate about helping our culture learn to make more space for grief and grievers. Leanne regularly speaks as part of grief forums, conferences and workshops, and is delighted to be honoured to be joining the Brainstorm Summit. She lives with her family in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where she works as an ordained minister.
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Dr. Gregory Friedman, MD
Gregory Friedman, MD, specializes in pediatric neuro-oncology and conducting pediatric brain tumor translational and clinical research as Professor of Pediatrics and Section-Chief of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at the University Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He previously served as Director of Developmental Therapeutics for the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer & Blood Disorders at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and as the site PI for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Pediatric Early Phase-Clinical Trial Network (PEP-CTN). His overarching goal is to improve outcomes for children with brain tumors by developing and improving novel, targeted immunotherapies in the lab and then translating these therapies to clinical trials. His research is focused on determining mechanisms of cancer cell therapeutic resistance to novel therapies by exploring the role of the tumor microenvironment and cellular defense mechanisms to circumvent resistance mechanisms. His experience in managing pediatric neuro-oncology patients and in conducting clinical oncology research complements his laboratory experience, which has enabled his team to develop a greater understanding of the tumor microenvironment and translate innovative immunotherapies from bench-to-bedside. He was the Principal Investigator (PI) for the first completed oncolytic virotherapy (G207) pediatric brain tumor trial (NCT02457845; published in New England Journal of Medicine in 2021), and he is the PI for an ongoing first-in-human trial of G207 in recurrent cerebellar tumors (NCT03911388). In addition, he developed and leads a Phase 2 trial of G207 through the NCI-supported Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium in recurrent pediatric high-grade glioma. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Defense, and numerous pediatric cancer foundations
