Chief of the Department of Surgery at Fondazione Poliambulanza Istituto Ospedaliero Multispecialistico.

Dr. Peter J. Allen is Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology Division at Duke University. He also serves as the Chief of Surgery at the Duke Cancer Institute.

He is originally from the state of Maine, received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, and his medical degree from Dartmouth. Dr Allen performed his general surgical residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., and performed both research and clinical fellowships at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Following his training, he returned to Walter Reed where he practiced general surgical oncology. During his time as a surgical attending at Walter Reed, Dr. Allen was deployed to Iraq where he spent one year as a surgeon on a forward surgical team and was awarded the combat medical badge. Dr. Allen was recruite4d to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2003, and for 13 years he led the surgical efforts in the treatment of neoplastic diseases of the pancreas. During his time at Sloan Kettering, Dr. Allen held the Murray F Brennan Chair in Surgery and served as the Vice Chair for Surgical Services and the Associate Director for Clinical programs in the Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Research.

Dr. Allen joined the Duke team in 2018 as the chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology, and the Chief of Surgery in the Duke Cancer Institute. His clinical and research efforts have been focused on the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to invasive and pre-invasive lesions of the pancreas, with a particular focus on intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms. His research has been funded by numerous organizations and he has maintained NIH funding since 2009.

Vinod P. Balachandran, MD, completed his undergraduate work in Physics at Cornell University, his MD at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, general surgery residency at Weill Cornell’s New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and fellowship training in surgical oncology at MSK. In 2015, Dr. Balachandran joined MSK as faculty, where he is now an Assistant Member of the Immuno-Oncology Service of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program (HOPP), an Assistant Attending Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgeon in the Department of Surgery, and Member of the Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research. His clinical and laboratory focus is to discover new immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer. His approach is to study a highly rare subgroup of pancreatic cancer patients that, remarkably, survive long-term. His aim is to discover the underlying immunological principles at play in these patients, and to translate these principles into new clinical immunotherapies.

For his work, Vinod has received the Louise and Allston Boyer Young Investigator Award for Cancer Research, the Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators, a Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, a National Cancer Institute Cancer Moonshot Award, and a Stand Up to Cancer Phillip A. Sharp Innovation Award.

Deputy Director Department of Radiology – Chief Section of Interventional Oncology – Microinvasive Therapy (SIP), Medical University of Innsbruck

Marc Besselink (1976) is a Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) surgeon at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location AMC, the Netherlands with a strong clinical and research interest in pancreatic cancer, pancreatitis and laparoscopic HPB surgery. Marc finished his medical training in Utrecht in 2002. He earned his PhD (cum laude) on acute pancreatitis from Utrecht University in 2008 and MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care from Oxford University in 2014. In 2002, he was the co-founder of the Dutch Pancreatitis Study Group (www.pancreatitis.nl) and in 2012 he was the co-founder of the Dutch Pancreatic Cancer Group (www.dpcg.nl). He has coordinated the 2013 Evidence-Based Guidelines for the Management of Acute Pancreatitis for the International Association of Pancreatology and the American Pancreatic Association. He has published over 240 peer-reviewed papers and has (co-)developed and (co-)coordinated multiple randomized controlled multicenter trials in acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, several of which are published in The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. In 2018, Marc Besselink became full professor in Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery at the University of Amsterdam.

Dr. Del Chiaro, Prof. of Surgery, Division Chief Surgical Oncology, and Dir. of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Program for University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver, CO. He’s an academic surgical oncologist specialised in pancreatic diseases, having developed a new area of pancreatology as pre-emptive pancreatic surgery and surgical treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

With work in clinical research and in translational research, he has over 145 peer-reviewed articles in PubMed, several books and book chapters. A leader and founder of the largest Int’l consortium on pancreatic cystic tumours and PI of the new evidence-based guidelines for the tumour treatments.

Joris Erdmann is an HPB surgeon at the Amsterdam UMC. He received his MD and PhD and surgical training at the Erasmus MC Rotterdam. He followed the HPB and liver transplantation fellowship at the University Medical Center in Groningen after which he worked as a consultant transplant and HPB surgeon in Groningen and Leiden. As a former (liver) transplant surgeon he was involved in machine perfusion and regeneration. At the Amsterdam UMC his research focus is on primary liver and bile duct cancers, post-operative liver function, failure and regeneration.

Fieke is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Pancreatic Cancer at the CRUK Beatson Institute and Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK and the Oncology Lead, Glasgow Precision Oncology Laboratory (GPOL),Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK.
She is also a Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist, Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Glasgow, UK.

Chief, Hepatopancreaticobiliary Surgery
At Carolinas Medical Center, part of Atrium Health, Dr. Iannitti has developed a well-funded center for research in liver disease with multiple active grants for basic science, translational and clinical research projects. He is actively involved in ongoing projects that address the fundamental pathophysiology of hepatocellular carcinoma development and progression. At Carolinas Medical Center, Dr. Iannitti oversees the HPB Fellowship program, including the research and clinical components. He also serves as program director for multiple physician training courses in microwave and radiofrequency ablation as well as a regional/national annual liver course. He has authored more than 80 journal articles and book chapters and more than 150 meeting presentations.

Duncan Jodrell is the Professor of Cancer Therapeutics at the University of Cambridge, the Director of the Cambridge Cancer Trials Centre and the co-Lead for Experimental Cancer Medicine at the CRUK Cambridge Centre.   Duncan moved to Cambridge from Edinburgh in 2008, establishing and leading an Early Phase clinical trials’ team.  He has a special interest in novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer.

A Medical Oncologist (an honorary consultant at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust), Duncan completed his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Cancer Research and an MSc in Biochemistry at King’s College (University of London), post-doctoral research at the University of Maryland (Baltimore) and completed his clinical training at the Royal Marsden Hospital (London) and Beatson Oncology Centre (Glasgow).  Duncan has acted as the Chief or Principal Investigator in many Early Phase and Experimental Medicine studies, in addition to leading innovative laboratory research.

Director, Global Cancer Disparities Initiatives at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Mike is Assistant Professor of Surgery and a Member of the Duke Cancer Institute.

Damian is the 1777 Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh, and is an UK Medical Research Council Senior Clinical Fellow. His research is focussed on advancing translational therapies for benign and malignant diseases of the liver, pancreas and biliary system. Damian’s research is driven by a vision to produce innovative solutions to difficult health and societal problems and challenging diseases.

His entrepreneurial research strategy is based on a critical questioning approach, disease mechanism evaluation and seeking out and building the best teams to discover and deliver these solutions. Damian was recently a Visiting Researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA and was Principal Investigator on a pivotal collaboration with GSK making new medicines targeting inflammation and metabolism that has spun out as a biotech company, Kynos Therapeutics Ltd, which Damian leads as CEO. Previously, he led an academic industry collaboration to develop a non-invasive MRI tool for forecasting future liver performance after surgery. Damian’s current research includes understanding why people who have sustained significant inflammation have diminished overall survival and poor organ performance.

Doctor Giovanni Marchegiani was born in 1983 in Bologna. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 2008 at the Alma Mater Studiorum, Bologna University (110/110 cum laude). During the University years, he got involved as an observer at the Epato-bilio-pancreatic and Liver and Multi-organ Transplant Unit of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy, the New York University Hospital of New York, and the Thomas Jefferson University of Philadelphia, USA. From 2013 to 2014 he served as a Research Fellow in Pancreatic Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital – Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. From 2012 to 2014 he was a Project Manager of Pancreas 2000, a scientific program for young researchers led by the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

He earned his certification in General Surgery in 2015 at the University of Verona (50/50 cum laude), and since then, he serves as a PhD candidate in Inflammation, Immunity and Cancer at the Verona University. He has been appointed attending surgeon in 2016. 

Dr. Marchegiani performed over 300 surgical procedures in both General and Vascular Surgery, most of them at the Verona University Hospital Trust. In particular, he carried out 100 pancreatic resections. His main areas of interest are exocrine and cystic neoplasms of the pancreas.

He is author of more than 100 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. His impact factor exceeds 400 (JCR 2020), while his H-index is 25 (Google Scholar). He is co-author of several book chapters, and he presented his researches in more than 40 National and International meetings. He won several awards, including the AISP (Associazione Italiana per lo Studio del Pancreas) prize in 2014, the European Pancreatic Club travel grant in 2013 and 2014, the Kenneth-Warren Award for the best oral presentation at the Pancreas Club in 2014, the American Pancreatic Association Young Investigator Travel Award in 2013, the United European Gastroenterology Week Travel Award in 2014, the “Prof. Giovanni Mazzotti” award as best anatomist of the year at the Bologna University in 2015. He has been also awarded the Italian society of Surgery “Ettore Ruggieri” prize in 2016 and the UEG rising star award in 2020. He is associate editor of the BJS open and of Digestive Surgery.

He has been actively involved since 2006 in mentoring and tutoring medical students at the Department of Human Anatomy and Biochemistry, University of Bologna. Furthermore, he directed the Gross Anatomy Course at the University of Wales in Cardiff, UK, from 2008 to 2012. 

Mr Myrddin (Merv) Rees qualified from Westminster Medical School, London in 1973.  He underwent his surgical training at St George’s Hospital, London .  In 1980 he spent two years as Research and Clinical Fellow at the Oschner Clinic New Orleans.

Myrddin (Merv) Rees came to Basingstoke as a consultant surgeon in l986.  In 1987 he performed his first liver resection in Basingstoke, in what has become one of the largest series of colorectal liver metastases in the world.

He has a particular interest in hepatic anatomy relevant to surgeons, use of video in surgical teaching and evolving techniques for expanding the indications for resection of hepatic malignancy.  He has written papers and lectured worldwide on these topics.  He is a regular reviewer for several medical publications.

Richard D. Schulick, MD, MBA, is the Aragón/Gonzalez-Gíustí Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery and is a Professor of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado, School of Medicine. He also serves as the Director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Dr. Schulick came from the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution in May of 2012 where he was Chief of the Surgical Oncology Division.

As the son of a U.S. diplomat, he grew up around Washington, DC, in Burma, Thailand, and India. He received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering in 1985, medical school degree in 1989, and master’s in business administration in 2010, all from Johns Hopkins University, where he also completed a residency in general surgery in 1996. He completed fellowships in clinical pharmacology and immunology at the National Institutes of Health both in 1993, advanced gastrointestinal surgery at Johns Hopkins in 1997, and surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1999.

Dr. Schulick is a recognized leader in the fields of pancreatic, hepatic, and biliary surgery, as well as other areas in cancer surgery. He has been an invited speaker at conferences around the world. His scientific interests are in the area of tumor immunology. He has held numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health to study vaccine therapy of cancer and has obtained funding from both corporate and government agencies, including K23 and R01 funding for various cancer research studies. He is currently the principal investigator for the University of Colorado P30 Cancer Center Grant. He has pioneered the use of genetically engineered bacteria as well as genetic modifications of cancer cells to treat human cancer. He has also received recognition as a highly effective educator.

Dr. Schulick has served on the editorial boards of multiple journals in the field of surgery. He has authored or co-authored more than 360 peer reviewed scientific papers, invited manuscripts, and book chapters. Dr. Schulick is also a member of various organizations including the American Surgical Association, Society of Clinical Surgery, American College of Surgeons, Society of Surgical Oncology, Americas Hepato-pancreato-biliary Association, Western Surgical Association, Southern Surgical Association, and James IV Association of Surgeons. He serves as President of the Halsted Society for 2022-2023.

Camille L. Stewart, MD, is a surgical oncologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.  She completed medical school at Tulane University, general surgery residency at the University of Colorado, and fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology at City of Hope National Medical Center.

Her clinical practice is focused on the surgical treatment of melanoma and hepatobiliary diseases.  Her research is focused on how cannabinoids affect patients with cancer, including their impact on post-operative outcomes and the tumor immune microenvironment.

Christopher Wolfgang, MD, PhD, is the Chief of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.  He joined NYU Langone Health in January, 2021, having previously served as chief of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, and vice chair for surgical oncology at Johns Hopkins Medicine.