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Professor Robert Brown is Chair in Translational Oncology and Head of Division of Cancer within the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College, where he heads the Epigenetics Unit. His post is a joint appointment between Imperial College London and Institute of Cancer Research where he is the Epigenetics Team Leader in the Section of Molecular Pathology. Bob is Principal Investigator of a Cancer Research UK research programme, Drug Resistance and Epigenetic Mechanisms, and is a joint Principle Investigator of the Imperial Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre. He moved to London in 2007 after working for nearly 20 years at the CRUK Beatson Laboratories in Glasgow where he was Director of Laboratory Research in the Centre for Oncology and Applied Pharmacology. He obtained his BSc in Biological Sciences (Genetics) at Edinburgh University, his PhD at MRC Radiobiology Unit, Harwell, and his Post-doc at the German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg.

He has provided key insight into epigenetic mechanisms involved in tumorigenesis and resistance to chemotherapy, particularly in ovarian cancer. Recent areas of his research include; identifying novel epigenetic targets in ovarian and breast cancer, characterising histone marks and DNA methylation in breast and ovarian tumours as risk, prognostic and/or predictive biomarkers, and development of novel histone methyltransferase inhibitors.

He is Chair of the NCRI Biomarker and Imaging Clinical Studies Group whose remit is to facilitate and support biomarker and imaging studies in UK clinical trials. He is Deputy-Chair of CR-UK New Agents Committee and member of MRC Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board.

James D. Brenton is a senior group leader at the Cancer Research UK (CR-UK) Cambridge Institute and leads the Functional Genomics of Ovarian Cancer laboratory. He qualified in medicine from University College London in 1988 and trained in medical oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto and the Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge. He has been an honorary consultant in medical oncology at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since 2001. His PhD work was carried out at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology and he held a Cancer Research UK Senior Clinical Research Fellow from 2001–2006 at the Hutchison/MRC Research Centre.

His research focuses on the identification of prognostic and predictive markers for therapy in ovarian cancer and identifying mechanisms of drug resistance, with particular emphasis on the genomic profiling of clinical samples and bioinformatic analysis.

He is the chair of the Informatics Advisory Group for the national CR-UK Stratified Medicine Programme and was previously Vice-Chair of the CR-UK Biomarkers and Imaging Discovery and Development Committee. He is a member of the international Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis (OTTA) Consortium project approval committee, the SGCTG Protocol Review Committee, NCRI ovarian cancer subgroup and the CR-UK Clinical Fellows Mentor Panel.

Professor Ignace Vergote is Chairman of the Leuven Cancer Institute and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Gynaecologic Oncology at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He initially trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, before specialising in Gynaecologic Oncology in the Department of Gynaecologic Oncology at the Norwegian Radium Hospital, where he later became staff member and in 1991 deputy chairman.

Professor Vergote is currently Chairman of the Belgian & Luxemburg Gynaecological Oncology Group (BGOG), and Chairman of the Protocol committee of European Organization for Research, and Treatment of Cancer -Gynecologic Cancer Group (EORTC-GCG), and President of the Society of Robotic European Gynaecological Surgery (SERGS). Professor Vergote was the founder and first chairman of ENGOT from 2007 until 2012. In 2013 he was Chairman of the Board of Medical Chairmen of the University Hospital Leuven. Since 2014 he is member of the Board of Directors of the University Hospital Leuven.

He has been Chairman of the EORTC-GCG from 1997 to 2003, and served as President of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) for the period 2003-2005. For the period 2006-2008 he was the President of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS). He has been Chairman of the Flemish Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology from 2008 to 2013. He was founder and first chairman of the European Network of Gynaecological Oncological Trial groups (ENGOT) from 2007 tot 2012.

He received in 2004 the Wertheim price in Austria and the COBRA price for surgical expertise in the Netherlands. In 2008 he became Honorary Member of the Finnish Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics. In 2012 he became Honorary Member of the American College of Surgeons. 

Professor Vergote’s main areas of clinical and translational research focus on ovarian and uterine cancer. He has authored more than 635 original full papers in peer-reviewed journals, together with 50 book chapters, and edited several books on Gynaecological Oncology. He is Editor of the European Journal of Cancer , and past-Associate Editor of Gynecologic Oncology and the International Journal of Gynaecological Cancer.

Franca Esposito is Professor of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.

After graduating in medicine at the University of Naples Federico II, Professor Esposito did her residency in Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the same University. Formerly, a visiting scientist, Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA and a post-doctoral assistant at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Cincinnati, USA.

At the School of Medicine, University of Naples Federico II, Professor Esposito is the Coordinator for Biochemistry courses and President of the BS degree course for Medical Laboratory Technicians.

Her research activity has focused on the study of the redox regulation of gene expression and effects of reactive oxygen species on the: i) activity of some transcription factors; ii) expression of cell cycle regulatory proteins and iii) regulation of mitogenic signal transduction.

Professor Esposito's present research activity includes the study of TRAP1, a novel antiapoptotic gene involved in the resistance to anticancer therapy. She is working on the validation of TRAP1 as a new biomarker and drug target candidate in multiple human cancers and chemoresistance.

Gordon Moore is a Professor of Population Medicine (on leave) at Harvard Medical School.

He was one of the founding group of Harvard Community Health Plan and rose to become the Medical Director and Chief Operating Officer prior to the organization’s split into Harvard Vanguard and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

Following his move to the Medical School, he was responsible for the design and development of the New Pathway, Harvard’s ground-breaking student directed curriculum. He designed and started the Harvard Vanguard-Brigham Primary Care Medical Residency program, which is now one of the most highly sought-after in the country.

In addition to educational, health services, and health care management research and development, Gordon has consulted widely in educational strategy and health care system design and management.

He has over 100 publications.

He was the recipient of the 2008 President’s Award from the Royal College of General Practice in the United Kingdom, in recognition of his role in supporting primary care worldwide.