Scientific Advisory Board

Martin J. Edelman, MD, a nationally renowned expert in the research and treatment of lung cancer, has joined Fox Chase Cancer Center as Chair of the Department of Hematology/Oncology. He also serves as deputy cancer center director for clinical research, leading the effort to integrate discoveries from the Translational Research Initiative into a strong investigator-initiated clinical trials program.

Edelman collaborates with clinical, scientific, and administrative leadership to grow robust therapeutic, clinical research, and translational research programs in hematology and medical oncology while leading the department in evaluating emerging national trends in the delivery of cancer care.

“Dr. Edelman is a visionary in his field, and I am confident he will lead our Department of Hematology/Oncology to even greater heights,” says Richard I. Fisher, MD, president and CEO of Fox Chase. “I am delighted that he has chosen to become a key part of our faculty, and I look forward to what we will all achieve together in the coming years.”

Edelman comes to Fox Chase from the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC), where he served most recently as the head of the section of solid tumor oncology and associate director of the division of hematology/oncology. In addition, he was a professor of medicine and radiation oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

“Fox Chase Cancer Center has a national and international reputation for excellence,” Edelman said. “I look forward to working with leading experts in cancer research and treatment as we continue the institution’s long legacy of progress against cancer.”

After receiving his medical degree from Albany Medical College, Edelman completed residency training in internal medicine and a hematology/oncology fellowship at the Naval Hospital in San Diego. He served for more than 20 years in the United States Navy Reserve, retiring with the rank of Captain. During his active service, Edelman served aboard the USS Duluth (LPD-6) as senior medical officer, providing care for 1,000 Navy and Marine personnel.

Edelman’s achievements in oncology include developing one of the most commonly used regimens for treating advanced lung cancer and working toward the development of new agents and biomarkers to personalize lung cancer therapy. He has a particular interest in approaches that integrate surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy in the management of lung cancer patients.

He serves on the Lung Cancer Committee of the Alliance (previously CALGB), the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, and the Thoracic Malignancies Steering Committee of the National Cancer Institute’s Scientific Review Group. In addition, he is the Medical Oncology Co-chair for the Lung Cancer Committee of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG, NRG).  He has been active within the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and has chaired the lung cancer sections for the scientific and educational committees as well as a past member of the governmental affairs committee.   As a member of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) he has been a chaired of the Career Development and Ethics Committees.

In addition to clinical and leadership achievements, Edelman has been a prolific writer, publishing more than 325 scientific articles, abstracts, and book chapters. He has served on the editorial boards or as an ad-hoc reviewer of numerous academic journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and currently serves as deputy editor of the journal Lung Cancer.

Dr. Aberle is a professor of Radiology in the School of Medicine and professor of Bioengineering in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Diagnostic Radiology.

Dr. Aberle earned her MD degree in 1979 at the University of Kansas in Kansas City, KS and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Boston University Medical School in 1982. She completed a residency in Diagnostic Radiology at UCLA in 1982, and subspecialty training in thoracic imaging at the University of California, San Francisco.

She has been on faculty in Radiological Sciences since 1987, and was the Section Chief of Thoracic Imaging from 1988 to 2005.

Dr. Aberle is the Vice Chair of Research in Radiological Sciences and a faculty member in the interdisciplinary Biomedical Physics and the Medical Imaging Informatics training programs, both sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. 

Dr. Aberle served as the national Principal Investigator of the ACRIN-NLST (American College of Radiology Imaging Network component of the National Lung Screening Trial). The NLST is an NCI-sponsored randomized controlled trial to compare. the efficacy of low dose helical CT versus chest radiography for lung cancer screening. The NLST is the joint collaboration of ACRIN and the Lung Screening Study.

Her research also centers on lung cancer and oncologic imaging for response assessment; quantitative image analysis, and oncology informatics.

Dr. Alice Berger, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Human Biology Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA. Dr. Berger leads a research lab focused on improving the outcomes of lung cancer patients through the discovery of the genomic determinants of lung cancer initiation and therapeutic response. Dr. Berger was an active member of the TCGA lung adenocarcinoma working group, where she contributed to the discovery and description of RIT1 mutations and MET exon 14 skipping mutations in lung cancer.

Dr. Berger has been recognized for her scientific contributions by multiple awards, including appointment as the first Innovators Network Endowed Chair at Fred Hutch, the Deveraux Outstanding Young Investigator award from the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and a MERIT award from the National Cancer Institute.

She was a recipient of the LCFA-IASLC Lori Monroe Scholarship and now serves as a member of the Basic and Translational Sciences committee of the IASLC and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lung Cancer Research Foundation. Dr. Berger is passionate about promoting lung cancer research and interacting with patient advocates in the lung cancer community.

https://youtu.be/LwmVnsVm__E?si=t8r0AbqwUBKaEgWA

Julie R. Brahmer, MD, is a global thought leader in the emerging field of immunotherapy. Dr. Brahmer is Associate Professor of Oncology at The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Brahmer’s research and clinical practice focus on the development of new therapies, including immunotherapies, for the treatment and prevention of lung cancer and mesothelioma. She was involved in the phase 1 trial of the PD-1 blocking antibody, nivolumab. Dr. Brahmer is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Thoracic Committee and Cancer Prevention Steering Committee. Find out more about clinical trials.

Read Dr. Brahmer’s publications

David Carbone graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1977 and received an MD and a PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University in 1985. He then did an Internal Medicine internship and residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital through 1988 followed by a Medical Oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. In 1991 he was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1995.

He was recruited to Vanderbilt University in 1996 where he was promoted to full Professor in 1998. He served as Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology, and Cancer Biology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program and the Thoracic Oncology Center at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. He was also Director and Principal Investigator of the Vanderbilt Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Lung Cancer and the Strategic Partnering to Evaluate Cancer Signatures UO1 consortium.

In 2012, Dr. Carbone joined Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. He is a professor in the Division of Medical Oncology and will be developing and leading a new thoracic oncology center. The thoracic oncology center will bring physicians and scientists together to develop new and targeted approaches to treating and curing lung cancer. Dr. Carbone’s research interests, grant support and publications have been focused on lung cancer, and specifically proteomic and expression array signature development, lung cancer genetics, cancer immunotherapy, tumorassociated immunosuppression mechanisms and gene therapy.

Recent research directions include molecular profiling of lung cancers and preneoplasias, especially the use of mass spectrometry-based proteomics. He has over 150 peer-reviewed publications and review articles, has served on several NCI grant review panels, including the clinical program project parent committee, and has continuous NCI funding since early in his career. He has served on organizing committees for both ASCO and AACR and is currently Chair of the Lung Biology subcommittee for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and currently serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the NCI.  Currently, he is President of the IASLC through 2017.

Jessica S. Donington, MD, is an expert thoracic surgeon who treats the full spectrum of lung, esophageal and mediastinal conditions. Her focus is on the comprehensive and multidisciplinary care of benign and malignant chest diseases.

Dr. Donington specializes in lung cancer and treats people at all stages, providing a personalized approach to diagnosis and treatment using the latest technology and innovations, including minimally invasive and robotic surgery.

In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Donington is an avid researcher and respected leader in her field. Her research focus is in the discovery of novel biomarkers for early detection and treatment of lung cancer and clinical trials that incorporate surgery into multimodality care plans for locally advanced and metastatic lung cancer. Dr. Donington is a past president of Women in Thoracic Surgery and the New York Society for Thoracic Surgery and serves on the editorial boards for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery and the Journal of Thoracic Oncology.

Dr. Steven Dubinett has extensive experience in academic investigation, administration, mentorship and peer review. He has received federal peer-reviewed funding for translational lung cancer research for the past 20 years. Dr. Dubinett is nationally recognized for translational research in the immunobiology of lung cancer. Building on original discoveries regarding the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of lung cancer he has developed a translational research program, which now utilizes these laboratory-based discoveries in the clinical setting. He has been involved in mentoring trainees at all levels in a peer-review funded, translational research program. Twenty of the 23 post-doctoral fellows from his research program are currently continuing in either academic or industry research careers. He has been active both within the training programs in the UCLA academic community and, nationally, in setting policy as a member of foundation and NIH training committees on training. He recently served on the NCI Translational Research Working Group and has served as a mentor for the American Association for Cancer Research grant writing workshop for the past seven years.

He has served on numerous study sections and special emphasis panels for the NIH including chair of the study section for the Lung SPOREs, reviewer for PO1s, the EDRN, Clinical Oncology and Tumor Microenvironment study sections and site review teams for the NCI intramural programs. Dr. Dubinett serves on numerous committees for professional societies including the ASCO Education Committee, the AACR – Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Awards Selection Committee, the ATS Clinical Problems Program Committee and the organizing committee for the IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer. He currently serves on the External Advisory Boards (EABs) for the Lung Cancer SPOREs at Colorado and Vanderbilt and the mesothelioma PO1 at the University of Pennsylvania. He served as a member of the NCI TRWG. He has received competitive awards for lung cancer research including the Cecile Lehman Mayer Research Award, the Helen Neufeld Award and the Career Investigator Award from the American Lung Association. In 2008 Dr. Dubinett received the American Thoracic Society Award for Scientific Achievement. He was the Scientific Program Chairperson for the Seventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I52lMmfwyWE

Dr. David H. Johnson is the Donald W. Seldin Distinguished Chair in Internal Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He is a board certified medical oncologist who specializes in experimental therapeutics and the treatment of lung cancers. From 1983 to 2010 he was a member of the faculty at the Vanderbilt University Medical School where he held the Cornelius A. Craig Chair of Medical and Surgical Oncology and served as the Director of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Deputy Director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center of which he was a founding member. In 2010 he relocated to Dallas Texas to assume his current position.

In 2004-2005 Dr. Johnson served as the President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) during which time he worked to advance ASCO’s cancer survivorship and quality care initiatives. From 2005-2009 he was a member of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) Board of Directors. Additional past activities include Chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Board of Directors, Chairman of the ABIM Medical Oncology Subspecialty Board, Chairman of the Thoracic Committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, member of the FDA’s Oncology Drug Advisory Committee and service on the Boards of Directors of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the LiveSTRONG Foundation. He has authored more than 400 journal articles and 40 book chapters and edited four oncology textbooks.

Dr. Johnson is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians, a Master of the American College of Physicians and the recipient of Established Investigator Award from the Cancer Research and Prevention Institute of Texas. In 2016 he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and received his Medical Oncology training at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Natasha Leighl leads the Thoracic Medical Oncology Group at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and is Professor in the Department of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She holds the OSI Pharmaceuticals Foundation Chair in Cancer New Drug Development through the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. She has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, has held (as principal or co-investigator) over $600 million in peer-reviewed grant funding, and has mentored many oncology trainees that have gone on to leadership roles in oncology around the world. Recently, she was awarded the American Society of Clinical Oncology Excellence in Teaching Award (2019).

After receiving her MD from the University of Toronto, Canada, Dr. Leighl completed residencies in internal medicine at the University of Calgary and in medical oncology at the University of Toronto. She subsequently completed a Fellowship in Thoracic Oncology with Dr. Frances Shepherd at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Canada, a Fellowship in Clinical Oncology with Prof. Martin Tattersall at the University of Sydney in Australia, and received her Masters in Medical Science (MMSc) in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Dr Leighl’s main interest is in developing new treatments in lung cancer and improving lung cancer diagnostics. She is involved in clinical studies of novel agents for the treatment of thoracic cancers, has led several international and cooperative group studies in lung cancer and has served as a member of the Lung Disease Site Group Executive of the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Group. She was Co-Chair of the CCTG Committee on Economic Analysis, Congress Co-President of the 2018 World Conference in Lung Cancer, and serves on multiple committees including the ASCO Thoracic Guidelines Advisory Group, is co-section editor of The Oncologist and Current Oncology, an editorial board member of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, British Journal of Cancer, a member of the IASLC Quality and Value Committee, on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lung Cancer Foundation of America, and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Americas Health Foundation. Previously she served as Web Editor of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada Medical Oncology Examination Board, and is Past President of Lung Cancer Canada.

Dr. Drew Moghanaki is the Stanley Iezman and Nancy Stark Endowed Chair in Thoracic Radiation Oncology Research at UCLA, and Co-Director of the Greater Los Angeles VA Lung Precision Oncology Program. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in lung cancer screening, research, and treatment and has led over $50 million in research projects at UCLA and the Veterans Health Administration.

He directs multiple national research efforts, including the VALOR Phase III randomized clinical trial, which evaluates stereotactic radiation therapy as an alternative to surgery for operable early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. He led the VA Partnership to Increase Access to Lung Screening (VA-PALS) initiative. This $10 million public-private partnership contributed to the formation of the VA’s National Center for Lung Cancer Screening and a congressional appropriation to launch the VA’s Lung Precision Oncology Program.

Currently, he is leading the multi-PI California Partnership to Increase Access to Lung Screening (CAL-PALS) in collaboration with UCLA’s Schools of Medicine and Public Health. A highly sought-after expert, he serves on multiple steering committees and scientific advisory boards for organizations such as the American Cancer Society’s National Lung Cancer Roundtable, the LUNGevity Foundation, and the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer.

Dr. Moghanaki has been instrumental in advancing LCFA's Breath of Honor campaign, lending his expertise to raise awareness about lung cancer screening and early detection, particularly among the high-risk Veteran populations. His passionate advocacy and scientific rigor have significantly strengthened the campaign's impact, helping to spread the message that early detection saves lives.

Prof. Jarushka Naidoo is a Full Professor of Medical Oncology and a Consultant Medical Oncologist at Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre in Dublin, Ireland and an Adjunct Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Naidoo graduated with her medical degree (MB BCh BAO) from Trinity College Dublin, and completed internal medicine and a medical oncology training through the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. She completed an awarded advanced medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York), and joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University from 2015-2020. At Johns Hopkins, she led a portfolio of clinical trials and translational studies focused on immunotherapy for lung cancer and immune-related toxicity.

Dr. Naidoo led several investigator-initiated trials for patients with lung cancer, with a focus on stage III non-small lung cancer and CNS metastases. She is a globally recognised leader in the field of immune-related toxicity, with >100 publications in this field, and her development of the multidisciplinary Johns Hopkins Immune-related Toxicity Team. She is the recipient of several grants and awards including a US NIH KL2 Clinical Scholar Award, Lung Cancer Foundation of America/IASLC Young Investigator Award.

Since her return to Ireland, she serves as the Chair of the Lung Cancer Disease-specific subgroup (DSSG) of Cancer Trials Ireland, is the Founder and Chair of the Irish national lung cancer research group, the ‘Irish Lung Cancer Alliance,’ and a national immmunotherapy toxicity network through the RCPI. She is currently a part of the ETOP, EORTC, ECOG-ACRIN and NRG Cooperative clinical trial groups, and the clinical trials portfolio in lung cancer has tripled since her return. Prof Naidoo was named the Irish Cancer Society’s Clinician Research Leader Award 2021.

Dr. Osarogiagbon is a practicing thoracic medical oncologist, cancer care delivery researcher and administrator at the Baptist Cancer Center, a Research Professor at Vanderbilt University, and a Research Member of the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center.

Active Funded Projects

Principal Investigator and Director of the ‘Mid-South Miracle’. 2021 to 2030.

The Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corporation’s operationally-funded 10-year commitment to reduce lung cancer mortality within a 107-county service area population by a 25% greater rate than the aggregate US average, by disseminating seven specific programs: tobacco control, early detection through screening and incidental lung nodule programs, multidisciplinary decision-making, surgical quality improvement, pathology quality improvement and dissemination of clinical trials access.

PI: 2UG1CA189873-06. 08/01/19 – 07/31/25. NCI

‘Baptist Health System/ Mid-South NCORP Minority Underserved Consortium.’ This is a competitive 6-year renewal of 1UG1CA189873, enabling the Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation to build out Research infrastructure throughout the catchment area population in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.

MPI (with Deborah Schrag, Sandra Wong and Michael Hassett): 1UM1CA233080-01. 09/01/18 – 08/31/2023. NCI

‘SIMPRO Research Center: Integration and Implementation of PROs for Symptom Management in Oncology Practice.’ This grant support development and prospective testing of electronic patient-reported outcomes systems into the Electronic Health Record of patients with early and advanced malignancies undergoing curative-intent and palliative treatment.

PI: 2R01CA172253. NCI. Osarogiagbon (PI). 07/01/18 – 06/30/23

‘Improving pathologic nodal staging of resected lung cancer.’ The goal of this study is to improve the gross dissection of resected lung specimens after curative-intent resection of lung cancer in conjunction with an invented lymph node specimen collection kit intervention to improve intraoperative surgical nodal harvest.

Kellie N. Smith, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Oncology and Director of the FEST and TCR Immunogenomics Core Facility at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, where she leads a research lab focused on lung cancer immunology. During her nearly 20 years in the T cell immunology field, she has emerged as a leader in human and murine T cell immunobiology and its application to lung cancers treated with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). A Baltimore native, she completed her doctoral training in T cell immunology and immunotherapy at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine before moving to Johns Hopkins for her postdoctoral fellowship, where she trained with Dr. Drew Pardoll and helped define correlates of response to ICB in advanced and resectable lung cancers.

Dr. Smith is best known for developing MANAFEST (mutation-associated neoantigen functional expansion of specific T cells), a novel assay that detects and tracks T cell responses to mutation-associated neoantigens and other tumor antigens in patients. She has applied this platform in resectable and metastatic lung cancers to map the breadth and functionality of tumor-reactive T cells, enabling precise identification of which T cells truly recognize the tumor and how they change during ICB.

Building on this initial assay development, Dr. Smith’s team has defined the transcriptional programming of tumor-reactive T cells as it relates to ICB response; they have identified several molecules and pathways that are currently being explored as therapeutic targets for combination ICB, and have developed a 3-gene signature to identify tumor-reactive T cells on basic tissue sections that is being evaluated for biomarker potential.

Dr. Smith collaborates closely with lung cancer oncologists on immunotherapy trials in early-stage and advanced lung cancers with the goals of improving cure rates, preventing recurrence, and identifying robust biomarkers of response. The first grant Dr. Smith was ever awarded was from Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA), and this has propelled her research program to become a leading example of translational immunogenomics in lung cancer.

Michael Weitz graduated from USC in 1980 and received his M.D. from The Chicago Medical School in 1984. He did 2 post graduate years at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, one each in Internal Medicine and General Surgery before completing the UCLA Emergency Medicine Residency Program in 1990. He became Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA and a part time faculty member in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UCLA/ Olive View Medical Center. He won the prestigious Golden Olive Award for excellence in teaching for three consecutive years. He has been the Associate Director of the Emergency Department at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California since 1994. Michael is a lung cancer advocate and is himself a lung cancer survivor since 2006.