Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, FACP
Dr. Sara Hurvitz is an internationally recognized expert in oncology and a pioneer in the clinical development of ADCs and other targeted therapies for breast cancer. Additionally, as a leader in clinical and laboratory-based oncology research, she has led numerous global clinical trials spanning all phases of development and has been instrumental in advancing ADCs and immune-based treatments that have redefined standards of care in breast cancer.
Dr. Hurvitz currently serves as Professor of Medicine and Division Head of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and as the Senior Vice President of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. She previously directed the breast oncology program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she joined the faculty in 2006, and co-directed the Santa Monica-UCLA Outpatient Oncology Practice. She also formerly served as the medical director of the clinical research unit for UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Over her distinguished career, Dr. Hurvitz has won numerous awards, among them the Marni Levine Memorial Breast Cancer Research Award 2008 through 2015 and the European Society of Medical Oncology Breast Cancer Award in 2023. She has an active clinical practice specializing in the treatment of women with breast cancer and continues to be involved in designing, implementing, and leading multiple national and international clinical trials testing new targeted therapies.
Dr. Hurvitz earned her MD from the University of Southern California. She served an internship/residency at UCLA, was Chief Resident of internal medicine, and completed a hematology-oncology fellowship at UCLA in 2006. Dr. Hurvitz received board certification in internal medicine, hematology, and medical oncology. She is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research and the European Society of Medical Oncology.
Olga Anczukow, Ph.D.
Dr. Anczukow, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized leader in RNA biology and cancer research. She currently serves as an Associate Professor at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and a Co-Program Leader at the NCI-designated Jackson Laboratory Cancer Center, and holds a joint faculty appointment at University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where she leads a multidisciplinary research program focused on elucidating the mechanisms by which alternative RNA splicing, a fundamental process in gene expression regulation, becomes misregulated in cancer and drives tumor initiation, progression, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance. Her work bridges fundamental molecular biology with translational research aimed at identifying biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets.
Dr. Anczukow earned her Ph.D. from Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in France, where her doctoral research focused on breast cancer genetics, including mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 and their impact on RNA processing. During this period, she made seminal contributions demonstrating that mutations affecting RNA splicing and transcript stability play a critical role in cancer biology and that RNA-based therapeutic strategies can correct aberrant splicing defects, laying groundwork for emerging RNA-targeted treatments. She subsequently completed postdoctoral training at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, one of the world’s premier centers for basic research. There, she further advanced understanding of how alterations in splicing factors contribute to tumor development and metastatic progression, strengthening the mechanistic foundation for targeting RNA regulation in cancer.
At The Jackson Laboratory, Dr. Anczukow leads a highly collaborative laboratory that integrates genomics, molecular biology, patient-derived organoids, and in vivo models to investigate how cancer cells rewire splicing programs to survive and evade therapy. Her research has broad relevance across multiple cancer types and has been published in leading scientific journals, including Nature Reviews Cancer. Dr. Anczukow also actively participates in collaborative efforts that span basic RNA biology, translational cancer research, and emerging therapeutic modalities. Her ongoing research has been supported by competitive federal and private funding, highlighting her role at the forefront of efforts to translate fundamental insights into clinical innovations for cancer and age-associated diseases.
Prafulla Gokhale, Ph.D.
Dr. Gokhale has over 20 years of experience in preclinical oncology drug discovery and development. He began his career as a faculty member in the Radiation Medicine Department at Georgetown University before moving to the pharmaceutical industry, where he led in vivo pharmacology teams with increasing responsibility at OSI Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, and Verastem. He currently heads the Experimental Therapeutics Core at Dana-Farber, overseeing translational research programs that integrate genomics, molecular biology, patient-derived models, imaging and preclinical studies to advance novel therapeutic strategies.
Dr. Gokhale’s work has been widely published and funded, reflecting his leadership in transforming fundamental discoveries into clinical innovations for cancer and related diseases.
