Dr. Cobbs is the Director of the Ivy Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment at Swedish Neuroscience Institute in Seattle. He is an authority in the area of glioblastoma surgery and research. He first hypothesized that malignant gliomas and other tumors may be associated with chronic viral infection with human cytomegalovirus (CMV), and he published the first evidence that CMV is associated with glioblastoma. His group has subsequently found evidence of cytomegalovirus infection in other tumor types and evidence that the CMV receptor is a major receptor tyrosine kinase involved in tumor growth. These findings have led other researchers to explore treating these tumors with antiviral drugs and tumor vaccines against the CMV pp65 protein. Preliminary studies demonstrate unexpectedly prolonged survival in these glioblastoma patients.

Dr. Cobbs received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He completed a residency in Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he also completed a fellowship in molecular neuro-oncology. Dr. Cobbs has previously been a principal investigator on NIH R01 grants, Special Project in Oncology Research (NCI SPORE) grants at UAB and UCSF, as well as an editor at Journal of Neuro Oncology and other journals. He has been a member of the NCI SPORE and PO1 brain tumor study sections. His laboratory group published a new molecular classification of glioblastoma in conjunction with the Allen Brain Institute in the Journal Science.

Dr. Fuller is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington and Associate Director of Research at the Washington National Primate Research Center. Her research focuses on DNA and RNA-based vaccines and antivirals for infectious diseases and has led to the translation of two vaccines from bench to the clinic including the first DNA vaccine to induce protective levels of immunity in humans, and the first self-amplifying RNA vaccine licensed for human use. She has authored over 100 manuscripts and book chapters, is a co-inventor on over a dozen patents and is a co-founder of Orlance, Inc, a biotechnology company developing a needle-free nucleic acid vaccine delivery platform. She served on several National Institutes of Health study sections for vaccines and HIV and on the leadership team for NIH’s COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapeutics Evaluation Network (COVTEN). During the COVID-19 pandemic, she also played a key role to help inform the public about the science behind mRNA and other vaccines and contributed to numerous news articles, podcasts, op-eds, televised news stories and instructional videos. Recent honors include the Hope College Distinguished Alumni Award in 2021 and the Latinx Faculty Excellence in Research Award in 2022.

Dr. Jaffee is an internationally recognized expert in cancer immunology and pancreatic cancer. She is Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Co-Director of the Skip Viragh Pancreatic Cancer Center and Associate Director of the Bloomberg Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Her research focus is on developing novel immunotherapies for the treatment and prevention of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Jaffee is a Past President of AACR. She has served on a number of committees at the National Cancer Institute, including the co-chair of the Biden Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel which identified high impact research priorities for the NCI. She currently serves as Chief Medical Advisor to the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. She is the inaugural director of the Convergence Institute for Integrating Technologies and Computational Sciences at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Jaffee is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the SITC Academy of Immuno-Oncology and a Fellow of the AACR Academy. Most recently, she was appointed chair of President Biden’s Cancer Panel.

Dr. Coler is a senior investigator at the Center for Global Infectious Disease Research. She received her PhD. from The University of Washington, her MS from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), and her BS from McGill University. Dr. Coler has over 20 years of experience in studying the pathogenesis of infectious disease pathogens, biomarker discovery and diagnostics development in academic, biotechnology and non-profit environments. Her expertise in infectious disease and emerging epidemics was obtained largely through her roles as a student, technician, fellow or scientist with positions held in the UK, the Caribbean, Africa, and the US. Dr. Coler serves as a scientific advisor or committee member for global health and/or pandemic, epidemic-prone infectious disease at The World Health Organization, The University of Washington, Harvard University and the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, as well as having an affiliate professorship at the University of Washington in the Department of Global Health.