Keynote Speaker and Invited Speakers

Vinod Balachandran completed his undergraduate degree in Physics at Cornell University, medical degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, general surgery residency at Weill Cornell’s New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and complex surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). In 2015, he joined MSK as faculty, where he is a laboratory head in the Imuno-Oncology Program, an attending hepatopancreatobiliary surgeon, and Founding Director of The Olayan Center for Cancer Vaccines at MSK, an academic biohub focused on catalyzing next-generation precision cancer vaccines. In 2017, Vinod’s group made the striking observation that exceptional survivors of pancreatic cancer have immune-activated tumors infiltrated with T cells that recognize highly immunogenic mutation-derived neoantigens. As pancreatic cancer, and most solid tumors, were presumed to lack clinically relevant neoantigens, this unexpected discovery has spurred efforts to identify, validate, and deliver immunogenic neoantigens to “therapeutically phenocopy” the exceptional survivor state. His group has spearheaded these efforts, including the landmark first clinical trial of precision mRNA neoantigen vaccines for pancreatic cancer. The promising results of this trial have galvanized his group’s efforts to uncover and apply the principles of successful vaccination to extend their use in pancreatic and other similarly high-need cancers. Vinod has received several honors for his work, including the 2023 Trailblazer Prize for Clinician Scientists from the Foundation for the NIH.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Markus Wolfgang Büchler is an internationally recognised expert in the field of surgical oncology, particularly oncological pancreatic surgery. More than 2,500 of his published wjorks focus on the fundamentals of cancers of the digestive organs, particularly the pancreas, as well as on the surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer.
His h-index is >185 and he has >140,000 scientific citations. 
In 2022, he was the most-cited (Research.Com) medical researcher in Germany.
Until 2023, he was also Chief Surgeon at five surgical clinics in Baden-Württemberg and Hesse, including Heidelberg University Hospital. 
His surgical ‘school’ comprises around 100 postdoctoral researchers and 85 Chief Surgeons, including 21 full professors.

Click here to take a look at the CV.

Nelson J. Dusetti is Director of Research at INSERM and heads the Translational and Therapeutic Target Research in Pancreatic Cancer team at the Cancer Research Center of Marseille (CRCM), France. His research focuses on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, combining patient-derived models, multi-omics approaches and translational studies to improve treatment stratification and identify therapeutic vulnerabilities.

His work has contributed to the development of transcriptome-based strategies for precision oncology in pancreatic cancer. His current research investigates how pancreatic tumors evolve under therapeutic pressure, with the aim of understanding the mechanisms driving treatment resistance and exploiting these evolutionary trajectories to develop more effective personalized therapies.

Barbara Grünwald is a trained Molecular Biotechnologist with a PhD in Experimental Medicine from the Technical University in Munich. Following a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PMCC) in Toronto, she now holds dual appointments at the University Hospital Essen and at PMCC. Her work is centred around the premise that cancer heterogeneity at the cellular and spatial level is not random noise but a fundamental basis on which solid tumor tissues operate.  Current research in Grünwald lab is focused on tumor-host interactions in solid tumors with a particular emphasis on pancreatic cancer and tissue self-organizational mechanisms that underlie malignant behavior, immune function, and drug resistance. Her team applies a systems biology approach that combines traditional methods such as histopathology with state-of-the-art multimodal profiling techniques, applied to human tissues and patient-derived 3D models. In close collaboration with partners from the clinic, the Grünwald lab strives to develop mechanistic insights into tumor heterogeneity along with tools to effectively navigate this phenomenon during clinical decision making.

Matthias Löhr is the Professor of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Löhr earned his MD in Germany, Univ. of Hamburg and his Dr. med. in pancreatic pathology. After residency in pathology, postdoc at Scripps, La Jolla, CA. Residency in Medicine and gastroenterology at Univ. of Erlangen and later Univ. of Rostock where he earned his PhD on pancreatic diseases. 2000-07 double appointment at the Univ. of Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) as Professor of Molecular Gastroenterology. Since 2007, at Karolinska Institutet where he leads the Pancreas team. Löhr led UEG guidelines for chronic pancreatitis (HaPanEU), IgG4-related diseases, for Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency and the consensus for Fatty Pancreas. He was the secretary general of EPC, program director of Pancreas 2000 and president of the United European Gastroenterology (UEG). He received the life time achievement award of EPC in 2023 and of the International Association of Pancreatology (IAP) in 2026. He authored 450 publications. Current areas of interest are chronic and autoimmune pancreatitis, pancreatic function/pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, fatty pancreas, endo-exo axis, IPMN, familiar pancreatic cancer/IAR, early pancreatic cancer, and liquid biopsy.

Max Reichert is a physician-scientist, gastroenterologist, and Professor of Translational Pancreatic Cancer Research at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). He is a Director of the TUM Center for Organoid Systems (COS), heads the Pancreatic Cancer Outpatient Clinic at the TUM Comprehensive Cancer Center, and serves as Chair of the ESPAC Translational Committee. He founded the Center for Translational Pancreatic Cancer Research at TUM University Hospital and established its key translational infrastructure, the TUM Patient-Derived Organoid Repository.

His research focuses on cellular plasticity and intra-tumoral heterogeneity in pancreatic cancer and their roles in tumor initiation, metastatic dissemination, and therapy resistance. His group develops and applies advanced patient-derived organoid and in vivo models to dissect complex tumor biology and translate mechanistic discoveries into precision oncology strategies. His work has contributed to defining the role of cellular plasticity in metastatic organotropism and to understanding how the broader tumor ecosystem shapes cancer progression, dissemination, and therapeutic response. A central goal of his research is to uncover therapeutically exploitable vulnerabilities and translate these findings into clinical trials and improved treatment strategies for patients with pancreatic cancer.

Max studied medicine at Heidelberg University and TUM, graduating from TUM summa cum laude. During his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in the laboratory of Anil K. Rustgi, he identified mechanisms of transcriptional regulation underlying pancreatic cancer cell plasticity using three-dimensional culture models. After returning to TUM, he received the prestigious Max Eder Fellowship from German Cancer Aid and completed his clinical training in gastroenterology while establishing patient-derived organoid technologies for translational cancer research. He subsequently became Professor of Translational Pancreatic Cancer Research and a Director of the TUM Center for Organoid Systems. Today, he leads translational and technology-development laboratories across TUM’s University Hospital and Natural Sciences campuses, bridging fundamental cancer biology, organoid technology, precision oncology, and clinical care

I am a Professor for Infectious Diseases and Translational Microbiome Research at the University Hospital Tübingen, where I am also serving as a senior attending physician. I am trained in internal medicine, oncology and gastroenterology with postdoctoral work at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY, with Marcel van den Brink and Eric Pamer, and at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, with Eran Elinav. My research focuses on the gut microbiome's role in T-cell–driven cancer immunotherapy, including CAR-T cell therapy, and in pancreatic cancer development and therapy. My work is currently supported by an ERC Consolidator Grant and a major BMBF-funded cancer research consortium.

Professor Jeanin Elise van Hooft, MD, PhD, MBA, is Chair of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. A fellow of the EBGH, FESGE, and FASGE, she specializes in interventional endoscopy, with a particular focus on hepato-pancreatico-biliary procedures.

Since 2009, she has led a research group dedicated to pancreatic diseases and the endoscopic treatment of gastrointestinal strictures, resulting in over 350 peer-reviewed publications and numerous invited lectures worldwide. A leading figure in her field, Professor van Hooft chairs the internationally recognized Pancreatitis Working Group Netherlands (PWN), fostering national collaboration and innovation in pancreatitis research and care.

She chairs the Scientific Committee of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE), sits on the board of Women in Endoscopy (WIE), and is a research board member of the Dutch Pancreatic Cancer Group (DPCG). She additionally holds an MBA from the Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam (Triple Crown accredited).

C. Benedikt Westphalen is a medical oncologist and clinician scientist at LMU University Hospital Munich, where he directs the Center for Personalized Medicine and heads the Precision Oncology Program at the Comprehensive Cancer Center Munich.

His research bridges molecular diagnostics, clinical trials, and patient care, with a focus on gastrointestinal cancers. Pancreatic cancer has been central to his work since his postdoctoral training at Columbia University, where he studied the cellular origins of pancreatic and gastrointestinal tumors and the role of progenitor cells in tissue regeneration and early carcinogenesis. His current work addresses biomarker-driven therapy, tumor-agnostic treatment strategies, and the translation of molecular findings into clinical practice, including real-world evidence generation in precision oncology.

He serves as investigator in national and international trials in pancreatic and biliary tract cancer and cancers of unknown primary. He chairs the ESMO Precision Oncology and Taxonomy Committee and is a member of the ESMO Council. At the European level, he serves on the Cancer Mission Board of the European Commission and leads the European Cancer Hub Germany. He has authored more than 170 peer-reviewed publications, including ESMO recommendations on molecular tumor boards, genomic reporting, and tumor-agnostic drug development, and serves as Section Editor for ESMO Gastrointestinal Oncology and The Oncologist.