Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Coffman is a physician scientist actively conducting laboratory based and translational research and maintaining a specialized clinical practice focused on the medical treatment of ovarian cancer. Dr. Coffman's research focuses on understanding and targeting the cancer supporting stromal tissues which are critical to the survival, growth and spread of ovarian cancer. Specifically, Dr, Coffman's lab studies a critical non-malignant component of the ovarian cancer microenvironment, the carcinoma-associated mesenchymal stem cell (CA-MSC). CA-MSCs are stromal progenitor cells which significantly increase cancer growth, enrich the cancer stem cell pool and increase chemotherapy resistance.

Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD, is the Director of the Ovarian Cancer Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania where he also serves as the Director of Gynecologic Cancer Research at The Basser Center for BRCA and the Director of the Translational Center of Excellence for Ovarian Cancer at the PennMedicine Abramson Cancer Center.

Dr. Drapkin received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis University, his PhD from the Rutgers University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and his MD from the Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He completed his residency in Anatomic Pathology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his postdoctoral fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The Drapkin laboratory focuses on understanding the genetic, molecular, and physiological factors that drive the development of ovarian cancer. Dr. Drapkin’s work led to the appreciation that the fallopian tube is likely the site of origin for a majority of high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas. This finding was a paradigm shift in the field and motivated his lab to develop novel experimental model systems to study the fallopian tube and determine what makes it susceptible to becoming a cancer.

Dr. Drapkin is currently a Tina’s Wish Individual Investigator and Consortium Grant Recipient for 2019-2021. Read more about his work to discover genetic and protein biomarkers indicative of ovarian cancer here, and his work to develop early-detection methods here.

Charles "Chip" Landen, MD is a gynecologic oncologist and an Associate Professor in the Gynecologic Oncology Division at the University of Virginia and the Associate Leader of the Women's Oncology Program at the UVA Cancer Center.

Dr. Landen received his MD from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the Medical University of South Carolina and his fellowship in gynecologic oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

As a Tina’s Wish 2017/18 funded researcher, Dr. Landen has shown that DNA from ovarian cancer cells within the peritoneal cavity (the area that contains the abdominal organs) can be detected in the discharge collected on a tampon specimen after being placed overnight in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. Dr. Landen’s lab is performing experiments to see if this noninvasive method can be used for detection of early-stage, or even premalignant, ovarian cancer.

Joyce Liu, MD, MPH, joined the staff of Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2008, where she is a medical oncologist and clinical investigator in the Gynecologic Oncology Program. She received her MD from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and her fellowship in Hematology Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Liu's research focuses on identifying and validating potential therapeutic targets in advanced platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, in an in-vitro setting as well as in a mouse model of ovarian cancer.

Dr. Liu was awarded The Columbia Hospital Research Foundation Annual Award for Research Excellence in Breast, Obstetrical and Gynecologic Disorders.

In the 5th issue of Dana-Farber’s Inside the Institute, Dr. Liu discusses the importance of federal funding after her successful clinical trial, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute, proved that a novel two-drug combination nearly doubled progression-free survival for many women with ovarian cancer.

Dr. Karen Lu is the executive vice president and physician in chief at Moffitt Cancer Center. She is responsible for overseeing the Moffitt Medical Group, Florida’s largest multidisciplinary medical group practice made up of over 600 faculty members and advanced practice providers.

As a nationally recognized-physician scientist, Lu focuses her clinical and research interests on the surgical and medical treatment of women with ovarian and endometrial cancers, as well as the management of women at genetically high risk for these cancers. She is a national leader in the cancer genetics field, publishing seminal articles on heredity gynecological cancers.

Lu has more than 15 years of health care leadership experience. Prior to joining Moffitt, she most recently served as the chair of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine and co-director of the Clinical Cancer Genetics program at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She previously served as the ad interim chief clinical officer at MD Anderson.

Lu earned her bachelor’s degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard University and completed her medical studies at Yale University School of Medicine. She subsequently obtained her master’s in health care management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She serves on the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Research Committee and is the incoming president-elect of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO). She is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and the Association of American Physicians (AAP).

Usha Menon, MD, is Professor of Gynecological Oncology and Lead, Training and Capacity Strengthening at the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at UCL (University College London) and honorary Consultant Gynecologist at UCLH NHS Foundation Trust in London. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UK.

Dr. Menon’s research focuses on the early detection and prevention of gynecologic malignancies, in particular ovarian cancer.

She was one of the principal investigators on the UK ovarian cancer screening trials and studies exploring symptoms of ovarian cancer. The latter includes the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening - a randomized control trial of over 202,000 women.

Additional research interests include genetic and environmental risk factors and novel biomarkers for ovarian cancers and early detection of other cancers.

Dr. Menon began her training at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India and received her MBBS and MD in Obstetrics and Gynecology from the University of Madras, India. She continued her specialist training in UK and received her Certificate for Completion of Training (CCT) in Obstetrics and Gynecology from the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UK and her research degree - MD(Res) – from UCL.

Sandra Orsulic, PhD, is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCLA, with a secondary appointment in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her postdoctoral training was conducted under the mentorship of Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Harold Varmus. Prior to joining UCLA, Dr. Orsulic served as an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Orsulic’s research focuses on elucidating how the microenvironment contributes to cancer initiation and metastatic progression, identifying molecular markers for early cancer detection, and developing effective pre-clinical models to test targeted therapies. Her pioneering work has significantly advanced our understanding of ovarian cancer biology. Notable achievements include developing the first genetically defined mouse model of ovarian cancer and establishing syngeneic BRCA1-deficient and proficient ovarian cancer cell lines. These models have been instrumental in the pharmaceutical testing of PARP inhibitors for ovarian cancer treatment.

Dr. Oza has been PI and co-investigator in >150 phase I, II and III trials for gynecological cancer and advanced colorectal malignancies. Dr. Oza is Head of the Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Co-chair of the UHN Clinical Research Collaborative Center, Past-Chair of the International Gynecologic Cancer InterGroup (GCIG), Chair of the GCIG Scientific Committee, Co-Chair of the Clinical Research Executive at UHN, and past co-chair of the National Cancer Institute Gynecologic Caner Steering Committee. Under his direction, the gynecology group is one of the largest ovarian cancer (OC) clinical trials groups consistently accruing >30% of all patients seen onto clinical trials (>200/yr) at PM. The group has participated or led seminal studies in gynecologic cancers that have led to the approval or use of targeted agents such as PARP inhibitors (olaparib, niraparib) and anti-angiogenic agents (bevacizumab) internationally.

Over the last decade, he has been PI/co-PI of 19 grants from agencies such as the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, and the US Department of Defense. Over his career he has published >315 articles (all types) including Clinical Cancer Research (IF=10), JAMA Oncology (IF=20), New England Journal of Medicine (IF=79), Lancet Oncology (IF=36) and an invited seminar to CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians (IF=24).