AI, translational solutions big part of 2025 U of A Cancer Center Scientific Retreat

Today
David Mogollon, Communications Manager, Department of Medicine

The University of Arizona Cancer Center’s annual showcase of research lived well up to its promise this year, with multiple participants from six divisions of the Department of Medicine — and new U of A chief AI and data science officer David Ebert, PhD.

[People begin to gather in the HSIB Forum for the 2025 U of A Comprehensive Cancer Center's 2025 Scientific Retreat, Nov. 14, 2025.]

People begin to gather in the HSIB Forum for the 2025 U of A Comprehensive Cancer Center's 2025 Scientific Retreat, Nov. 14, 2025.

David Mogollon, Department of Medicine

It was largely a full house for the 2025 University of Arizona Cancer Center Scientific Retreat hosted Nov. 14 at the Health Sciences Innovation Building.

Multiple faculty and fellows from the Department of Medicine were among participants, including — among the organizers — Rachna Shroff, MD, MS, DOM Division of Hematology & Oncology chief and Cancer Center associate director of clinical investigations, and Juanita L. Merchant, MD, PhD, DOM Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology chief, Cancer Center associate director of basic sciences, and a U of A Regents Professor.

Programmatic Presenters

Presenting was Junaid Arshad, MD, MS, assistant professor, who spoke on “Immunomodulation tumor microenvironment in the gastric cancer patient of Arizona” during the Clinical and Translational Oncology Program (CTOP) portion of the event.

Also speaking was Department of Dermatology chair and former DOM Dermatology division chief Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski, MD, whose talk was on “Bridging care & discovery: Building data systems for skin cancer innovative research.”

[GI division chief and Cancer Center associate director of basic sciences Juanita Merchant, MD, PhD (right), asks a question of Pathology's Mark Nelson, PhD, after his presentation on liquid bioassays while Cancer Center director Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, and Banner Health chief research officer Corey Casper, MD, MPH, listen.]

GI division chief and Cancer Center associate director of basic sciences Juanita Merchant, MD, PhD (right), asks a question of Pathology's Mark Nelson, PhD, after his presentation on liquid bioassays while Cancer Center director Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, and Banner Health chief research officer Corey Casper, MD, MPH (to the left of her), listen.

David Mogollon, Department of Medicine

In addition, during the event’s Cancer Biology Program (CBP) segment, Mark Nelson, PhD, a Department of Pathology professor who’s a Center for Toxicology investigator and Cancer Center member, spoke on “Development of a liquid biopsy assay to detect cancer in unexplained pleural effusion,” the fluid around the lungs. He’s working with the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine’s Interventional Pulmonology team led by Billie Bixby, MD, on faster, earlier detection methods for lung cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Missing in action was Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, the new director of the National Cancer Institute, who had to cancel his trip to Tucson to be the 2025 UACC Scientific Meeting’s keynote speaker due to the federal government shutdown — Oct. 1 – Nov. 12 — that occurred just after he was sworn in Sept. 29.

Filling in ably in that role instead was David Ebert, PhD, the new U of A chief AI and data science officer who’s also associate vice president of the Office of Research & Partnership. His topic: “The future of health in the age of AI.”

Poster Presentation Winners

First place by program – CTOP | General Session Poster Speaker
Célia Sahli, U of A College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Title: “Machine Learning for Breast Tumor Classification: Insights from Nuclear Morphology” (PI: Kenry, PhD)

[The DOM's Pulmonary division assistant professor Madhav Chopra, MD, a member of the Interventional Pulmonlogy Team and the Department of Surgery's lung cancer team, listens to a student explain their paper Nov. 14, 2025, at the U of A Scientific Retreat.]

The DOM's Pulmonary division assistant professor Madhav Chopra, MD, a member of the Interventional Pulmonlogy Team and the Department of Surgery's lung cancer team, listens to a student explain their paper Nov. 14, 2025, at the U of A Scientific Retreat.

David Mogollon, Department of Medicine

Second Place by program – CTOP | Lightning Round Speaker
Helen Zukoski-Bartlett, U of A College of Engineering – Biomedical Engineering, Title: “Cancer Diagnostics: Printing Viable Microfluidic Chips Using Volumetric 3D Printing Techniques” (PI: Swarna Ganesh, PhD)

First place by program – CBP | General Session Poster Speaker
John Ryniawec, U of A College of Medicine – Tucson, Department of Cellular &  Molecular Medicine, Title: “Hypoxia-induced centrosome elimination as a driver of chromosomal instability in prostate cancer” (PI: Anne Cress, PhD, & Gregory Rogers, PhD)

Second Place by program – CBP | Lightning Round Speaker
Robert Jackson, College of Medicine – Tucson, Department of Immunobiology, Title: “HPV16 Productivity vs. Tumorigenicity in the Oropharynx” (PI: Koenraad Van Doorslaer, PhD)

First place by program – Cancer Prevention & Control Program (CPCP) | General Session Poster Speaker
Yunbing Bai, College of Medicine – Tucson, Arizona Telemedicine Program, Title: “Identifying Cardiorespiratory Symptoms in Medical Notes with Open-Source Large Language Models” (PI: Joseph Finkelstein, MD, PhD)

Second Place by program – CPCP | Lightning Round Speaker
Brandon Eich, College of Science, Department of Psychology, Title: “Comparing the Subsequent Search Miss Effect Between Mammography and Tomosynthesis” (PI: Stephen Adamo, PhD)

Best in Show by Research Program 

  • CTOP – tie | Celia Sahli (1st place) and Helen Zukoski-Bartlett (2nd place winner)
  • CPCP – tie | Benjamin Rembetski, Title: “Banner University Medical Center Tucson Lung Cancer Screening Program: Growth, Compliance & Early Detection” (PI: Madhav Chopra, MD) and Lyndon Rakusen, Title: “Explainable AI Heat Maps & Mammography Screening”  (PI: Stephen Adamo, PhD)
    •    CBP | Omar Lozano Ramos, Title: “Covalent, Non-GSH-Reactive Difluoro-Methyl Alkynes Enable Next-Generation WRN Helicase Inhibitors” (PI: Rui Xiong, PhD)

For the full agenda and program for the retreat, see this link. A digital version — that includes poster presentations — can be found here.

More from the DOM

[DOM Vice Chair for Research Janet Funk, MD, MS, an Endocrinology division professor and Cancer Center member, and the Division of Hematology & Oncology's Sima Ehsani, MD, confer during the UACC Scientific Meeting. Both are part of the Cancer Center's breast cancer clinical research team, which Dr. Ehsani leads.]

DOM Vice Chair for Research Janet Funk, MD, MS, an Endocrinology division professor and Cancer Center member, and the Division of Hematology & Oncology's Sima Ehsani, MD, confer during the UACC Scientific Meeting. Both are part of the Cancer Center's breast cancer clinical research team, which Dr. Ehsani leads.

David Mogollon, Department of Medicine

Other DOM faculty attendees included: Jennifer Bea, PhD (associate professor, Hematology & Oncology and College of Public Health); Jennifer Carew, PhD (professor and chief, Division of Translational Medicine, UACC translational science director and College of Medicine – Tucson investigator-initiated clinical trials director); Corey Casper, MD, MPH (Division of Infectious Diseases associate professor and Banner Health chief research officer); Sima Ehsani, MD (Hematology & Oncology associate professor and the Cancer Center’s Breast Clinical Research Team leader); Joseph Finkelstein, MD, PhD (Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Palliative Medicine professor and Arizona Telemedicine Program director); Janet Funk, MD (Division of Endocrinology professor, DOM vice chair for research and Cancer Center member); Muhammad Husnain, MD (Hematology & Oncology assistant professor and Cancer Center CTOP member); Ricklie Julian, MD (Hematology & Oncology assistant professor and Cancer Center head-and-neck and lung cancer teams); Steffan Nawrocki, PhD (Translational Medicine professor and Cancer Center CTOP co-program leader); Alejandro Recio Boiles, MD (Hematology & Oncology associate professor and Cancer Center assistant director of community outreach & engagement); and Aaron Scott, MD (Hematology & Oncology associate professor and Cancer Center early therapeutics program director).

ALSO SEE:
“U of A researchers awarded federal grant to explore topical immunoprevention for skin cancer” | Posted Nov. 17, 2025
“When cancer treatment stops, but the healing stalls” | Nov. 13, 2025
“Cancer Bytes: Targeting the EGFR oncogene, breast cancer breakthroughs” | Posted Oct. 17, 2025
“2024 UACC Annual Scientific Retreat” | Posted Nov. 21, 2024

(Photos courtesy of David Mogollon, Department of Medicine.)

See these links for more photos from the 2025,  2024 and 2023 UACC Scientific Retreats.

MINI-PHOTO GALLERY
Click images to enlarge and for captions:

[People, including the Division of Hematology & Oncology's Alejandro Recio Boiles, MD (left), arrive at 2025 University of Arizona Cancer Center Scientific Retreat.]
[People, including several Department of Medicine faculty members, network before the U of A Scientific Retreat gets under way.]
[The Division of Hematology & Oncology's Steffan Nawrocki, PhD, Jennifer Carew, PhD, and Ricklie Julian, MD – center row – listen as the 2025 UACC Scientific Retreat begins.]
[Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, director of the U of A Cancer Center, welcomes attendees at its 2025 Scientific Retreat, hosted Nov. 14 at the Health Sciences Innovation Building on the Tucson Campus.]
[An overhead view of people gathered at Breakout Session tables with various research themes at the UACC Scientific Retreat, Nov. 14, 2025, in the HSIB Forum.]
[Sima Ehsani, MD (left), team leader for the Cancer Center's breast cancer clinical research team, gesticulates as she discusses clinical trials at a Breakout Session table with, among others, Aaron Scott, MD (across from her), Cancer Center early therapeutics program director. Both are part of the DOM's Division of Hematology & Oncology.]
[Junaid Arshad, MD, MS, a Hematology & Oncology assistant professor and Gastrointestinal Cancer Clinical Research Team member, chats with other UACC Scientific Retreat attendees during a Breakout Session.]
[Steffan Nawrocki, PhD, and Jennifer Carew, PhD (upper left), and Muhammad Husnain, MD, all members of the Division of Hematology & Oncology, chat with colleagues at Breakout Session table for "Cancer Engineering" durin ghte 2025 UACC Scientific Retreat. Drs. Nawrocki and Carew also are part of the DOM's newly reconstituted Division of Translational Medicine that Dr. Carew leads as chief.]
[Hematology & Oncology assistant professor Junaid Arshad, MD, MS, a member of the Cancer Center's Gastrointestinal Cancer Clinical Research Team, begins his presentation on “Immunomodulation tumor microenvironment in the gastric cancer patient of Arizona.”]
[DOM faculty pictured here, include GI division chief Juanita Merchant, MD, PhD (right), Arizona Telemedicine Program director Joseph Finkelstein, MD, PhD (center, top), a Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine professor, and formerly Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski, MD (center, bottom), whose Division of Dermatology was spun off into its own department this summer.]
[A view from above of the HSIB Forum where Hematology & Oncology's Junaid Arshad, MD, MS, presents on gastric cancer incidence in Arizona during the 2025 UACC Scientific Retreat.]
[Hematology & Oncology's Junaid Arshad, MD, MS, takes questions from the audience after his presentation on gastric cancer incidence in Arizona during the 2025 UACC Scientific Retreat.]
[The Department of Pathology's Mark Nelson, PhD, discusses faster and more accurate lung cancer detection methods during his 2025 UACC Cancer Center presetnation on “Development of a liquid biopsy assay to detect cancer in unexplained pleural effusion.”]
[Pathology's Mark Nelson, PhD, talks about how distribution of methylation scores by clinical classification are important to his work. He has partnered with the DOM Pulmonary division's Interventional Pulmonology team and the Department of Surgery's Thoracic Cancer team to improve diagnosis and earlier treatment options for patients with lung cancer.]
[David Ebert, PhD, the U of A’s new AI and data science officer, speaks at the 2025 UACC Scientific Meeting on “The Future of Health in an AI-Enabled World.” He was the keynote speaker, filling in for new NCI Director Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, who was unable to attend due to the federal government shutdown.]
[New U of A AI and data science officer David Ebert, PhD, talks about opportunities and challenges for AI in health care, including proactive measures AI may enable, more integrated health systems, continuous patient monitoring and better bridging of health care gaps.]

Contacts

David Mogollon
mogollon@arizona.edu
520-626-1137
Mark Febbo
markanthonyf@arizona.edu
520-343-1289