Innovative Preclinical Models for Pediatric Cancer Research
Organisers: James Amatruda, Pratiti (Mimi) Bandopadhayay, Ana Banito and Elaine Mardis
Date: 13 - 15 October 2026
Location: Nationwide Children's Hospital Conference Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Cancer in children represents ∼3% of the global incidence of cancer. Pediatric cancer exerts an outsized impact: beyond the physical and emotional toll on children, their families and the community, the number of years of productive life lost to pediatric cancers is proportionately higher than that of adult cancers. In the treatment of children and adolescents with cancer, multimodal approaches combining surgery, chemotherapy and radiation can cure many patients, but may cause lifelong health problems in survivors. Current therapies only modestly reflect increased knowledge about the molecular mechanisms of these cancers. Advances in next-generation sequencing have enabled unprecedented cataloguing of genetic aberrations in tumors, but understanding how these genetic changes drive cellular transformation, and how they can be effectively targeted, will require multidisciplinary collaboration and preclinical models that are truly representative of the in vivo environment. This meeting aims to focus on models and technologies that have the potential to transform our understanding of these diseases.
Speakers
Delilah Hendriks Princess Máxima Center, The Netherlands
Caroline Hutter St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute, Austria
Kevin Jones The University of Utah, USA
Genevieve Kendall Nationwide Children’s Hospital, USA
Claudia Kleinman McGill University, Canada
Marcel Kool Princess Máxima Center, The Netherlands
Verena Korber University of Oxford, UK
Lena Kutscher Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ), Germany
JP Martinez-Barbera University College London, UK
Timothy Phoenix University of Cincinnati, USA
Martine Roussel St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA
Alice Soragni UCLA, USA
Joelle Straehla Seattle Children’s, USA
Eleni Tomazou St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute, Austria
Michael Underhill University of British Columbia, Canada
Michelle Wedemeyer Nationwide Children’s Hospital, USA
Marc Zuckermann Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ), Germany
Registration
Registration for this meeting will open in early 2026.
Please register your interest here.
Registration fees
The meeting will start with registration and lunch on Tuesday 13 October and will finish on the afternoon of Thursday 15 October.
The fees will include;
- Registration and meeting costs
- Lunches and coffee breaks each day
- Evening reception drinks on 13 and 14 October
N.B. Evening meals are not included, with the exception of Wednesday 14 October, which can be added as an option at registration.
It is expected that all attendees will stay for the duration of the meeting.
Prices including dinner
| PhD students /postdocs | Academia | Industry | |
| Until 19 June 2026 | $650 | $800 | $1,100 |
| From 20 June – 31 August 2026 | $800 | $950 | $1,250 |
Prices NOT including dinner
| PhD students /postdocs | Academia | Industry | |
| Until 19 June 2026 | $600 | $750 | $1,050 |
| From 20 June – 31 August 2026 | $750 | $900 | $1,200 |
Meeting dinner
The meeting dinner will take place on Wednesday 14 October, at the Elevator Brewery & Draught Haus on N. High Street, Columbus .
Built in 1897 by the Bott family and originally opened as Bott Brothers’ Billiards the building is on the National Registry of Historic Landmarks and has been restored to much of its original grandeur.
Dinner will include soup, salad, main and dessert along with drinks and will be served in the upstairs restaurant where the whiskey was once distilled.
The Elevator Brewery is about a 10 minute drive from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital. We will arrange shuttles to the dinner venue after the poster session but attendees are expected to make their own way back to their hotels at the end of the evening.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital Conference Center
The Nationwide Children’s Hospital is situated in downtown Columbus, Ohio with the conference center centrally situated on its main campus.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital is about a 15 minute drive from John Glenn Columbus International Airport.
Image credit: Ana Banito, German Cancer Research Center
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