Researchers and trainees fill the aisles of the poster session at the 2025 Winship Scientific Symposium.
Winship researcher Anant Madabhushi, PhD, delivered the keynote address.
Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University welcomed 235 researchers for its annual scientific symposium at the Emory Conference Center Hotel on Nov. 10. Designed to bring innovation and collaboration to the forefront, the Winship Scientific Symposium featured a full day of talks and panel discussions related to this year’s theme, “Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in Cancer Research.”
The keynote address was delivered by Winship researcher Anant Madabhushi, PhD, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory and Georgia Tech and executive director of the Emory Empathetic AI for Health Institute. His presentation, “Interpreter of Maladies: Applications of AI in Precision Oncology,” set the tone for the day’s focus on harnessing technology to improve the lives of people with cancer.
Throughout the day, 12 podium presentations — representing faculty and trainees from 10 different Emory departments — showcased wide-ranging applications of AI, large language models and multi-omics analysis in oncology. Two of the talks featured collaborative pilot projects from Winship and American Cancer Society researchers, demonstrating the impact of a recent inter-institutional data-sharing initiative. From refining cancer risk prediction and treatment approaches to optimizing clinical trials, the presentations underscored how next-generation computational tools are driving progress across cancer types and research disciplines.
Erin Grundy, PhD, with mentor Gregory Lesinski, PhD, MPH (left), and Naoto Tokuyama, PhD, with mentor Anant Madabhushi, PhD (right), are the 2025 Winship Postdoctoral Scholar Award recipients.
The symposium also celebrated the achievement of Winship’s emerging scientists. Naoto Tokuyama, PhD (Madabhushi lab), and Erin Grundy, PhD (Lesinski lab), were named recipients of a 2025 Winship Postdoctoral Scholar Award. The award honors outstanding postdoctoral fellows and provides an annual stipend and funding for their continued professional development.
The event concluded with a scientific poster session featuring 72 presenters from Winship labs. A panel of judges recognized the following four posters for excellence in research and presentation:
- Chronic viral antigen recognition skews CD8+ TEMRA cells away from antitumor immunity in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
Brianna Brammer
MD/PhD student
Emory University School of Medicine
PI: Nikki Schmitt, MD, FACS - Engineering CD4+ T cells to develop a novel immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer
Delaney Geitgey
PhD student, Cancer Biology Graduate Program
Laney Graduate School, Emory University
PI: Gregory Lesinski, PhD, MPH - Single-cell profiling reveals clonal hematopoiesis-associated immune alterations in non-small cell lung cancer
Kernyu Park, MS
Research fellow, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology
Emory University School of Medicine
PI: Janghee Woo, MD, PhD - Combination of dequalinium and osimertinib overcomes resistance in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer via mitochondrial dysfunction
Jing Sun, PhD
Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology
Emory University School of Medicine
PI: Shi-Yong Sun, PhD
