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Professor Robert Brown is Chair in Translational Oncology and Head of Division of Cancer within the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College, where he heads the Epigenetics Unit. His post is a joint appointment between Imperial College London and Institute of Cancer Research where he is the Epigenetics Team Leader in the Section of Molecular Pathology. Bob is Principal Investigator of a Cancer Research UK research programme, Drug Resistance and Epigenetic Mechanisms, and is a joint Principle Investigator of the Imperial Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre. He moved to London in 2007 after working for nearly 20 years at the CRUK Beatson Laboratories in Glasgow where he was Director of Laboratory Research in the Centre for Oncology and Applied Pharmacology. He obtained his BSc in Biological Sciences (Genetics) at Edinburgh University, his PhD at MRC Radiobiology Unit, Harwell, and his Post-doc at the German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg.

He has provided key insight into epigenetic mechanisms involved in tumorigenesis and resistance to chemotherapy, particularly in ovarian cancer. Recent areas of his research include; identifying novel epigenetic targets in ovarian and breast cancer, characterising histone marks and DNA methylation in breast and ovarian tumours as risk, prognostic and/or predictive biomarkers, and development of novel histone methyltransferase inhibitors.

He is Chair of the NCRI Biomarker and Imaging Clinical Studies Group whose remit is to facilitate and support biomarker and imaging studies in UK clinical trials. He is Deputy-Chair of CR-UK New Agents Committee and member of MRC Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board.

James D. Brenton is a senior group leader at the Cancer Research UK (CR-UK) Cambridge Institute and leads the Functional Genomics of Ovarian Cancer laboratory. He qualified in medicine from University College London in 1988 and trained in medical oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto and the Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge. He has been an honorary consultant in medical oncology at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since 2001. His PhD work was carried out at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology and he held a Cancer Research UK Senior Clinical Research Fellow from 2001–2006 at the Hutchison/MRC Research Centre.

His research focuses on the identification of prognostic and predictive markers for therapy in ovarian cancer and identifying mechanisms of drug resistance, with particular emphasis on the genomic profiling of clinical samples and bioinformatic analysis.

He is the chair of the Informatics Advisory Group for the national CR-UK Stratified Medicine Programme and was previously Vice-Chair of the CR-UK Biomarkers and Imaging Discovery and Development Committee. He is a member of the international Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis (OTTA) Consortium project approval committee, the SGCTG Protocol Review Committee, NCRI ovarian cancer subgroup and the CR-UK Clinical Fellows Mentor Panel.

Professor Ignace Vergote is Chairman of the Leuven Cancer Institute and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Gynaecologic Oncology at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He initially trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, before specialising in Gynaecologic Oncology in the Department of Gynaecologic Oncology at the Norwegian Radium Hospital, where he later became staff member and in 1991 deputy chairman.

Professor Vergote is currently Chairman of the Belgian & Luxemburg Gynaecological Oncology Group (BGOG), and Chairman of the Protocol committee of European Organization for Research, and Treatment of Cancer -Gynecologic Cancer Group (EORTC-GCG), and President of the Society of Robotic European Gynaecological Surgery (SERGS). Professor Vergote was the founder and first chairman of ENGOT from 2007 until 2012. In 2013 he was Chairman of the Board of Medical Chairmen of the University Hospital Leuven. Since 2014 he is member of the Board of Directors of the University Hospital Leuven.

He has been Chairman of the EORTC-GCG from 1997 to 2003, and served as President of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) for the period 2003-2005. For the period 2006-2008 he was the President of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS). He has been Chairman of the Flemish Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology from 2008 to 2013. He was founder and first chairman of the European Network of Gynaecological Oncological Trial groups (ENGOT) from 2007 tot 2012.

He received in 2004 the Wertheim price in Austria and the COBRA price for surgical expertise in the Netherlands. In 2008 he became Honorary Member of the Finnish Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics. In 2012 he became Honorary Member of the American College of Surgeons. 

Professor Vergote’s main areas of clinical and translational research focus on ovarian and uterine cancer. He has authored more than 635 original full papers in peer-reviewed journals, together with 50 book chapters, and edited several books on Gynaecological Oncology. He is Editor of the European Journal of Cancer , and past-Associate Editor of Gynecologic Oncology and the International Journal of Gynaecological Cancer.

Franca Esposito is Professor of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.

After graduating in medicine at the University of Naples Federico II, Professor Esposito did her residency in Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the same University. Formerly, a visiting scientist, Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA and a post-doctoral assistant at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Cincinnati, USA.

At the School of Medicine, University of Naples Federico II, Professor Esposito is the Coordinator for Biochemistry courses and President of the BS degree course for Medical Laboratory Technicians.

Her research activity has focused on the study of the redox regulation of gene expression and effects of reactive oxygen species on the: i) activity of some transcription factors; ii) expression of cell cycle regulatory proteins and iii) regulation of mitogenic signal transduction.

Professor Esposito's present research activity includes the study of TRAP1, a novel antiapoptotic gene involved in the resistance to anticancer therapy. She is working on the validation of TRAP1 as a new biomarker and drug target candidate in multiple human cancers and chemoresistance.

Professor Sehouli is a gynaecological oncologist, working at the Charité, University of Medicine in Berlin, Germany.

Professor Jalid Sehouli is currently the director of the department of gynecology in the famous Charité/ Campus Virchow-Klinikum and Campus Benjamin Franklin. He is also the head of the European Competence Center for Ovarian Cancer and is leading the gynaecological oncology at all three Campi at Charité Medical University in Berlin.

Professor Sehouli founded the German Foundation for ovarian cancer patients, being involved in many initiatives for patients.

Together with Professor Lichtenegger he founded the German north eastern society for gynaecological oncology (NOGGO). In 2000 he initiated the tumor bank ovarian cancer, which became the largest biobank for fresh frozen tissue worldwide.

Since 2013 Professor Sehouli was nominated as speaker for the OVAR Kommission of the AGO, Germany.

His clinical and scientific interest focuses on the surgical therapy and systemic treatment of advanced gynaecological malignancies. He lead several preclinical trials in predicting the surgical outcome. He is principle investigator in many Phase I to Phase III clinical trials in ovarian cancer.

He has published more than 250 national and international papers in the field of gynaecologic oncology.
He is a member of the executive board of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gynäkologische Onkologie (AGO) and the Nord-Ostdeutsche Gesellschaft für Gynäkologische Onkologie (NOGGO), and a member of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO), the Gynaecologic Cancer Intergroup (GCIG), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC).

Charlie Gourley graduated with honours in Genetics from the University of Glasgow in 1991. He then went on to qualify as a medical doctor in 1994 also at the University of Glasgow.

Charlie progressed through his medical training in Edinburgh, continuously combining that with active research interests. He has successfully held research positions both at the University of Edinburgh and within the NHS.

Charlie’s career ladder took him to his current position as a Professor and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology, specialising in gynaecological cancers. He leads a clinical research team at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, and a translational research group at the University of Edinburgh Cancer Research UK Centre.

He is a member of the National Cancer Research Network gynaecological cancers clinical studies group, the National Cancer Research Network ovarian subgroup and the Scottish Gynaecological Cancers Trials Group. He is also an active member of several other committees.

Elena Ioana Braicu is a senior gynecologist at the Department for Gynecology Campus Vrchow, Charité Medical University Berlin. She is leading the translational research within this department, and coordinating the Tumor Bank for Ovarian Cancer network (www.toc-network.de).

She qualified in medicine in 2003 from “Iuliu Hatieganu” Medical University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She was research fellow at Max Delbrück Research center Berlin in 2003 and 2004, than at the Charité from 2005 and 2006 and at the University of Basel in 2008. Since 2009 she is working at the European Competence Center for Ovarian Cancer at the Charité Medical University.

She is representing the translational group of NOGGO, north eastern German society for gynecological oncology within ENGOT. She is a founding EUTROC member and is leading the working group for biobanking. She is also consultant for pediatric gynecology at the Charité Medical University.

Dr. Braicu participated in several European projects, like OVCAD (www.ovcad.eu) and OCTIPS (www.octips.eu). She is work package leader for biobanking and data repository in the Fp7 European Phase I/II clinical study, Gannet53 (www.gannet53.eu).

She is member in several national and international study groups (e.g. AGO, NOGGO, TOC, ENGOT, EUTROC, GCIG). She is member of the German Foundation of Ovarian Cancer.

Furthermore she is participating in several Phase I to Phase III clinical study as sub-investigator. She is the vice-coordinator of the clinical trial study center at the Charité Medical University.

Since 2013, she is a fellow of the clinical scientist program of the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Berlin Institute of Health.

Her main interests are prevention and diagnostic of pelvic tumors in general and high risk population. She is focusing also in the discovery of predictive biomarkers for clinical outcome in ovarian cancer patients.

Christina Fotopoulou trained in obstetrics and gynecology and subspecialized in gynaecological oncology at the Charité University Hospital of Berlin in both the surgical and systemic treatment of women with advanced gynaecological malignancies and completed her PhD thesis entitled “Current Aspects in the Operative Treatment of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer”.

She is currently a Consultant Gynecological Oncologist and Adjunct Professor in the Imperial College London Healthcare Trust in Queen Charlottes Hospital in London and Ovarian Cancer Action Research center.

She has been the leading consultant and Vice Director of the Clinic for Gynecology at the Charité in Berlin, one of the largest reference and accredited centers for gynecological cancer in Germany, as well the Principal Coordinator of the European Competence Center for Ovarian Cancer, which was created in 2007 in Berlin.

Her principal area of clinical practice is in exenterative procedures for advanced forms of pelvic malignancies and in the cytoreductive debulking of primary or relapsed ovarian cancer. Furthermore, she was trained in the reconstructive surgery of oncologic patients after extensive exenterations.

Her area of research is the creation and validation of scores for optimal surgical quality, the analysis of tumour dissemination patterns, histopathological characteristics and surgical outcome in primary and relapsed of ovarian cancer and in the quality of life of patients after extensive operative procedures.

Christina Fotopoulou is a member of the German AGO- Ovarian Cancer Steering Group which is responsible for the generation of national guidelines for the management of ovarian cancer and borderline ovarian lesions. She is the surgical lead in the European Network for Translational Research in Ovarian Cancer (EUTROC) in the working package “Predicting surgical outcome”.

She has broad experience in national and international clinical and surgical trials in Germany and in innovative intraperitoneal immunotherapies in palliative stages of gynaecological malignancies.

She has lectured in many countries on her clinical research and surgical experience.

She is on the editorial board of two journals and reviewer in numerous international gynaecological and oncological journals and is member of various international oncological committees, including ASCO, ESGO, IGCS, ESMO, ENGOT, AGO and NOGGO.

EUTROC (European Translational Research network in Ovarian Cancer) is a European cancer network addressing the fragmentation currently hindering translational research for cutting edge therapies in ovarian cancer.

It will strengthen European excellence in the diagnosis and treatment of OC.

The need to bring promising drug candidates and treatments into clinical settings is currently delayed by the lack of standardised protocols for preclinical animal studies, lack of suitable ovarian cancer models, lack of validated predictive biomarker diagnostics, and integrated appropriate management of translational research partners (including pharma and biotech companies).

Developing effective diagnostic and treatment strategies require structured joint efforts of experts on tumor immunology, epigenetics, pathology, bioinformatics, drug development and delivery, trial development, clinical oncology and gynecological oncology.

Leading European researchers and clinicians together with the pharmaceutical industry and biotech companies will focus on preclinical and clinical studies in ovarian cancer. Therefore new targets will be identified, validated and translated to new drugs and brought to clinical practice. Standardisation and harmonisation of laboratory practices and good clinical practice procedures will BE performed within the consortium.

The consortium combines expertise in clinical as well as preclinical research. Involved researchers are coordinating a number of investigator-initiated Phase I, II trials.The Network will build a platform for research and strong educational programs for the next generation of experts aimed at developing individualised patients benefit.