By Daenique Jengelley, PhD
July 31, 2025
Symposium brings together statewide collaborators to address Indiana’s cancer burden
The 2025 Cancer Burden Across Indiana: Connecting Molecular Mechanisms to Treatment, Care, and Community Symposium was held June 26 in Indianapolis. The cancer center event brought together 118 attendees representing clinical and research faculty, administrative and research staff, care providers, trainees, community members, and industry partners from across the state.
Symposium sessions focused on integrating molecular, clinical and community approaches. The event sought attendees to understand variability in cancer outcomes and pursue ways to enhance cancer prevention and treatment—focused on what research, medicine, and communities can do.
“The symposium was a perfect platform for highlighting how bench, bedside, and community interface to address Indiana's cancer burden,” Ann Kimble-Hill, PhD, associate director of inclusive excellence at the cancer center, said. “By bringing all these different groups together, participants found new ways to have their work interface and find new collaborative approaches towards preventing, curing, and treating cancer.”
Symposium speakers shared their ongoing research in areas focused on disease variability, clinical care, and community engagement at Indiana University and within Indiana.
“The symposium provided an opportunity for our trainees, including summer students, to understand how outcomes from foundational, translational and clinical studies done at the cancer center are being applied to address cancer burden across Indiana including rural parts of the state,” said Harikrishna Nakshatri, PhD, the Marian J. Morrison Professor of Breast Cancer Research at IU School of Medicine and the associate director of education at the cancer center.
Travel awards were granted to the following presenters: Hao Dai, PhD, Emily Chestnut, Mahsa Ghasemi, Ramotallah Jubril, and Alexandra Cranston.
The symposium was supported by an IU Research conference grant, Novartis, and the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Save the date: The 2026 Cancer Burden Across Indiana Symposium will be held in June 2026. More details will be shared later this year.
