Nicole Scobie

Nicole Scobie, the Chair of the ACCELERATE Board is a founding member and president-emeritus of Zoé4life, a Swiss non-profit supporting children with cancer, their families, and research. As a parent of a childhood cancer survivor, she advocates for better treatment access and the development of improved therapies. With extensive experience in incorporating patient perspectives into research strategies and clinical trial design, Nicole is a founding member of the ITCC, SIOPEN and SPOG Advocate Committees. She serves on the board of CAC2, an international childhood cancer umbrella organization, and actively contributes to the Research & Innovation pillar of the European Branch of Childhood Cancer International. She is a member of LifeArc’s Strategic Advisory Board, the ITCC-P4’s Advisory Board as well as the Canadian ACCESS External Advisor Board.

Gilles Vassal, Prof., MD, PhD

A pediatrician by training with a PhD in pharmacology, Gilles Vassal was a professor of oncology at Paris Saclay University in France. He was director of clinical research and the pediatric oncology research program at the Gustave Roussy Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he currently works in the Europe Unit. Co-founder and former president of  ITCC, the European network for innovative therapies for children and adolescents with cancer (www.itcc-consortium.org), he chairs its industry strategy committee. He is a member of the board of directors of SIOP Europe, the European Society for Pediatric Oncology in charge of the European pediatric OncoPolicy program (www.siope.eu). He is co-founder and former president of ACCELERATE (www.accelerate-platform.org ), an international multi-stakeholder initiative (universities, industry, patient representatives, regulatory agencies) aimed at accelerating innovation for children and adolescents with cancer, and currently chairs its scientific steering committee. He is co-founder and managing director of the non-profit organization ITCC-P4 gGMBH, which conducts preclinical trials in pediatric oncology (www.itccp4.com). He co-chairs the Childhood Cancers working group of the Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster (www.parissaclaycancercluster.org). He is the author of more than 350 scientific articles. 

Pablo Berlanga MD, PhD

Pablo Berlanga MD, PhD, is a pediatric oncologist at Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus. He trained and worked as pediatric oncologist at the Hospital La Fe Hospital in Valencia Spain, then moved in 2017 to Gustave Roussy. He is actively involved in pediatric phase I/II trials and precision medicine programs, bone sarcomas and neuroblastoma. He is the Chair of the New Drug Development Committee of SIOPEN and deputy chair of the New Drug Development Committee of the EuroEwing Consortium, as well as member of the ITCC Solid Tumour Steering Committee. 

His main research interest with coordinating roles are: early phase clinical trials (ESMART trial, NCT02813135), incorporation of new therapies to upfront therapy (REGO-INTER-EWING NCT05830084; chemo-immunotherapy arm HRNBL2 NCT04221035) and real-world data on off-label/compassionate use innovative anticancer therapies (SACHA, NCT04477681). 

Pam Kearns

Pam Kearns is Emeritus Professor of Paediatric Oncology at the University of Birmingham and was Director of Birmingham’s Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit 2011-2023 and Director of the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences 2021-2024.  

She is President of ITCC, Board member for ACCELERATE, Deputy Chair of the Board of Trustees for Cancer Research UK and Chair of UK’s IMPACCT (Initiative for Multi-stakeholder Partnership to Accelerate Children’s Cancer Trials). She chairs the Research Assessment Panel for Great Ormond Street Hospital, is a member of UK’s National Institute for Health Research Invention for Innovation Funding Committeeand several other (inter)national academic advisory boards.  She chairs the Board of Trustees for A Child of Mine, a charity dedicated to supporting bereaved parents, is a Scientific Advisor to Children with Cancer-UK and a Trusted Advisor to The Little Princess Trust.

Franziska Helmberg

Franziska Helmberg is a research associate at the Medical University of Innsbruck. She works in the Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) research team led by David Riedl. She is part of the ACCELERATE PRO Working Group, where she co-leads the work package on barriers and facilitators to implementing PROs in paediatric oncology clinical trials. She also works within the Innsbruck research group on the development of a new EORTC core questionnaire for children and participates in EU-funded trials in paediatric oncology. Franziska has a strong interest in PROs as a way to give children and their caregivers a meaningful voice in research and clinical practice. 

Steven DuBois

Dr. DuBois completed medical school and pediatric training at UCSF. He completed pediatric oncology training at Dana-Farber / Boston Children’s Hospital. He is currently a Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He is the Director of Experimental Therapeutics where he leads a program designed to bring new targeted therapies to children with cancer.  Dr. DuBois leads an active clinical and translational research program focused on patients with advanced neuroblastoma and Ewing sarcoma.  He conducts clinical trials of novel targeted agents relevant to these diseases, including national phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials.  Dr. DuBois has served on a number of national committees, including the COG Neuroblastoma Steering Committee, COG Bone Tumor Committee, the ASCO Scientific Program Committee, and the ACCELERATE Scientific Steering Committee.   

Jan J. Molenaar MD, PhD

Jan Molenaar is a professor at the department of pharmaceutical sciences at the Utrecht University and a group leader in the Princess Maxima Center for pediatric oncology. His group is aiming at translational research in pediatric solid tumors. Molecular and immunologic findings are translated in new therapeutic interventions to improve curation with optimal quality of life. His group has initiated the iTHER precision medicine program for pediatric cancer patients in the Netherlands and his team is running the Maxima compound screening facility. Jan is the chair of the European ITCC (Innovative Treatments for Children with Cancer) solid committee, a member of the SIOPEN New Drug Development steering committee and a member of the Princes Maxima Clinical Research Committee. 

Dr. Dominik Karres

Dr. Dominik Karres is a medical doctor with an MD in paediatric drug development. He held training post in paediatric haematology/oncology in Germany and later worked in paediatric oncology drug development in the UK. With over 11 years of regulatory experience, including scientific roles at the UK MHRA, he now serves as Scientific Officer at the European Medicines Agency. At the EMA, he oversees the assessment of paediatric anti‑cancer development plans (PIPs) and contributes to EU and global initiatives supporting paediatric (oncology) drug development efforts. In that capacity, he represents for example the Agency on the ACCELERATE Scientific Steering Committee.

Rieke van der Graaf

Rieke van der Graaf is an Associate Professor of Bioethics at the Julius Center, UMC Utrecht, where she leads the Bioethics and Health Humanities department. Her work centers on research ethics—particularly in relation to vulnerable populations, diversity, equity, and inclusion in research, and the ethical dimensions of innovative trial designs. She also focuses on the ethics of emerging health therapies, such as gene therapy and CAR-T, as well as global health ethics and climate ethics. She serves as director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Bioethics in Utrecht. She is the scientific writer of the 2016 CIOMS International Ethical Guidelines for Health-related Research Involving Humans. She contributes her expertise to several (inter)national advisory bodies, including the Central Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects (CCMO) and MedEthicsEU. 

Dr. Francisco Bautista

Dr. Francisco Bautista is a leading Pediatric Oncologist and Group Leader in Pediatric Oncology Drug Development at the Princess Máxima Center (Netherlands), the central institution for pediatric cancer care and research in the country. A highly experienced clinical researcher, Dr. Bautista previously headed the Clinical Trials Unit at Hospital Niño Jesús (Spain), serving as PI for over 30 trials and National Coordinator for many ITCC academic international trials. His extensive fellowship training includes Great Ormond Street Hospital (UK), EORTC (Belgium), and Gustave Roussy (France). He holds key international leadership roles: Chair of the ITCC Sponsor Committee since January 2024, and Chair of the IBFM Early Clinical Trials Group. With expertise spanning early-phase trial design, translational research, and regulatory science, he is devoted to developing new, effective therapies to improve outcomes for children with cancer.

Daniel Morgenstern

Daniel Morgenstern is a Staff Oncologist at Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. He originally trained and worked in the UK before relocating to Canada in 2016. He currently leads the early phase trial program and is Medical Director of the oncology trials unit at SickKids and was recently appointed as Head of Clinical Trials for the hospital. Nationally, he co-chairs the developmental therapeutics committee and is a member of the executive committee of C17 Council, as well as acting as one of the co-leads the clinical trials component of Access. 

Aleck Jones

Aleck Jones, PhD, is CEO and Co-Founder of Kindling Bio, an award-winning London-based biotech pioneering a fundamentally different approach to immunotherapy for childhood cancer and beyond. With nearly 20 years’ experience in cancer biology and child health at University College London and King’s College London, he leads Kindling Bio in building an engineered viral gene therapy platform that puts children first in oncology and turns neglected paediatric cancers into scalable, commercially viable markets for curative therapies.

Donna Ludwinski

Donna is a pediatric cancer research advocate. Her son Erik battled neuroblastoma and suffered a late relapse, diagnosed in 1991 at age 6 and died in 2010 at age 24. She has been involved in the pediatric cancer community for decades. She serves on the ACCELERATE Scientific Steering Committee as well as councils for the NCI, FDA, and DOD. Donna has worked for Solving Kids' Cancer since 2010 managing research programs and for Solving Kids' Cancer UK supporting neuroblastoma families since 2015. Donna has a BS in Chemical Engineering, lives in Virginia with her husband, and they have 3 surviving married children and 9 grandchildren.

George Kirk BSc. PhD.

VP, Global Franchise Head, R&D Oncology  

George has been at AstraZeneca for 28 years and is currently VP Global Franchise Head for a number of late stage projects. George also leads the Paediatric Oncology Development Team (PODT) which prioritises activities to develop better medicines for children with cancer with initial focus on brain tumours and sarcomas utilising assets across AstraZeneca’s oncology portfolio.
Previously George led the Koselugo (selumetinib) program achieving approval from US in 2020 and the EU in 2021 for the treatment of children with NF1-PN. Prior to the above George spent his first 13 years in AstraZeneca in Pharmaceutical Development. George’s background/training is Chemistry, having a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and more recently completed an oncology preceptorship program at St James’ hospital in Leeds in 2014. 

Nick Bird

Nick’s youngest son, Adam, was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma in 2009 and died 4 years later. Nick is Chair of the Board of Trustees of Solving Kids’ Cancer UK; Trustee of Children With Cancer UK; Patient Representative for NHS England Clinical Reference Group for Children and Young People’s Cancer; a former member of the National Cancer Research Institute’s Children’s Group and Neuroblastoma Group; founding member of the Advocate Committee of SIOPEN, the European neuroblastoma research network; founding Chair of the Advocate Committee of ITCC; and has newly joined the Scientific Steering Committee of ACCELERATE. Nick is lead author of two advocate-only articles published in JCO and PB&C respectively examining issues of importance to the childhood cancer community. He was awarded an MBE in the King’s 2024 New Year’s Honours List.

Scott Diede, MD, PhD

Scott Diede, MD, PhD, leads pediatric oncology clinical development at MSD. He received his MD and PhD degrees from The University of Chicago and completed his generalpediatrics residency and pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Washington/Seattle Children’s/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Before joining MSD in 2014, his academic focus was on examining the role of epigenetic changes in cancer. 

Vickie Buenger

Vickie Buenger brings 30+ years of teaching competitive and cooperative business strategy and project management at Texas A&M University (Mays Business School and Professional Program for Biotechnology) to her advocacy work.

Her daughter, Erin, fought neuroblastoma for seven years. After Erin’s death in 2009, Vickie continued her academic career while devoting time and energy to launching the Coalition Against Childhood Cancer (CAC2) on behalf of the many dedicated organizations and individuals striving to make a difference for children with cancer. She continues pursuing that vision in a variety of roles, including on the Board of the ACCELERATE Platform, as the PPIE representative on the GLO-BNHL Clinical Trial Steering Group, and as President Emeritus at CAC2.