Dr. Taran Gujral is an Associate Professor at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and Director of the TRACER Rare Cancer Initiative. His lab integrates pharmacology, machine learning, and cell biology to map tissue-specific signaling pathways and uncover new treatment strategies for rare and therapy-resistant cancers. Dr. Gujral has pioneered the development of AI-powered tools such as KiR, KiDNN, and SmartMatch, which use 3D tumor slice models to rapidly predict personalized therapies. He earned his PhD from Queen’s University and is a recipient of multiple prestigious awards including the Kimmel Scholar, NSF CAREER, and Ivy Foundation Emerging Leader. Dr. Gujral has authored over 60 scientific publications and holds several patents in cancer biology and therapeutic discovery.

In this webinar, Dr. Gujral will:

  • Demonstrate how tumor tissue slices provide a physiologically relevant platform to study cancer and its microenvironment
  • Explain how drug screening combined with machine learning enables the identification of new therapeutic targets
  • Highlight the role of stromal components such as fibroblasts and the extracellular matrix in tumor progression
  • Discuss how targeting the tumor microenvironment may lead to more effective cancer treatments

This presentation will showcase an innovative approach to modeling cancer-stroma interactions and accelerating the discovery of patient-specific therapies.