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Cancer Engineering: The Convergence of Engineering and Health to Advance Cancer Research and Care

Thu, June 12, 2025

Workshop Highlights
May 20–21, 2025 | National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
 
The National Cancer Policy Forum hosted a dynamic two-day workshop on Cancer Engineering: The Convergence of Engineering and Health to Advance Cancer Research and Care, bringing together leading voices from academia, federal agencies, and medical institutions. This multidisciplinary event examined the emerging field of cancer engineering and considered opportunities to improve patient outcomes through the convergence of engineering with oncology practice, research, and policy. 
 
cancer_engineering4.jpgOpening remarks by workshop co-chairs Hedi Hricak, Roderic Pettigrew, and Rohit Bhargava set the tone for a vision for cancer engineering and convergence in oncology. Presidents from the three National Academies—including Marcia McNutt, Victor Dzau, and John Anderson—emphasized the transformative potential of engineering-driven approaches to accelerate cancer research and to improve care and outcomes for patients with cancer.
 
Key Highlights
 
The Power of Convergence
In the opening session, Nobel Laureate Phillip Sharp delivered a session keynote on the imperative of convergence of oncology and engineering. This was followed by insights from leaders across the cancer research and care ecosystem: Robert Winn (Virginia Commonwealth University, cancer center), Cheryl Willman (Mayo Clinic, healthcare system), Rashid Bashir (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, academic medicine), and Bruce Tromberg (National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, federal funding agency). Discussions underscored the opportunities and challenges for cancer engineering to emerge as a field to reshape the potential for convergence in engineering and cancer research and care. 
 
Engineering in Prevention and Diagnostics 
Julian Adams in his session keynote highlighted the importance of effective collaborative research to advance innovation at the intersection of engineering and oncology. Other speakers presented examples of how convergence of disciplines can lead to fundamental understanding and advances in improving patient outcomes—from circulating tumor cell capture (Mehmet Toner) to mRNA vaccines (Vinod Balachandran), and from leveraging artificial intelligence to predict cancer outcomes (Anant Madabhushi) to effectively integrating new technologies in systems based solutions (Rebecca Richards-Kortum) while ensuring that advances in cancer engineering are broadly disseminated (Christina Chapman).
 
cancer_engineering5.jpgEngineering in Drug Development and Therapeutics to Deliver High-Quality Care
Robert Langer delivered a session keynote on cancer engineering yesterday, today, and tomorrow highlighting some of his key engineering research that have provided innovative methods to improve the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases including cancer. Talks by other speakers focused on existing and emerging engineering approaches that can enhance drug development and treatment of cancer—from, CAR-T and NK cell therapies (Carl June, Katy Rezvani), to molecular and cellular imaging and image-guided therapy (Samuel Achilefu) and theranostics in precision oncology (Hossein Jadvar). A panel discussion focused on the challenges and opportunities to translate advances from engineering into technologies that enable research and precision cancer care.
 
From Cancer Biology to Engineering Solutions 
Talks in this session showcased examples of cutting-edge technologies and collaborative research developments—from leveraging techniques in nanotechnology (Dave Mooney) to mRNA Cancer Vaccines (John Cooke), and from immunoengineering (Omid Veiseh) to mechanobiology (Cynthia Reinhart-King). A lively panel explored strategies to unite diverse skillsets to accelerate cancer research and to improve care and outcomes for patients with cancer. 
 
cancer_engineering6.jpgDay 1 of the workshop concluded with a poster exhibition by 25 selected postdocs and students and networking reception.

Fostering the Next Generation
Day 2 began with oral presentations from the top five selected poster presenters to spotlight emerging researchers. The presenters were Haylie R. Helms (OHSU), Sampreeti Jena (University of Minnesota), Amrik S. Kang (UCSF), Suyog Shaha (Harvard University), and Shensheng Zhao (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
 
cancer_engineering3.jpgLater, a session on Cancer Engineering Education examined workforce development, interdisciplinary curricula, and collaborative training models. Paula Hammond, Kayvan Keshari, Greg Sawyer, Ze’ev Ronai, and Nastaran Zahir, shared programmatic strategies needed to inspire and to prepare the next generation of cancer engineers as well as the training support available to the current and upcoming cancer engineering workforce.
 
Collaborative Spirit
A final summary session reinforced the urgency—and promise—of continued collaboration across sectors and disciplines to catalyze new knowledge and innovations to improve patient outcomes through the convergence of engineering with oncology research, practice, and policy.
 
The presentation slides and the webcast videos are archived on the workshop website. A Proceedings of the workshop will be produced in fall by the National Academies Press.