The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) has created the DCP Early Career Scientist Spotlight Research Seminar Series to highlight nominated early career scientists who are advancing research within the areas supported by DCP. The overall goal of this ongoing seminar series is to increase visibility and provide recognition to these DCP Early Career Scientists.
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Key information
- Date: Thursday, February 12, 2026
- Time: 11:00am EST to 12:00pm EST
- Location: Virtual via WebEx
Registration Information
Registration is required.
Speakers
Symptom Management Needs and Interventions Among Individuals Living with Metastatic Cancer
Claire C. Conley, PhD
Assistant Professor of Oncology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Biography
Claire C. Conley, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Oncology and a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. She obtained her PhD in clinical health psychology from the Ohio State University in 2018. Dr. Conley’s program of research involves two complementary areas in cancer prevention: early detection among women at increased risk for breast cancer, and symptom management among people living with advanced cancer.
Dr. Conley aims to promote health behavior change and improve quality of life in the context of cancer through innovative behavioral interventions. She has received research funding from the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Molecular Alterations Associated with Airway Injury & Lung Squamous Precancerous Lesions to Inform Early Lung Cancer Intervention
Sarah Mazzilli, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Computational Biomedicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Biography
As an Assistant Professor at Boston University, Dr Mazzilli’s research program focuses on understanding the epithelial and immune changes that drive the progression of premalignant lung lesions to invasive lung cancer, with the goal of identifying high-risk individuals and testing targeted interventions. Building on prior work characterizing mouse models of lung premalignancy and identifying metabolic and immune alterations linked to smoking and lesion progression (Cancer Prev Res 2013, Clin Cancer Res 2017, Nature Comm 2019), her lab now employs cutting-edge single-cell and spatial technologies to study human and mouse precancerous lung lesions.
Recent findings include spatial immune profiling evidencing immune evasion in lung adenocarcinoma precursors (Cancer Res. 2023) and identifying miRNAs that suppress antigen presentation in progressing lung squamous precursor lesions (biorxiv, 2025). Furthering her translational work, she continues to characterize mouse models to establish how accurately they can reflect immune and epithelial drivers of lung carcinogenesis for future preclinical studies.