Invited Speakers

Dr Neevika Manoharan is a Paediatric Oncologist and specialist Neuro-oncologist at the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital (SCH). She is a clinician scientist in the translational tumour biology group at the Children’s Cancer Institute, holds a conjoint appointment with UNSW in the School of Women’s and Children’s Health and has a Masters in Palliative Care from Flinders University.

 Since returning to Sydney, she has developed her research interests in translational therapeutics and early-phase clinical trials. She is co-chair of the first Australian CAR T-cell study for children with brain cancer, Levi’s CATCH and is national PI for multiple early phase studies for children with craniopharyngioma and DIPG. She also co-leads the CNS group of the Zero Childhood Cancer precision medicine program and is the vice chair of Australian and New Zealand Children’s Oncology Group (ANZCHOG), the peak body and trials group for children with cancer in Australia and New Zealand.

Dr. Phoebe Power is a Consultant Paediatric Oncologist and specialist Paediatric Neuro-Oncologist at the Kids Cancer Centre at Sydney Children’s Hospital. Following her Australian Paediatric Haematology/ Oncology training, she went on to complete a Paediatric Neuro-Oncology Fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/ Boston Children’s Hospital in 2023, from which she was promoted to faculty and served as an Attending Paediatric Neuro-Oncologist at DFCI/BCH and Instructor of Paediatrics at Harvard Medical School. During this she developed subspecialty interest and expertise in paediatric low-grade gliomas and neuro-immuno-oncology. She was a clinical lead of the first CAR T-cell trial for brain tumours at DFCI/BCH, and is the co-lead of the FGFR working group in the International Paediatric Low-Grade Glioma Coalition. She was recently recruited back to the Kids Cancer Centre and continues to lead several international pLGG research efforts.

Tiffany Boughtwood (BSc (hons) MBA) is the inaugural Australian Health Genomics Commissioner, guiding the work of Genomics Australia and providing advice to Government based on broad engagement with the genomics sector and community.

Tiffany has over 25 years’ experience in molecular biology and management: leading academic and diagnostic genomic programs; collaborating internationally in genetic and genomic research; and consulting in health genomic implementation.

She was the Managing Director of Australian Genomics, a national collaborative supporting genomic research and its translation into clinical practice, she served on the World Economic Forum Global Future Council for Biotechnology and the WHO Collective Global Network for Rare Disease. Tiffany is a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Genomics, is on the Strategic Leadership Committee for the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, and is an International Advisor to the MyGenom Project Malaysia.