Dr. Matthew C. Wakefield, MD, FACS, is a board-certified general surgeon with Central Carolina Surgery in Greensboro (affiliated with Duke Health) and the Medical Director of the Cone Health Breast Cancer Program. A U.S. Army veteran, Dr. Wakefield specializes in the surgical treatment of benign breast disease and breast cancer, with a focus on both medical and cosmetic outcomes. He also works with patients on breast cancer risk evaluation and risk reduction.

As Chair of earlier.org’s Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Wakefield helps guide our commitment to funding promising research that could lead to an earlier, more reliable way to detect breast cancer. Since our founding in 1995, earlier.org’s Medical Advisory Board has directed $5,465,482 in funding to 143 research projects dedicated to advancing earlier breast cancer detection.

Each project represents an investment in innovation, scientific discovery, and the hope of finding breast cancer sooner—when treatment may be less invasive and outcomes may be better.

Dr. Viktor Adalsteinsson leads the Blood Biopsy Team, a multi-institutional collaboration to profile cancer genomes directly from blood samples. The Blood Biopsy Team includes scientists, engineers, oncologists, and computational biologists spanning numerous investigators and labs at the Broad Institute, MIT, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, and others. The goal of their research is to develop impactful new diagnostic methods that stand to benefit millions of cancer patients, such as novel approaches for cancer detection and monitoring using blood biopsies.

Adalsteinsson co-invented technologies for ultrasensitive circulating tumor DNA detection, including MAESTRO, which is being commercialized by Abbott, and priming agents, which are being developed by Amplifyer Bio, a company co-founded by Adalsteinsson.

Dr. Stephen R. Grobmyer, MD, is a nationally and internationally recognized surgical oncologist and Chief of the Cancer Institute at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. Previously, he served as Professor of Surgery and Section Head of Breast Surgery at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where he also co-directed its Comprehensive Breast Cancer Program.

A leader in breast cancer research and innovation, Dr. Grobmyer focuses on developing new approaches to preventing, detecting, and treating breast cancer. With more than 196 peer-reviewed publications, numerous prestigious awards, and decades of clinical and research experience, he is helping shape the future of cancer care.

Dr. Grobmyer has been recognized among Best Doctors in America every year since 2007 and has received numerous distinguished honors, including the Lester Dragstedt Physician Scientist Award and the Society of Surgical Oncology Clinical Investigator Award. His groundbreaking work in cancer care and research has also garnered national media attention, with features on NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, National Public Radio, The New York Times, and Vogue.