Dr. Plenker’s research is focused on understanding drug responses and resistance in patient-derived cancer models. He has been working extensively in translational research for more than 10 years discovering the first ligand-involving oncogenic gene fusion CD74-NRG1. For his postdoc Dr. Plenker characterized optimized treatment possibilities for patients with RET- as well as for MET-rearranged tumors. Currently Dr. Plenker is a research investigator in the laboratory of Dr. David Tuveson as well as the technical manager of the Organoid facility at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Dr. Plenker is an expert in organoid technology. He and his team have successfully generated more than 100 organoids for the Human Cancer Models Initiative. Dr. Plenker has established high-throughput drug screens to characterize drug response and resistance in patient-derived organoids and is leading the organoid generation efforts for the PASS-01 clinical trial to compare in vitro drug response in parallel to the patient’s response.