About “The Day One Talk”
“This was their first child.
And now we're going to have to explain that she had this tumor behind her eye and that we're going to have to treat her with chemotherapy and it was going to be complicated and we had these unknowns and was just hoping that we got through this and that they didn't walk away worried.
We wanted them to walk away feeling like they had confidence in us that we knew what we were doing. And you could tell, because they were really looking. You could tell when families that you're sitting with are looking to you for answers and looking to you for hope.”
—Dr Sam Blackman, on meeting the Glennon Family for the first time
One Family’s Perspective
The Physician’s Perspective
About Drs. Sam and Mark
Samuel Blackman, MD, PhD is Day One’s Co-founder and former Head of Research and Development. He is a physician-scientist trained in pediatric hematology/oncology and pediatric neuro-oncology. He has led the early clinical development of more than 10 novel cancer therapeutics. Prior to founding Day One, Dr. Blackman held roles of increasing responsibility at Silverback Therapeutics, Juno Therapeutics, Seattle Genetics, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Blackman was responsible for the pediatric development of dabrafenib, resulting in the first industry-sponsored pediatric oncology “basket trial”. Through roles at CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, and ACCELERATE, Dr. Blackman has been an active leader in the pediatric oncology drug development community. He is a graduate of the pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston, and the pediatric residency program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He received his MD and PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and his undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Chicago.
Mark Kieran, MD is the VP of Clinical Development at Day One. He received a PhD in Immunology from the University of Alberta, Canada in 1983 and his MD in 1986 from the University of Calgary. After a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Molecular Biology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France where he cloned the regulatory molecule NFkB, he completed a pediatric residency at McGill University in Montreal and a pediatric oncology fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Kieran became Director of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 1998 focused on targeted, gene, immune modulatory and antiangiogenic therapies for pediatric brain tumor patients and other rare cardiac and premature aging diseases. Dr Kieran moved to Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2018 where he was the Senior Director of Pediatric Oncology until July 2021.
The Together from Day One video series was created by a partnership between Day One Biopharmaceuticals and Entertainment 2 Affect Change.
Inspired by the urgent needs of children with cancer, Day One creatively and intentionally develops new medicines for people of all ages with life-threatening diseases.
Our name was inspired by “The Day One Talk,” a life-altering moment for both children and their families. We exist to change the outlook for families who receive the devastating news of a cancer diagnosis or other life-threatening disease.
Entertainment 2 Affect Change (E2AC) is a 501(c)(3) that connects award-winning content creators, mission-based organizations, and passionate funders who want to share their impact through the power of story.
We tell stories that entertain, engage, educate, and inspire.
Learn more at E2AC.org.