Conference Chairpersons
Jennifer Brown
Boston, USA
Division of Hematologic Malignancies
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Jennifer Brown
Jennifer R. Brown, MD, PhD is the Director of the CLL Center of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Brown completed a B.S. and M.S. simultaneously in molecular biophysics and biochemistry (MB&B) at Yale, graduating summa cum laude with distinction. She proceeded to Harvard Medical School where she received her MD and PhD in molecular genetics in 1998 and was awarded the James Tolbert Shipley Prize. She then served as an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital followed by fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology at DFCI. Dr. Brown joined the faculty of DFCI and Harvard Medical School in 2004, where she has an active clinical-translational research program in CLL.
Her interests include the development of novel targeted therapeutics for CLL, as well as CLL genomics. She has been instrumental in the clinical development of idelalisib and ibrutinib, leading to their regulatory approvals in CLL. Her genomics work has characterized the somatic mutation profile of CLL, and she is now particularly interested in the implementation of genomic technology in the clinic. She also has a longstanding research interest in the inherited predisposition to CLL. To date she has published about 250 papers in the scientific literature, predominantly in CLL. In 2014 she was the recipient of two awards from DFCI, the Clinical Innovation Award, as well as the George Canellos Award. She is a member of the International Workshop on CLL (iwCLL) and enjoys a worldwide reputation as a CLL expert.
Paolo Ghia
Milan, Italy
Medical Oncology
Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele
Paolo Ghia
PAOLO GHIA
Full Professor, Medical Oncology
Director, Strategic Research Program on CLL
Deputy chairman, Experimental Oncology Division
Head, B-Cell Neoplasia Unit
Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
Paolo Ghia received his MD from the University of Torino, Italy, and received his PhD working at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland, studying B lymphocyte development. Next, he studied the molecular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of chronic lymphoproliferative disorders, particularly of follicular lymphoma at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston.
He is now working in Milano, as Professor of Medical Oncology at the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele; and Deputy Chairman of the Division of Experimental Oncology, at the affiliated Hospital, where he is Director of the Strategic Research Program on CLL, including a dedicated unit for phase 1 studies.
His research interest is the study of the molecular and cellular mechanisms acting in the natural history of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), including Monoclonal B-cell Lymphocytosis (MBL). On these topics he has published over 260 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals.
He is President of the European Research Initiative on CLL (ERIC), a member of the International Workshop on CLL (iwCLL) and of the WHO Clinical Advisory Committee for Lymphocytic and Histiocytic Malignancies. He coauthors the EHA-ESMO guidelines for CLL treatment and is currently Associate Editor for CLL at Hemasphere, the official Journal of the EHA.
Michael Hallek
Cologne, Germany
Department I of Internal Medicine
Center of Integrated Oncology ABCD
University Hospital of Cologne
Michael Hallek
Michael HALLEK, MD, Professor
Director of the Department I of Internal Medicine of the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany
Director of the Center for Integrated Oncology CIO Aachen, Bonn Köln Düsseldorf Germany
Biographical Sketch
Prof. Hallek received his MD degree from the University of Munich, Germany, in 1985. He trained in pharmacology and internal medicine from 1985 to 1990 at the University and Technical University of Munich. From 1990 to 1992, he spent two years as a research associate at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, before returning to the University of Munich, where he continued his training in internal medicine and in hematology and oncology. From 1994 to 2005, he was head of the Gene Therapy Program at the Gene Center of the University of Munich and at the National Centre for Research on Environment and Health (GSF), Munich. In 1996, he founded the German CLL Study Group and is its chairman until today. Since 2003, Dr. Hallek is Professor of Medicine, Director and Chair of the Department I of Internal Medicine at the University of Cologne. Since 2007, he is also the chairman of the Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO), the joint comprehensive cancer center of the Universities of Cologne and Bonn, since 2019 he is chairman of the CIO Aachen, Bonn, Cologne and Düsseldorf. Since 2011, he is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina). He received numerous awards such as the Paul-Martini Award in 2012, the Binet-Rai-Medal in 2013, the Walter-Siegenthaler Medal in gold in 2016, the German Cancer Award 2017, the Arthur Burkhardt Award 2017, the Johann-Georg-Zimmermann Award 2018, and the José Carreras Award 2019 of the European Hematology Association. He has received the honour of the Ham-Wasserman Lecture of the American Society of Hematology in 2018. President of the German Society of Internal Medicine DGIM (2014-2015) Chairman of the German Society of Hematology and Medical Oncology DGHO (2016-2019). Since 2018, he is chairman of the scientific committee of the European School of Haematology, Paris. He is president of the Walter Siegenthaler Society and member of the Strategy Advisory Board “National Decade against Cancer” of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research since 2019. Since 2020, he is associate editor of the journal Blood.
Faculty
Maria Joao Baptista
Badalona, Spain
Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute
Maria Joao Baptista
Maria Joao Baptista completed her degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2000 and her MSc in Oncology in 2003 (Dissertation: IL2 action, Phenotypic Characterization of T lymphocytes and NK cells) at the University of Porto, Portugal. She moved to Spain in 2005, first to Salamanca where she enrolled a PhD program and worked with Dr. Alberto Orfao at CIC, then to Barcelona where she started her PhD project under the supervision of Dr. Francesc Bosch in IDIBAPS-Hospital Clinic and later in Vall d’Hebron. She defended her PhD thesis “ Molecular mechanisms of apoptosis induced by dexamethasone in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)” in 2012 in the University of Barcelona. She joined Dr. José Tomás Navarro group at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (Badalona, Spain) as a post-doctoral researcher. In 2015 she completed an executive program at IE Business School (Madrid, Spain). Since 2018 she is a Human Genetics Specialist (lic.12033, Ordem Farmacêuticos Portugal). In 2018-2019 she was a visiting researcher/research fellow at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health (NIH) (Bethesda MA) in the group of Dr. Adrian Wiestner. She has been a member of several working groups such as: EHA Lymphoma Group, International Splenic Lymphoma Study Group, ERIC, GELLC. Author of 21 manuscripts reaching a total impact factor of 99,298. She has been a reviewer of the following journals PlosOne, AIDS, Cancer Research Frontiers, European Journal of Hematology, Oncotarget, Annals of Hematology, and British Journal of Hematology. She has been consultant in certification processes as an expert in Molecular Biology, Pharmacology and Oncology at DNV-GL and F-Iniciativas. She has recently returned to Portugal to work in the Medical Department of AstraZeneca.
Michele Bartoletti
Bologna, Italy
Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Chirurgiche
Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna
Michele Bartoletti
Antonio Cuneo
Ferrara, Italy
Sezione di Ematologia e Reumatologia
Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche
Università di Ferrara
Antonio Cuneo
ANTONIO CUNEO, MD, PhD
2005: Full Professor of Hematology, Ferrara University
2006: Director of Hematology Section – S. ANNA University Hospital, Ferrara
2007-2008: President of the Italian Society of Experimental Hematology
2011-2015: Coordinator Ph.D. Program in Molecular Medicine and Pharmacology
2012-2017: Director Department of Specialistic Medicine at the University Hospital in Ferrara, Italy
Co Chair of the Working party on CLL of the GIMEMA group
Research activity: Study of molecular cytogenetic lesions in hematopoietic neoplasms with over 250 papers published in major journals
Florence Cymbalista
Bobigny, France
Laboratoire d’hématologie
Hôpital Avicenne
Florence Cymbalista
Alexey Danilov
Duarte, USA
City of Hope National Medical Center
Alexey Danilov
ALEXEY V. DANILOV, MD, PHD
Dr. Danilov earned his medical degree and PhD at Yaroslavl State Medical Academy in Russia and completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Tufts Medical Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a physician-scientist with background in molecular biology and oncologic drug development and expertise in cancer cell signaling. He leads an independent research program in B-cell malignancies which bridges the understanding of B-cell biology with early clinical evaluation of novel therapeutics.
In his role of an Associate Director, Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center at City of Hope National Medical Center, Dr. Danilov directs an effort in experimental therapeutics in B-cell malignancies. In addition to pre-clinical focus on evaluation of novel targets in the ubiquitin-proteasome system (1) and oncogenic role of cyclin-dependent kinase-9 (2), his group performs correlative science on multiple clinical trials. He received peer-reviewed funding from the National Cancer Institute, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, American Society of Hematology, Lymphoma Research Foundation and SWOG, and serves as Translational Medicine Chair at SWOG Lymphoma Committee.
Clinically, Dr. Danilov is a practicing medical oncologist specializing in the care of patients with lymphoma and CLL. Building on his pre-clinical discoveries, he launched 7 early-phase clinical trials with novel agents targeting Nedd8-activating enzyme, BTK, SYK, and PI3K. As a member of industry and SWOG committees, he participates in drug development on a global scale.
Selected Publications:
- Danilov AV, Herbaux C, et al. 2020. Phase 1b study of tirabrutinib alone or in combination with idelalisib or entospletinib in previously treated CLL. Clinical Cancer Research.
- Best S, Lam V, Liu T, Bruss N, Kittai A, Danilova OV, Murray S, Berger A, Pennock ND, Lind EF and Danilov AV. 2020. Immunomodulatory effects of pevonedistat, a Nedd8-activating enzyme inhibitor, in CLL. Leukemia.
- Best SR, Hashiguchi T, Kittai A, Bruss N, Paiva C, Okada C, Liu T, Berger A, and Danilov AV. 2019. Targeting ubiquitin-activating enzyme induces ER stress-mediated apoptosis in B-cell lymphoma cells. Blood Advances. 3(1): 51-62.
- Gordon M, Churnetski M, Alqahtani H, Rivera X, Kittai A, Amrock SM, James S, Hoff S, Manda S, Spurgeon SE, Choi M, Cohen JB, Persky D, Danilov AV. 2018. Comorbidities predict inferior outcomes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with ibrutinib. 124(15):3192-3200.
- PaivaC, RowlandTA, SreekanthamB,GodbersenC, Best SR, KaurP, LoriauxMM, Spurgeon SE, Danilova OV and Danilov 2017. SYK inhibition thwarts the BAFF – B-cell receptor crosstalk and thereby antagonizes Mcl-1 in CLL. Haematologica. 102 (11): 1890-1900.
- Godbersen JC, Humphries LA, Danilova OV, Kebbekus PE, Brown JR, Eastman A and Danilov AV. 2014. The Nedd8-activating enzyme inhibitor MLN4924 thwarts microenvironment-driven NF-κB activation and induces apoptosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia B-cells. Clinical Cancer Research. 20 (6): 1576-1589.
Alain Delmer
Reims, France
Pôle d’Hématologie Clinique
Hôpital Robert Debré
Reims, France
Alain Delmer
Peter Dreger
Heidelberg, Germany
Division of Stem Cell Transplantation
Department of Medicine V
University Hospital Heidelberg
Peter Dreger
Peter Dreger started his scientific career at the University of Kiel. Significant contributions were made in the fields of transplantation immunology, allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, and transplantation strategies in CLL. In 2005 he accepted the position of a Professor and Head of the Division of Stem Cell Transplantation at the University of Heidelberg, where he is also running the clinical CLL and CAR T-cell programs.
Peter Dreger is founding member of the German CLL Study Group and has served as chairman of the CLL subcommittee of the EBMT Chronic Leukemia WP from 2005-2010 and as chairman of the EBMT Lymphoma Working Party from 2010-2016. He is member of the Board of the German Society for Hematology and Oncology and founding member and Speaker of the Cellular Therapy Working Group of the German Lymphoma Alliance (GLA).
Stefano Fagiuoli
Bergamo. Italy
U.S.C. Gastroenterologia Epatologia e Trapiantologia
Dipartimento di Medicina Specialistica e dei Trapianti
Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale (ASST) Papa Giovanni XXIII
Stefano Fagiuoli
Dr. Stefano Fagiuoli, MD
Stefano Fagiuoli is currently the Chair of the Department of Medicine and the Director of the Gastroenterology and Transplant Hepatology Unit of the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo. He received both his Medical degree (1986) and the Specialization in Gastroenterology (1990) from the School of Medicine of the University of Padua. He earned a Fellowship in Transplant Medicine at the School of Medicine of the University Pittsburgh, where he has been visiting “Instructor” and visiting Professor. He has been Visiting Professor at the liver transplant centre of the Presbyterian University Hospital of Pittsburgh (USA) from January, 1991 until June 1993. From June 1992 until June 1994 he was employed as Attending physician at the Transplant Centre of the Baptist Medical Center di Oklahoma City (USA). He has been an attending in Gastroenterolgy and Hepatology at the University Hospital in Padua from 1994 until 2005. He earned both the European and the Italian Honorary Diploma in Transplant Hepatology. He has been Member and Coordinator of several educational medical programs in the field of Gastroenterology and Transplantation. He is currently appointed Professor of the School of Specialization in Gastroenterology and Coordinator of the Bergamo Executive council of the School of Medicine and Surgery of the University “Bicocca” of Milan. Dr. Fagiuoli has authored or co-authored over 250 peer review articles and over 40 books or books chapters.
Michael Hallek
Cologne, Germany
Department I of Internal Medicine
Center of Integrated Oncology ABCD
University Hospital of Cologne
Michael Hallek
Michael HALLEK, MD, Professor
Director of the Department I of Internal Medicine of the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany
Director of the Center for Integrated Oncology CIO Aachen, Bonn Köln Düsseldorf Germany
Biographical Sketch
Prof. Hallek received his MD degree from the University of Munich, Germany, in 1985. He trained in pharmacology and internal medicine from 1985 to 1990 at the University and Technical University of Munich. From 1990 to 1992, he spent two years as a research associate at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, before returning to the University of Munich, where he continued his training in internal medicine and in hematology and oncology. From 1994 to 2005, he was head of the Gene Therapy Program at the Gene Center of the University of Munich and at the National Centre for Research on Environment and Health (GSF), Munich. In 1996, he founded the German CLL Study Group and is its chairman until today. Since 2003, Dr. Hallek is Professor of Medicine, Director and Chair of the Department I of Internal Medicine at the University of Cologne. Since 2007, he is also the chairman of the Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO), the joint comprehensive cancer center of the Universities of Cologne and Bonn, since 2019 he is chairman of the CIO Aachen, Bonn, Cologne and Düsseldorf. Since 2011, he is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina). He received numerous awards such as the Paul-Martini Award in 2012, the Binet-Rai-Medal in 2013, the Walter-Siegenthaler Medal in gold in 2016, the German Cancer Award 2017, the Arthur Burkhardt Award 2017, the Johann-Georg-Zimmermann Award 2018, and the José Carreras Award 2019 of the European Hematology Association. He has received the honour of the Ham-Wasserman Lecture of the American Society of Hematology in 2018. President of the German Society of Internal Medicine DGIM (2014-2015) Chairman of the German Society of Hematology and Medical Oncology DGHO (2016-2019). Since 2018, he is chairman of the scientific committee of the European School of Haematology, Paris. He is president of the Walter Siegenthaler Society and member of the Strategy Advisory Board “National Decade against Cancer” of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research since 2019. Since 2020, he is associate editor of the journal Blood.
Peter Hillmen
Leeds, United Kingdom
St James’s University Hospital
Peter Hillmen
Professor Peter Hillmen MD, FRCP, FRCPath, PhD
Professor of Experimental Haematology, University of Leeds
Honorary Consultant Haematologist, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Professor Hillmen qualified in Medicine at Leeds Medical School in 1985 and completed his general medical training in Leeds in 1988. He was a Haematology Registrar in Hammersmith Hospital, London between 1989 and 1990 before completing three years as a Wellcome Training Fellow based at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (1991 to 1993) completing a PhD working on PNH under the supervision of Professor Lucio Luzzatto. He then moved back to Leeds as a Senior Registrar in Haematology, Yorkshire (1994 to 1996). He was appointed as a Consultant Haematologist Mid-Yorkshire Trust and Leeds General Infirmary in 1996 before moving to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in 2004. He was appointed as Professor of Experimental Haematology, University of Leeds in 2013.
Professor Hillmen has research interests in both paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH) and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). Since 1990 he has continued to research into PNH that eventually led to the development of anti-complement therapy for PNH. He was the lead on the trials of eculizumab and now leads the National PNH Service based in Leeds and Kings. The National PNH service looks after over 300 patients with PNH and this provides a unique resource for continued research into the pathophysiology and therapy of PNH.
Since 1995 Professor Hillmen has had an interest in understanding the pathophysiology of and in developing novel therapies for CLL. His group has pioneered the use of minimal residual disease assessment in CLL. He Chaired the NCRI CLL sub-group in the UK responsible for the development of UK CLL Clinical Trials between 2002 and 2018. Since 2017 he has Chaired the NCRI Haematological Oncology Clinical Study Group. He initially studied chemo-immunotherapeutic approaches for CLL but recently the development of targeted small molecules, particularly of the B-cell receptor pathway and of apoptosis, has led to a dramatic change in the treatment of CLL. His research now focuses on the mechanism of action of these targeted therapies in order to maximise their potential.
Professor Hillmen has published over 200 papers and in 2017 was awarded the Binet-Rai Medal for his outstanding contribution to CLL research. He also Chairs the International PNH Interest Group.
Arnon Kater
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Department of Hematology
Lymphoma and Myeloma Research Amsterdam
Amsterdam UMC
Arnon Kater
Prof . Dr. A.P. Kater’s fundamental, translational and clinical research as a clinical hematologist is focused on lymphatic cancer (lymphoma), particularly chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL). Together with his colleague at the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam (AMC-UvA) Prof. Eric Eldering, Kater is leading a research group working towards a better understanding of the cellular and molecular processes underlying the emergence and clinical behavior of these illnesses. Together with pharma industries Dr Kater is heavily involved in developments leading to new treatment modalities. Kater was trained as an internist (hematologist) at the AMC-UvA. In 2006 he obtained his doctorate in research into cell death regulation in CLL cells.
From 2008 to 2009 he also worked as a postdoc at the Moores Cancer Center and the Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction at the University of California (San Diego, US). Kater is one of the founders of the Lymphoma and Myeloma Center Amsterdam (LYMMCARE), a specialist knowledge center where the AMC-UvA’s Clinical Hematology, Experimental Immunology and Pathology departments have joined forces since 2012. Within the Amsterdam University Medical Center (a merger of the AMC and the Vumc), he is deputy head of the Dept. of Hematology, vice-dean of the Hematology specialty program and chairman of the clinical research committee.
Kater has been awarded with grants for his research. In 2011, for example, he was awarded a large individual grant by the Dutch Cancer Society to set up his own research group. In 2019 he received an ERC Consolidator grant in order to perform studies on the interactions between CLL cells and the adaptive immune system. He also received grants from the Dutch Cancer foundation, European Union consortia, pharma-industry and various research supporting foundations.
Since September 2014, he has been chair of the Dutch CLL working group at the Hemato-Oncology Foundation for Adults in the Netherlands (HOVON) and since 2020 is member of the HOVON executive board. He is on the editor board of the journals Blood and Haematologica. He is highly active for the Dutch CLL patient advocacy foundation, giving lectures for patients and family, both at meetings and online.
David Kurtz
Stanford, USA
Division of Oncology
Department of Medicine
Stanford University Medical Center
David Kurtz
David Kurtz, MD, PhD, completed his MD at the Mayo Clinic in 2009. He then moved to Stanford University, where he completed his internal medicine residency and hematology & oncology fellowship. As part of his fellowship work, Dr. Kurtz obtained a PhD in Bioengineering, focused on developing genomic techniques and their application to cancer. Much of Dr. Kurtz’s focus has been on developing liquid biopsy methods and their application in lymphomas. He has been a driving force behind the application of circulating tumor DNA to B-cell lymphomas and lymphoid malignancies. This includes development and application of such techniques as immunoglobulin high-throughput sequencing and targeted approaches such as Cancer Personalized Profiling by Deep Sequencing (CAPP-Seq). This research has directly led to the translation of ctDNA into the clinic in multiple ongoing novel clinical trial paradigms. In addition to development of novel molecular biology tools, Dr. Kurtz also has interest in developing tools to utilize liquid biopsies for clinically relevant applications.
Currently, Dr. Kurtz is an instructor at Stanford University Medical Center. His research interests are focused on developing novel methods for detecting, monitoring, and treating cancers. His ongoing research focuses on applications including discovery of genomic mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapies in lymphomas, and early detection of diverse cancers including solid and liquid tumors.
Nicole Leboeuf
Boston, USA
Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center
Harvard Medical School
Nicole Leboeuf
Dr. LeBoeuf received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2006. She completed her residency in Dermatology at Columbia University, where she served as Chief Resident, followed by a fellowship in Cutaneous Oncology at Brigham and Women’s/Dana-Farber Cancer Center at Harvard. Dr. LeBoeuf earned a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in 2015. She established and directs the Program in Skin Toxicities from Anticancer Therapies at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. She is the Clinical Director for the Center for Cutaneous Oncology, where leads clinical trials in cutaneous lymphoma and rare skin malignancies as well as interventional studies for the prevention or management of side effects from cancer treatment. Her research focuses on understanding the immunologic mechanisms of side effects from cancer therapeutics and implementing therapies or other interventions to mitigate them.
Carol Moreno
Barcelona, Spain
Hematology Department
Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
Carol Moreno
Stephen Schuster
Philadelphia, USA
Division of Hematology Oncology
Penn Medicine
Stephen Schuster
Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Robert and Margarita Louis-Dreyfus Professor of CLL and Lymphoma
Director, Lymphoma Program and Lymphoma Translational Research
Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Stephen J. Schuster, MD is the Robert and Margarita Louis-Dreyfus Professor of CLL and Lymphoma and a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the Director of the Lymphoma Program and Director of Lymphoma Translational Research at the Abramson Cancer Center.
After graduating AOA from Jefferson Medical College and completing his residency at Pennsylvania Hospital, Dr. Schuster completed clinical and research fellowships at the Cardeza Foundation for Hematologic Research. In 1989, he became a member of the Cardeza Foundation at Jefferson Medical College.
Dr. Schuster joined the University of Pennsylvania in 1998. Since then, his research has focused on the development and application of novel immunotherapies for B-cell lymphomas and CLL, including autologous tumor-derived vaccines, autologous co-stimulated T-cells, radioimmunotherapy, monoclonal antibody therapy, bi-specific antibody therapy, and adoptive immunotherapy using chimeric antigen receptor modified T cells (CAR-T cells)
He has over 300 publications and has received numerous awards for outstanding teaching and research.
Kostas Stamatopoulos
Thessaloniki, Greece
Institute of Applied Biosciences
Center for Research and Technology Hellas
Kostas Stamatopoulos
Kostas Stamatopoulos, MD, PhD, is a specialist in Hematology, Director of the Institute of Applied Biosciences at CERTH, the Center for Research and Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece. He also holds the position of Visiting Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Dr Stamatopoulos is the coordinator of the Hellenic Precision Medicine Network in Oncology; Board member of ERIC, the European Research Initiative on chronic lymphocytic leukemia; Steering Committee member of the Scientific Working Group on Precision Hematology of the European Hematology Association; Board member of the Splenic Lymphoma Group; member of the Steering Group of the Euroclonality-NGS Consortium. Dr Stamatopoulos is a member of the Hellenic Society of Haematology, the European Haematology Association, the American Society of Hematology, amongst others, and has served in different committees of these organizations. His research interests include: precision medicine in cancer; immunobiology of lymphoid malignancies; and, patient empowerment in care.
Andrew Steele
Southampton, United Kingdom
University of Southampton
Andrew Steele
Dr Andrew Steele is currently a Principal Scientist in Oncology Translational Research at Johnson and Johnson within the Heme disease area stronghold. He also holds a Visiting Professorship within the School of Cancer Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton. Dr Steele moved to the University of Southampton in March 2011 to take up an Associate Professor position in the Cancer Sciences Unit, within the B cell malignancies group with Professors Graham Packham, Freda Stevenson. Dr Steele ran his Leukemia and Lymphoma Molecular Mechanisms and Therapy Group for many years investigating B cell receptor (BCR) signaling primarily within chronic lymphocytic leukemia. His group was the first to identify the role of Interleukin-4 (IL-4) in modulating sIgM expression and downstream signaling and more recently identified the potential role of BCR driven autophagy in CLL pathology. Dr Steele’s group has largely investigating how these microenvironmental signals can drive CLL biology and therapy resistance. In particular, around how these signals can be overcome using a number of different BCR kinase, JAK kinase and Bcl-2 family inhibitors. In order to better understand mechanisms of resistance and potential therapeutic combinations. Consequently Dr Steele is considered an expert in this area particularly around novel drug combination therapies and cell signaling involved in tumor survival and cell death.
Alessandra Tedeschi
Milan, Italy
Struttura Complessa di EMATOLOGIA
ASST Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda
Alessandra Tedeschi
Alessandra Tedeschi, MD, is consultant in Hematology at the Department of Hematology Niguarda Hospital in Milano, Italy. Dr Tedeschi received her medical degree from the University Medical School in Bologna and subsequently trained in hemato-oncology in the Hematology Institute at Ancona University Medical School. From 1996 to 1999 she completed research stages on cord blood transplantation and low grade lymphomas at the Department of Hematology Niguarda Hospital Milano, Italy and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia at the Leukemia Section of MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston, Texas.
In 1999 she joined the staff as consultant in Hematology at the Department of Hematology, Niguarda Cancer Centrer, Niguarda Hospital in Milano.
Doctor Tedeschi main research interests focus on novel treatment approaches in hematological malignancies, most notably in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia and Waldenstrom’s Macropglobulinemia.
She is principal and co-investigator of many National and International trials in chronic lymphoprolipherative disorders. Dr Tedeschi is a member of European Research Initiative for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, European hematolology Association and the European Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia Network. Additionaly she has co-authored the response criteria and ESMO guidelines on Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia. She has published over 100 scientific papers in International peer-reviewed journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Journal Clinical Oncology, Blood , Leukemia
Julia von Trescow
Essen, Germany
Julia von Trescow
Julia von Tresckow is a consultant at the University Hospital of Essen.
In 2003 she joined the Department I of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, as a medical student and started to perform research in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. She received her licence to practice medicine in 2007 and her Doctorate (M.D.) in medicine in 2010, both from the University of Cologne, Germany. In 2008 she started to work as a clinical physician with a focus on hematologic malignancies and joined the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG) as a study physician. Dr von Tresckow received board certification in 2016 as a specialist in internal medicine and haematology and oncology. In parallel, she started her residency in rheumatology in the Department I of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne. Since September 2020 Julia von Tresckow is consultant at the clinic for Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation, University Hospital of Essen. Her research focusses on CLL and indolent Non-Hodgkin-Lymphoma as well as autoimmune disorders in patients with malignant diseases.
William Wierda
Houston, USA
Department of Leukemia
Division of Cancer Medicine
MD Anderson Cancer Center
William Wierda
Adrian Wiestner
Bethesda, USA
Hematology Branch
Nationak Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
Adrian Wiestner
Cathy Wu
Boston, USA
Medical oncology
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Cathy Wu
Catherine J. Wu, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. She received her M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine and completed her clinical training in Internal Medicine and Hematology-Oncology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. She joined the staff at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2000. At DFCI, she has initiated an integrated program of research and clinical activities that focuses on dissecting the underlying mechanisms of pathobiology of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) as a means to more rationally generate effective therapies for this common adult leukemia. Through large-scale genome analysis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, her laboratory has discovered key mutated genes and pathways involved in CLL, systematically analyzed tumor genotype – phenotype relationships and mechanistically dissected the impact of novel CLL driver genes. Ongoing studies in her laboratory focus on systematically analyzing tumor genotype – phenotype relationships, understanding CLL tumor heterogeneity and clonal evolution; and mechanistically dissecting the impact of novel CLL driver genes.
Loic Ysebaert
Toulouse, France
Service d’Hématologie
Institut Universitaire du Cancer de Toulouse-Oncopole