Dr Hutchings has been the Chairman of the EORTC lymphoma group since 2013 and a faculty member for the EHA Clinical Research Training in Haematology programme.

He is a member of the scientific committee for the European Haematology Association National and has been principal investigator or sub-investigator for >25 solid tumour and haematology phase I trials and >20 lymphoma and myeloma phase II and phase III trials. He is the national principal investigator for three mantle cell lymphoma trials (one ongoing and two planned) and three Hodgkin lymphoma trials.

He is the co-author of the international response criteria and guidelines for the use of imaging in lymphoma and the European society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) guidelines for Hodgkin lymphoma and ’ultra high-risk’ lymphomas.

Pinkal Desai MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and Assistant Attending Physician at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

After obtaining her MBBS at Byramjeejeebhoy Medical College in India in 2005, Dr. Desai obtained an MPH at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health.  Following her residency at Wayne State University, Detroit Medical Center, she underwent fellowship training in Hematology-Medical Oncology at Providence Hospital Medical Center, serving as Chief Fellow from 2012-2013.        Dr. Desai was recruited to serve in our Leukemia Program to develop a clinical practice devoted to leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). She will be developing clinical and translational research protocols and projects in the areas of leukemia, MDS and MPN.

Dr. Desai is published in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers Prevention and International Journal of Molecular Epidemiology and Genetics. She is the lead author and co-author on numerous WHI (Women’s Health Initiative) paper proposals and has presented abstracts at national meetings. She is a member of American Society of Hematology (ASH) and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and has served on the ASCO University Committee.

Dr John Mascarenhas is a Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) and a member of the Tisch Cancer Institute in New York City. Dr Mascarenhas is the Director of Center of Excellence in Blood Cancers and Myeloid Disorders, Director of the Adult Leukemia Program, and Leader of Clinical Research within the Myeloproliferative Disorders Program at Mount Sinai.  As a clinical investigator in malignant hematology with a focus in translational research involving MPNs, he is primarily responsible for the clinical trials portion of the Myeloproliferative Disorders Program at ISMMS. Dr Mascarenhas is also the Principal Investigator (PI) of the clinical trials project within the National Cancer Institute sponsored Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Research Consortium (MPN-RC). He has served as PI or Study Chair of multiple investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored early and late phase clinical trials evaluating innovative approaches to the treatment of MPNs and secondary acute leukemia. 

Meletios A. Dimopoulos, MD is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Clinical Therapeutics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, Greece. He was elected Vice Dean of the Medical School for the academic years 2007-2011 and Dean for the academic years 2011-2015. In February 2015 he was elected Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens for a 4 year term.

He obtained his medical degree from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 1985, completed a residency in internal medicine at the Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Canada and a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA. Dr. Dimopoulos is a member of numerous scientific societies and has authored more than 750 publications (November 2015) in peer-reviewed journals, as well as numerous abstracts and several textbook chapters primarily focusing on plasma cell dyscrasias and genitourinary and gynecologic cancers. He has more than 26000 citations and his h-index is 78 (ISI-Web of Science). He is a journal reviewer for several journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Blood, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Haematologica, Leukemia, Cancer, European Journal of Haematology, Leukemia and Lymphoma etc. Dr. Dimopoulos was Associate Editor of the European Journal of Internal Medicine (2001-2007), is an Associate Editor of Current Hematologic Malignancy Reports and is an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (2005-2008), of Haematologica, of Leukemia and Lymphoma, of Clinical Lymphoma and Myeloma and of Expert Review of Hematology.

Dr. Dimopoulos serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of the International Myeloma Foundation, of the International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation and he is a member of the Board of the European Myeloma Network. Dr. Dimopoulos organized the XIth International Myeloma Workshop and the IVrth International Workshop on Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia (Kos Island, Greece June 2007). In March 2013 Dr. Dimopoulos was elected as a member of the Board of the International Myeloma Society. He is a recipient of the Robert A. Kyle Award for outstanding contributions to Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia.

Prof. Dominici has author 80+ peer reviewed publications and is an Editorial Board member of American Journal of Cancer Research and Word of the Journal of Stem Cells.

Prof. Dominici is President of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT). He is also a member of the Mesenchymal & Tissue Stem Cells Committee and was the ISCT Treasurer in 2009. In the 2009 he co-founded the forum of Italian Researchers on Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (FIRST).

Prof. Foà is the author of 350 articles in international journals. He is Co-Editor of Leukemia and Lymphoma, Associate Editor of the British Journal of Haematology (2002) and of The Hematology Journal (2008).

Prof. Foà has many society affiliations including: President of EHA (2009‐2011); Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the 4th EHA Congress, Barcelona (1999); Councillor of EHA (2002); Member of the Education Committee of EHA (2005); and Member of the National Committee for Health Research for the Ministry of Health (Italy).

Prof Bahou has published over 70 articles in peer reviewed journals and has presented at many international meetings. His research group is interested in genetic disorders of bleeding and thrombosis, focusing on blood platelets as the tools to understand the molecular basis of these disorders in humans.

Shaji Kumar, MD, is a consultant in the Division of Hematology at Mayo Clinic, and professor of medicine in the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, US. A significant component of Dr Kumar’s research efforts are directed toward studying novel treatment approaches in myeloma through well-designed clinical trials. He is principal investigator on multiple phase I, II, and III trials for plasma cell malignancies, which include a combination of Mayo investigator-initiated trials, industry-sponsored trials, and cooperative group trials. From a translational research standpoint, his laboratory has focused
on development of new agents for plasma cell malignancies, with a particular focus on the tumor microenvironment.

Dr Kumar receives ongoing support for research from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. He is a member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Clinical Research, American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, American Medical Association, Association of Physicians of India, and the European Hematology Association. His work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blood Cancer Journal, Leukemia, American Journal of Hematology, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Blood, and European Journal of Hematology. He received his medical degree from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. He completed an internship there, followed by a clinical residency in internal medicine and a senior residency in medical oncology.

Dr Kumar subsequently served a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. He then served as a research associate and Mayo Foundation Scholar in multiple myeloma at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute-Harvard Cancer Center.

Dr Elias Jabbour graduated from the Saint Joseph’s School of Medicine in 1998 and joined, thereafter, the Hotel Dieu de France University Hospital as a resident. In 2001, he pursued in fellowship in Hematology-Oncology at the Gustave Roussy Institute. In 2003, he joined the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer as a fellow in the Department of Hematology/Leukemia and Stem cell transplantation. Thereafter, in 2007, he joined the faculty in the Leukemia department as Assistant Professor.

Dr Jabbour is actively involved in research in both acute and chronic forms of leukemia. He was actively involved in clinical trials that lead to the approval of several drugs in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and myelodysplastic syndromes. His research on resistance to imatinib and mutations of the protein kinase domain were presented in several international; meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals. He is also developing tailored therapies to CML.

Dr Jabbour has taken an active role in the medical community, participating in numerous scientific meetings. He has authored or co-authored numerous publications and abstracts and serves as a reviewer for many scientific journals. In 2005, 2006, and 2007, he received the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society of Hematology merit awards for Outstanding Clinical fellow, in addition to two similar awards from the American Society of Bone Marrow Transplantation. Due to Dr Jabbour’s commitment and hard work he was promoted to Associate
Professor in September 2013.

Bernd Jilma, MD, is a Full Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the Medical University of Vienna. His scientific interests encompass coagulation research, anaphylaxis, rare diseases, biologics, and vaccines. Since 2001, Dr. Jilma has been a principal investigator in phase I, II, and III clinical trials, including multinational studies. He has published over 525 peer-reviewed articles in esteemed journals such as NEJM, Lancet, Lancet Infect Dis, JACC, Blood, Circulation, and Am J Respir Crit Care Med.

Dr. Kristen Sanfilippo is a Hematologist in the Division of Hematology at Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis and a Staff Physician in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at John Cochran Veterans Administration Medical Center St. Louis, USA. She is a co-chair of the International Society on thrombosis and Haemostasis Scientific and Standardization Committee for Hemostasis and Malignancy.  In addition to clinical training in hematology/oncology, she earned a Masters in Population Health Sciences at Washington University St. Louis School of Medicine in 2012. Since completion of her Master’s degree, Dr. Sanfilippo has focused her research on health outcomes in patients with venous thromboembolism with a focus on cancer-associated thrombosis. Her research group developed and validated a risk prediction model, IMPEDE VTE, to identify patients with multiple myeloma starting chemotherapy at high-risk of venous thromboembolism. In addition, through a collaboration with a research team at University of Washington School of Medicine, they developed the SAVED score to predict risk of venous thromboembolism in multiple myeloma patients receiving an immunomodulatory agent. Both IMPEDE VTE and the SAVED score are recommended as the risk prediction models of choice by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) clinical guidelines. Her clinical and research interests continue to focus on venous thromboembolism and cancer-associated thrombosis with her current work focused on understanding risk-factors for anticoagulant-related bleeding in patients with cancer.

Erik Aerts is a Nurse Manager at University Hospital Zürich in Zürich, Switzerland, where he leads the nursing operations in the Department of Medicine Oncology and Haematology. He pioneered the first haematology-oncology nursing course in Switzerland, providing nurses with the opportunity to specialize in haematology and oncology. With 30 years of nursing experience across diverse settings and specialties, his focus has been on haematology and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).

Mr. Aerts also serves as President of several professional groups, including the Haematology Nurses & Healthcare Professionals Group and the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation Nurses Group.

Dr. Danilov earned his medical degree in Russia and completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Tufts Medical Center, in Boston, United States. He is a physician-scientist with background in molecular biology and cancer cell signaling and expertise in oncologic drug development. 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.

As a Director of Early Phase Therapeutics Program and a leader of the Lymphoma Center, Dr. Danilov guides an effort in experimental therapeutics at the City of Hope National Medical Center. His group’s pre-clinical focus is on evaluation of novel targets in the ubiquitin-proteasome system and oncogenic role of cyclin-dependent kinase-9. In addition, his group performs correlative science on multiple clinical trials. He received peer-reviewed funding from the National Cancer Institute (R01), Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, American Society of Hematology and Lymphoma Research Foundation, and serves as Co-Chair for Translational Medicine of the Southwest Oncology Group Lymphoma Committee.

Clinically, Dr. Danilov is a practicing medical oncologist specializing in the care of patients with CLL and lymphoma. Building on his pre-clinical discoveries, he launched multiple early-phase clinical trials with novel agents. As a member of industry and SWOG committees and a leader within the Early Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network, he participates in drug development on a global scale.

Cancer care is a sort of personal mission for Tycel Phillips, M.D.

As a teen, he saw how pancreatic cancer affected his grandmother and decided to follow her example of service and make his career helping others as a physician. When he was a medical resident, he lost his mother to breast cancer; her experience with chemotherapy inspired him to pursue research into treatments that are less toxic for patients.

His approach to patients is to listen first to understand their needs and develop the most beneficial treatment plan.

Dr. Phillips earned his medical degree from Rush University, followed by a residency in internal medicine at the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County in Chicago. His fellowship training in oncology/hematology took place at University Hospitals in Cleveland. Before joining City of Hope, he was a clinical associate professor at the University of Michigan, where he was appointed the Maria Reinhardt DeCesare Research Professor of Blood Cancers and Bone Marrow Transplantation.

Leading clinical trials into new targeted therapies is a vital part of Dr. Phillips’ work. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed studies and attracted dozens of research grants.

Away from work, Dr. Phillips likes to read, ride his bicycle with his children, exercise and travel.

Dr Esra Gülderen is a Resident physician at Uludağ University, Turkey. After earning her medical degree from Hacettepe University, she has actively contributed to malignant hematology and stem cell transplantation research in Germany and the USA. She is passionate about translational science and fostering international collaboration, and currently holds the position of Co-chair of the EBMT Trainee Committee.