COMydAL Chairs
Amer Zeidan
USA
Bio
Amer Zeidan
Amer Zeidan, MBBS, MHS is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology) at Yale University. He is also the medical director of Hematology Early Therapeutics Research, the leader of the Myeloid malignancies DART (Disease Aligned Research Team), and the director of CME at Hematology division at Yale Cancer Center. Dr. Zeidan has completed a hematology/oncology fellowship and a clinical research fellowship in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) at Johns Hopkins University where he also earned a Master of Health Science (MHS) degree in Clinical Investigation. Dr. Zeidan specializes in the management of myeloid malignancies especially MDS and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The focus of Dr. Zeidan’s clinical/translational research is the development of novel therapies for myeloid malignancies, with a special focus on targeted therapies and immunotherapy-based approaches. Dr. Zeidan is also active in health outcomes and comparative effectiveness research for blood cancers diseases and their therapies.
Valeria Santini
Italy
Bio
Valeria Santini
Valeria Santini is Associate Professor of Hematology at the University of Florence, Italy. She runs the MDS Unit- Hematology- Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine- AOU Careggi, University of Florence. Her interests are focused on clinical and translational research in MDS and elderly AML. Professor Santini is President of the Scientific Committee of Fondazione Italiana per lo studio delle sindromi mielodisplastiche (FISiM) and Italian Network of MDS Registries. She belongs to ASH, EHA SOHO and MDS Foundation. She is also an author of more than 200 peer-reviewed papers published in international journals, she has been member of the Editorial board of Blood journal, and documented reviewer for high impact factor scientific journals. She has been an invited speaker at numerous international meetings including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO 2007: educational session on MDS), American Society of Hematology (ASH 2012, ASH 2016: educational sessions on MDS), European Haematology Association (EHA 2016, EHA 2020, EHA 2022: Educational sessions on MDS) and national haematology societies of several countries.
Andrew Wei
Australia
Andrew Wei
COMydAL Faculty
Jessica Altman
USA
Bio
Jessica Altman
Jessica K. Altman, MD, is a Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She also serves as Director of the Acute Leukemia Program at Robert H. Lurie Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
Dr. Altman received her medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of Chicago and fellowship in hematology and oncology at Northwestern McGaw/Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She is board certified in hematology.
Dr. Altman’s clinical and research interests include acute and chronic leukemias, anemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, and myeloproliferative diseases. She has published and presented extensively in these disease areas. Dr. Altman is a co-chair of the NCI leukemia steering committee. She is the chair or the clinical trial audit committee of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is also a member of the Northwestern Medicine Developmental Therapeutics Program, the Signal Transduction in Cancer Program, and the Hematologic Malignancies Program at the Robert H. Lurie Cancer Center. Her clinical translational research focuses on novel targeted approaches for the treatment of acute leukemia.
Dr. Altman is a member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and she was the junior executive editor of the ASH Self-Assessment Program, 7th edition and a member of the ASH 2020 guidelines panel for treating AML in older adults.
She is active in the ECOG- ACRIN cooperative group, myeloMATCH program, and serves as a member of the NCCN Acute Myeloid Leukemia Panel and the NCCN Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Panel.
Emanuele Angelucci
Italy
Bio
Emanuele Angelucci
Degree in Medicine on March 1984. Bologna University School of Medicine.
Fellowship in General Hematology (1987), Clinical Oncology (1990) and Internal Medicine (1995); Ancona University School of Medicine.
Hematology and cellular therapy Director and Transplant Program Director, IRCCS San Martino Hospital in Genoa.
Dr Angelucci has published over 300 scientific papers in indexed journals (Hindex 57 – Scopus June 2022) particularly in the field of treatment of. Hematologic malignancies, in the field of hematopoietic cell transplantation in malignant and not malignant diseases and in the field of iron overload and iron toxicity.
Rafael Bejar
USA
Bio
Rafael Bejar
Dr. Rafael Bejar an Associate Professor at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center where he directs the Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) Center of Excellence. In addition to caring for patients, Dr. Bejar conducts laboratory research exploring the clinical impact of genetic mutations and epigenetic alterations observed in MDS. He has served on the NCCN Guidelines Committee for MDS and is a member of the MDS Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. He is on the steering committees of the National MDS Study and the IWG-PM responsible for overseeing the creation of the IPSS-M. As of January 2020, Dr. Bejar has taken a partial leave from UCSD to serve as the Chief Medical Officer for Aptose Biosciences, a pharmaceutical company developing drugs to treat hematologic malignancies.
Uma Borate
USA
Bio
Uma Borate
Dr. Uma Borate is a hematologist specializing in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) and clonal cytopenias of unknown significance. She serves as an Associate Professor in the Division of Hematology at The Ohio State University and as the Acute Leukemia Research Disease Group Leader. Her clinical and translational research focus is on novel therapeutics in myeloid diseases, with a special focus in disease progression from cytopenia and early stage MDS to AML. She is the principal investigator for numerous investigator-initiated clinical trials based on laboratory science, studying novel combinations of targeted therapies for myeloid malignancies. She is also the national lead and site investigator for several early-phase, industry-supported MDS and AML studies in both upfront and relapsed/refractory disease. Her work has appeared in such peer-reviewed publications as Nature Medicine, Oncotarget, Blood Advances and Leukemia.
She has pioneered a myeloid malignancy predisposition clinic focusing on clinical care and research in patients at high risk for myeloid malignancies due to predisposing hereditary germline mutations and acquired mutations. Additionally, she is involved in developing several protocols for the NCI cooperative groups in MDS and AML, and the recently created MPN group.
She is also a member of several professional organizations, including the Southwest Oncology Group, the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research. She feels privileged to be involved in the care of her patients and be a partner in their fight against their disease.
Andrew Brunner
USA
Andrew Brunner
Hetty Carraway
USA
Hetty Carraway
Chong Chyn Chua
Australia
Bio
Chong Chyn Chua
Dr Chyn Chua is a Haematologist at the Alfred Hospital and the Northern Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. She completed her medical training in clinical and laboratory haematology in 2019. Her research interest is in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, and she is currently completing a PhD focusing on developing novel therapeutic strategies to overcome dynamic clonal resistance in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. She is the chief investigator for three national cooperative group AML clinical studies via the Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group.
Naval Daver
USA
Bio
Naval Daver
Dr Naval Daver is an associate professor and director of the Leukemia Research Alliance Program in the Department of Leukemia at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, TX. He is a clinical investigator with a focus on molecular and immune therapies in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myeloid disease, and is principal investigator on more than 25 ongoing institutional, national, and international clinical trials in these diseases, including multiple registration and label enabling trials.
These trials focus on developing a personalized therapy approach by targeting specific mutations or immune pathways expressed by patients with AML, evaluating novel combinations of targeted, immune, and cytotoxic agents, and identifying and overcoming mechanisms of resistance. He is especially interested in developing monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, immune checkpoint, CD47, NK and T-cell based approaches, as well as combinations of targeted and apoptotic therapies in AML, and he is leading a number of these trials at MDACC. Dr Daver has published over 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts and is on the editorial board of numerous hematology journals. He also serves as Chair on numerous national and international meetings and educational platforms.
Amy DeZern
USA
Bio
Amy DeZern
Dr. Amy DeZern is a hematologist and medical oncologist at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and is an Associate Professor of Oncology and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. DeZern’s primary clinical and research interests are focused on bone marrow failure disorders. She has expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), aplastic anemia (AA), and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) as well as acute leukemias. She is an active clinician scientist who specializes in clinical trials of diagnostics and therapeutics for these disorders. She has been the principle investigator for over 40 single center and multicenter clinical trials in MDS and AA. These investigator-led initiatives focus is on transplant therapies in AA and novel therapeutics (Phase 1-3 trials) in MDS. Additionally, Dr. DeZern is the deputy co-chair of The National MDS Study.
Harry Erba
USA
Bio
Harry Erba
Dr Erba is a professor of medicine in the Division of Hematologic Malignancies and Cellular Therapy at Duke University. He serves as the Director of the Leukemia Program and Medical Director of the Hematologic Malignancy Inpatient Service. Dr Erba graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. He earned his medical degree and doctor of philosophy degree in Biophysics from Stanford University School of Medicine in California. He completed his internship, residency and fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was a faculty member at the University of Michigan from 1996 through 2021 followed by University of Alabama at Birmingham from 2012 through 2018. He has served as the Chair of the SWOG Leukemia Committee since 2012. He is a clinical investigator evaluating novel therapies for acute leukemias, myelodysplastic syndromes and the myeloproliferative neoplasms.
Pierre Fenaux
France
Pierre Fenaux
Christopher Gibson
USA
Bio
Christopher Gibson
Dr. Gibson completed medical school at Yale, then did his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and hematology-oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both in Boston. He did his postdoctoral work with Dr. Benjamin Ebert studying clonal hematopoiesis and genomics of myeloid malignancies in human cohorts. He joined the stem cell transplant group at DFCI in 2017. His research focuses on using translational genomics to improve risk assessment and therapeutic strategies for transplant recipients.
Ivana Gojo
USA
Bio
Ivana Gojo
Dr. Ivana Gojo is a Professor of Oncology and Director of Leukemia Drug Development Program at Johns Hopkins with clinical focus on diagnosis and management of patients with acute leukemias (AML, ALL) and other myeloid malignancies, and emphasis on the development of novel therapeutic approaches for these diseases. Dr. Gojo’s research focuses on the development and bi-directional translation of novel preclinical studies and insights into innovative biology-based phase I/II clinical trials for patients with AML, ALL, and MDS, accompanied by mechanistic/biologic studies utilizing primary patient samples. She has contributed to the pre-clinical/clinical development of multiple novel therapies with recent research focus on understanding the immune system in patients with AML and ALL and exploiting those findings to augment anti-leukemia immunity, as well as to address post-transplant relapses.
Steven Gore
USA
Steven Gore
Lohith Gowda
USA
Lohith Gowda
Elizabeth Griffiths
USA
Bio
Elizabeth Griffiths
I joined the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in January of 2010 after completion of residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Medical Oncology and Hematology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in Baltimore, MD. My clinical practice is focused on treatment of patients with acute leukemias and malignant myeloid disorders, as well as inherited and acquired bone marrow failure syndromes. My translational research laboratory has focused on the use of epigenetic therapy to manipulate anti-tumor immunity in patients with myeloid cancer. I currently serve as the Associate Director for the Roswell Park Early Phase Clinical Trials Program in hematology and collaborate with industry and academic partners in early and late drug development clinical trials.
Monica Guzman
USA
Bio
Monica Guzman
Monica L. Guzman, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology in Medicine, in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Dr. Guzman leads a research program focused on the development of therapeutic strategies for targeting leukemic stem cells. Her laboratory utilizes and develops flow cytometry, NGS approaches to evaluate LSCs and assess MRD. In close collaboration with physicians and industry, her research has resulted in the translation of laboratory findings into clinical trials.
She has authored or co-authored more than 50 papers in the field and has received funding from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, NIH, V Foundation, and the Lauri Strauss Leukemia Foundation, among other organizations.
Dr. Guzman was the recipient of the NIH Director’s Innovator Award and the V Foundation Scholar Award, both in 2010. In 2020 she was listed in 100 inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists in America.
Michael Heuser
Germany
Bio
Michael Heuser
Dr. Heuser holds a Chair for Molecular Therapies in Hematology at Hannover Medical School, Germany. His research focuses on the pathogenesis of myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia and on measureable residual disease. Dr. Heuser has been a clinical investigator in 70 clinical trials and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications.
Christopher Hourigan
USA
Bio
Christopher Hourigan
Christopher Hourigan received both his medical degree and D. Phil. in Human Immunology from Oxford University. After residency training in medicine at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital in London and the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, he joined the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital where he was both a clinical fellow in medical oncology and a postdoctoral research fellow in the Immunology and Immunotherapy research program. He is ABIM board certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology. Dr. Hourigan came to the NHLBI in 2012. After almost three years as an Assistant Clinical Investigator, Dr Hourigan was appointed as an Investigator in March 2015. Dr. Hourigan is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and the recipient of the NHLBI Directors Award, the NHLBI Orloff Award, the NIH Bench to Bedside Award, the NIH Directors Challenge Innovation Award, an American College of Physicians Early Career Physician Award, the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) Young Physician-Scientist Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
Dr. Hourigan’s research focuses on three complementary approaches that are united by an overriding theme of performing translational research in order to find ways to detect, prevent and treat AML relapse. These efforts are strengthened by collaborations with a variety of clinical colleagues from leukemia and transplant centers from around the world.
Tapan Kadia
USA
Bio
Tapan Kadia
Dr. Tapan Kadia is Professor in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. In addition to being the associate program director of the leukemia fellowship program, he is actively involved in clinical and translational research for the treatment of patients with leukemia. His particular focus is in developmental therapeutics in acute leukemia, including individualized frontline therapy, biologically rational targeted therapy, and longer term maintenance strategies in AML and ALL. He is primary investigator on numerous trials in acute myeloid leukemia, T-cell leukemias, bone marrow failure states, and is a leader in these. He has received numerous academic and clinical honors and awards for his studies and clinical research. Additionally, he’s authored over 350 peer-reviewed articles, numerous abstracts, and has been invited to speak nationally and internationally about his work.
Anne Sophie Kubasch
Germany
Anne Sophie Kubasch
Catherine Lai
USA
Bio
Catherine Lai
Catherine Lai, MD, MPH, is an Associate Professor and the Physician Leader of the Leukemia Clinical Research Unit at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lai specializes in detecting, monitoring, and treating acute leukemia and myeloid malignancies in adults. Dr. Lai’s research focuses on integrating health outcomes into clinical trials with novel therapeutics, with a focus on measuring physiologic age and interventions to improve early mortality and overall survival, minimize treatment toxicity and maximize tolerability to therapy.
Most recently, Dr. Lai served as the Director of Leukemia at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, DC. She completed her Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Lai received her master’s in Public Health in Epidemiology from George Washington University.
Selina Luger
USA
Bio
Selina Luger
Dr Luger is Professor of Medicine at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, with over 30 years of experience in hematology-oncology. A graduate of McGill University School of Medicine, her clinical and research interests focus on the diagnosis and treatment of adult acute leukemias and other myeloid disorders. She was the Chief of the Leukemia Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for 20 years and she has published over 200 articles. She has participated in a variety of regional , national and international clinical trials and is currently co-chair of the Leukemia Committee of ECOG—ACRIN. She is an Associate Editor of Blood as well as an ad hoc reviewer for several other journals. An active member of ASH having served in several roles, including as education co-chair of the 2016 annual meeting, and the inaugural chair for the Women in Hematology working group she is currently a member of the ASH Scientific Committee and serves as an ASH representative to the ABIM Governance Committee in Hematology.
Asmita Mishra
USA
Asmita Mishra
Aziz Nazha
USA
Bio
Aziz Nazha
Dr. Nazha is an internationally known expert and a keynote speaker in the application of artificial intelligence and novel digital technologies such as blockchain, IoT, and others in healthcare, pharma, and life sciences. He is also an internationally recognized expert in treating patients with leukemia. His research focuses on the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning to translate genomic and complex healthcare data into useful clinical tools that can improve patient outcomes. He is currently and Executive Director of Early Clinical Development at Incyte. Prior to joining Incyte, Dr. Nazha was a Global Tech Business Development for Healthcare Solutions at Amazon Web Services. He was tasked in building innovative healthcare solutions using machine learning, AI, cloud computing and other digital services to accelerate the adaptation of digital technologies in healthcare. Prior to joining Amazon, Dr. Nazha was the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Clinical Artificial Intelligence and an Associate Medical Director at Enterprise Analytics. He was also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Lerner College of Medicine/Case Western Reserve University and an Associate Staff at the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Taussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic.
Uwe Platzbecker
Germany
Bio
Uwe Platzbecker
After graduating from medical school in 1996, I first started medical training in heart surgery. Since 1998, I have been working at the Department of Hematology and Oncology at the University Hospital “Carl Gustav Carus” in Dresden, Germany. Between 2001 and 2003 I completed a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship provided by the Humboldt-foundation at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, USA. From 2012 to 2018 I held a position of Professor of Hematology at the University Hospital “Carl Gustav Carus” in Dresden and was the head of the section of Hematology as well as chair of the medical ethics committee of the TU Dresden. In 2015 I was appointed as Transcampus Professor of Hematology at the Faculty of Life Sciences and medicine at King’s College London. Since October 2018 I am heading the Hematology program at the University Hospital in Leipzig as Director of the Medical Clinic I, Hematology and Cell Therapy. I am a steering committee member of the SAL group, speaker of the German MDS study group, I have co-founded the European Myelodysplastic Syndromes Cooperative Group (EMSCO) in 2012 and I am chairing the MDS SWG of the EHA.
Gail Roboz
USA
Gail Roboz
Mikkael Sekeres
USA
Bio
Mikkael Sekeres
Mikkael Sekeres is Professor of Medicine with Tenure and Chief of the Division of Hematology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He earned a medical degree and a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr Sekeres completed his postgraduate training at Harvard University, finishing an internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in hematology-oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He is chair of the medical advisory board of the Aplastic Anemia and Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) International Foundation, and formerly chaired the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the F.D.A.
Dr Sekeres is a member of the American Society of Hematology, where he serves on the Executive Committee and chairs the Committee on Communications. His research focuses on patients with MDS and older adults with acute myeloid leukemia, and he has been the national and international primary study investigator on dozens of phase I/II/III trials. He is the author or co-author of over 400 manuscripts and 650 abstracts. He was the inaugural editor-in-chief of the ASH Clinical News magazine; he is on the editorial board of several journals; has written 60 essays for The New York Times; and has authored 8 books, including When Blood Breaks Down: Life Lessons from Leukemia (The MIT Press 2020) and Drugs and the FDA: Safety, Efficacy, and the Public’s Trust (The MIT Press 2022).
Rory Shallis
USA
Bio
Rory Shallis
Dr. Shallis completed his medical doctorate at Rutgers, residency at Brown and a fellowship in Hematology-Oncology at Yale where he currently remains as faculty at the Assistant Professor rank. His clinical and research focus centers on patients with myeloid malignancies including MDS. Dr. Shallis also is a Member of the Yale Developmental Therapeutic Research Program, the Yale Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy and Effectiveness Research Center and Chairs the Yale Leukemia Practices Standardization Committee.
Aditi Shastri
USA
Aditi Shastri
Nicholas Short
USA
Bio
Nicholas Short
Dr. Nicholas Short is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Short is a clinical and translational investigator in adult leukemias, with a particular emphasis on measurable residual disease and the development of phase I and II clinical trials of novel agents and combinations for patients with acute leukemias. He has authored over 125 peer-reviewed manuscripts and numerous abstracts that have been presented at national and international conferences, including the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. For his accomplishments in the field of leukemia research, Dr. Short has received a number of awards, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award and the American Society of Hematology Junior Faculty Scholar Award in Clinical Research.
Maximilian Stahl
USA
Bio
Maximilian Stahl
Stahl is a member of the Adult Leukemia Group at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His research focus is on early phase clinical trials in myeloid malignancies including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).
He graduated from Hannover Medical School in Hannover, Germany. He then received his internal medicine residency training at the Yale School of Medicine where he also served as a chief medical resident. He then completed his Hematology and Oncology fellowship training at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
Richard Stone
USA
Bio
Richard Stone
Richard Stone, MD, is the Chief of Staff at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), the Lunder Family Chair in Leukemia He is also Director of Translational Research for the Leukemia Division in the Department of Medical Oncology at DFCI, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Stone is nationally recognized for his translational and clinical research concerning blood and bone marrow malignancies including acute leukemia, myeloproliferative disorders and myelodysplastic syndrome [MDS] (a bone marrow failure state that may convert to leukemia).
In addition to his work at Dana-Farber, Dr. Stone serves as Chairman of the Leukemia Committee for the national cooperative trials group, Alliance. He is a Vice Chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) MDS panel and is also a member of the NCCN AML panel. He previously served as the Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation, the Chair of the ABIM Oncology Board, and has served on the editorial boards of Leukemia Research, Blood and Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Stone has participated extensively in teaching medical students, residents, and fellows, as well as graduate medical education courses on leukemia and related disorders. He is the author of many academic papers that have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Blood, Leukemia as well as numerous other journals. He had a significant leadership role in the development of five new drugs for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that were approved in the past two years. He is the Co-Principle Investigator of the SPORE in Myeloid Malignancies at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
Dr. Stone earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1981. He completed his internal medicine residency training and served as Chief Medical Resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He completed his hematology-oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber.
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