Confirmed
Hinrich Abken
Univ.-Prof. Dr med.
University Hospital Regensburg
Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy
Regensburg, GERMANY
I am holding the Chair for Genetic Immunotherapy at the University Regensburg and I am the the Director at Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT). I studied medicine at the Medical School Essen University, performed my doctoral research studies at the Institute for Molecular Biology, and was post-doc at the Institute for Cell Biology (Prof Rajewsky) in 1983-1987 where I worked on non-coding DNA elements. In 1987-1993 I was C1 group leader at the Institute for Genetics (Prof Willecke) and received his venia legendi in Genetics and Immunology from the Faculty of Science of the Rheinische Wilhelms Universität Bonn. In the same year I became C3 University Professor for Tumor Genetics (tenured) at the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne and was member of the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC) with an Independent Research Group in 1994-2018. During my time at Cologne University I pinoeered research on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) redirected T cells. In June 2018 I accepted the Professorship and Chair for Genetic Immunotherapy at the University Regensburg and joined the Regensburg Center for Intervential Immunology (RCI), now Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT).
Helal Ahmed
University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein
Lübeck, GERMANY
I am a graduate of the University Hospital Münster. I work with Professor Cyrus Khandanpour as a medical scientist in the Department of Hematology and Oncology at the University Hospital Schleswig Holstein in Lübeck. My research focuses on studying the processes by which stromal elements are polarized by malignant cells and whether these processes can be addressed therapeutically.
Francis Ayuketang Ayuk
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
Hamburg, GERMANY
I am a haemato-oncologist with special interest in cellular therapy. My research focuses on allogeneic transplantation and immune-effector cell therapies. I am currently deputy director and lead of cellular therapies of the department of stem cell transplantation at the university medical center in Hamburg.
Franziska Baatz
Hanover Medical School
Hanover, GERMANY
I am a molecular biologist with special interest in immune-oncology. My research focuses on hematopoietic stem cell gene editing. I am currently conducting my PhD in the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology in the group of Prof. Dr. Sauer at the Hanover Medical School.
Mascha Binder
Prof. Dr med.
University Hospital Halle (Saale)
Halle (Saale), GERMANY
CV of Dr Breithaupt-Grögler
Dr. Kerstin Breithaupt-Grögler (MD) studied medicine at J.W. Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany (1976‑1983). After state approval as physician and medical thesis (doctor of medicine, summa cum laude) worked as Junior Research Fellow at Center of Physiology, University Frankfurt (1983-1985).
From 1986 to 1995 Research Physician / Clinical Investigator at Center of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Mainz-Wiesbaden, Germany and Board Certification in Clinical Pharmacology. Since 1995 working as independent consultant in clinical pharmacology and medical writer. More than 20 years experience in planning, conduct, evaluation and reporting of clinical trials, writing of expert reports including safety dossiers, clinical summaries / overviews, scientific presentation and publication (30 original papers, more than 80 abstracts and oral presentations).
Founding member of the German Association of Applied Human Pharmacology (AGAH e.V., Hamburg), Board Member since 1997; President 2012-2014, Past President 2014-2018, since 2018 AGAH Regent / Consultant to the AGAH Board. AGAH Delegate to EUFEMED (European Federation for Exploratory Medicines Development, Brussels). Member of scientific programme committees, conduct of workshops and conferences, training courses in exploratory medicines development, qualification of study teams.
Catherine Bollard
Prof.
The George Washington University
Washington, DC, USA
I am the Director of the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research at Children’s National and Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. As a past president of International Society of Cellular Therapy, and current president of Foundation for the Accreditation for Cellular Therapy (FACT) I develop novel cell therapies for patients with cancer and immune disorders.
Dominique Bonnet
Prof.
The Francis Crick Institute
London, UNITED KINGDOM
Dominique Bonnet obtained her PhD degree at University of Paris VII. She then joined the group of Prof. John Dick’s laboratory in Toronto, Canada for her post-doctoral training there. Four years later, she accepted a position as Group Leader at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research, in New Jersey and became Assistant Professor, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. In 2001, she moved to the Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute where she became a Senior Group Leader in 2006. Since August 2012, she is also Professor, at the University College of London, division of Biosciences, and a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Child Health. In 2016, her group move to the new Francis Crick Institute.
Her group is investigating the molecular program that regulate human normal blood stem cells and how oncogenic events impede the normal development both directly and via the stem cell microenvironment. More recently, she developed humanised niche model to further study the interaction of human HSC/LSC with the BM niche.
Marina Cavazanna
Prof. Dr
Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades
Département de biothérapie
Paris, FRANCE
Marina CAVAZZANA main research and clinical interests are the development of the hematopoietic immune system, and cell and gene therapy for inherited and acquired disease of the hematopoietic system. Her group studies the means to improve the clinical results of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, crossing HLA-barriers, and the differentiation of mouse and human stem cells towards lymphocyte lineages. She has initiated several clinical trials based on the use of ex vivo gene modified hematopoietic stem cells to treat patients with inherited disorders, the preliminary clinical results of which are encouraging. Her work was rewarded by the American Society of Hematology (Award on Clinical Research in Gene Therapy in 1999), by the French Academy of Sciences (Special Medical Award in 2000 and Jean-Pierre Lecocq Award on Gene Therapy in 2004). She was awarded the title of Officier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur in 2011, and given the Irène Joliot Curie 2012 award "Scientific Women of the Year" (Science Academy and French Ministry of Education and Research). She was also awarded with the French National Academy of Medicine in 2016 and the 2017 Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize for Clinical Science (American Society of Hematology). She has also been elected as an International member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2019.
Maike Buchner
Dr rer. nat.
University Hospital rechts der isaar
Munich, GERMANY
Maike Buchner completed her PhD with honors in 2010 in Freiburg and subsequently conducted her postdoctoral studies at UCSF, USA. Since 2016, her research on the dissection of divergent signaling events in malignant versus normal B-cells is supported by the Max-Eder-Program of the German Cancer Aid at the TU Munich.
Marina Cavazanna
Prof. Dr
Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades
Département de biothérapie
Paris, FRANCE
Marina CAVAZZANA main research and clinical interests are the development of the hematopoietic immune system, and cell and gene therapy for inherited and acquired disease of the hematopoietic system. Her group studies the means to improve the clinical results of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, crossing HLA-barriers, and the differentiation of mouse and human stem cells towards lymphocyte lineages. She has initiated several clinical trials based on the use of ex vivo gene modified hematopoietic stem cells to treat patients with inherited disorders, the preliminary clinical results of which are encouraging. Her work was rewarded by the American Society of Hematology (Award on Clinical Research in Gene Therapy in 1999), by the French Academy of Sciences (Special Medical Award in 2000 and Jean-Pierre Lecocq Award on Gene Therapy in 2004). She was awarded the title of Officier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur in 2011, and given the Irène Joliot Curie 2012 award "Scientific Women of the Year" (Science Academy and French Ministry of Education and Research). She was also awarded with the French National Academy of Medicine in 2016 and the 2017 Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize for Clinical Science (American Society of Hematology). She has also been elected as an International member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2019.
Daniela Cesana
I.R.C.C.S. Ospedale San Raffaele
Milan, ITALY
Daniela Cesana is currently Project Leader at San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in the Safety and Insertional Mutagenesis unit. She started her career in 2003 establishing a preclinical mouse model that revealed and dissected the mechanisms of genotoxicity of integrating vectors. More recently, she developed technologies allowing the retrieval of integration sites from cell-free DNA and providing insights into AAV biology.
Anjali Cremer
Dr med.
University Hospital Frankfurt
Frankfurt, GERMANY
Anjali Cremer is an attending physician at the University Hospital Frankfurt. After her postdoctoral studies in the lab of Kimb Stegmaier at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, she started her own lab funded by the Max-Eder Program from the Deutsche Krebshilfe. Her strong translational focus is the identification of new targeted treatment options for difficult to treat leukemia subtypes by application of a proteogenomic approach.
Ruud Delwel
Prof.
Erasmus University Medical Center
Rotterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
The main research interest of Ruud Delwel and his team is to understand the molecular mechanisms of malignant transformation in AML with particular focus on epigenetic alterations and abnormal gene regulation. Major findings of his group are: 1) Discovery that AML subtypes can be recognized by unique gene expression and DNA methylation signatures 2) Finding of a novel mechanism of abnormal gene regulation in AML, i.e. the translocation of myeloid enhancers towards the EVI1 oncogene. With his team he now use this knowledge and find ways to target enhancer driven oncogene expression in AML, with a particular focus on EVI1 overexpressing leukemias. Ruud received the Dutch Cancer research price for his work in 2016 and in 2017 he was awarded with the Jose Carreras price and lecture at the annual meeting of the European Hematology Association in Paris.
Cynthia Dunbar
Dr
NIH National Institute of Health
Bethesda, MD, USA
Cynthia Dunbar is a physician-scientist at the National Institutes of Health focused on translational and clinical research in the areas of hematopoiesis, bone marrow failure, natural killer cells, and gene therapies, utilizing non-human primate models to provide insights not possible from small animal or in vitro studies.
Marieke Essers
Dr
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)
Heidelberg, GERMANY
Marieke Essers is head of the Division Inflammatory Stress in Stem Cells at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and group leader at the Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technologies and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM) in Heidelberg. She graduated from her master in Medical Biology degree at the University of Utrecht. During her PhD with Boudewijn Burgering at the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) in Utrecht she worked on FOXO transcription factors in stress responses. Upon obtaining her PhD, she then joined the lab of Andreas Trumpp at the Swiss Institute for Cancer Research (ISREC) in Lausanne, where she discovered the activation of quiescent hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) by the pro-inflammatory cytokine IFNa. In 2010 she established her own independent lab at the Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technologies and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM) and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), where she got tenured in 2018. Her group focuses on understanding the impact of inflammation and IFN signaling on HSCs and their niche, and how this influences malignant transformation in the bone marrow.
Boris Fehse
Prof. Dr rer. nat.
University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf
Hamburg, GERMANY
Marina CAVAZZANA main research and clinical interests are the development of the hematopoietic immune system, and cell and gene therapy for inherited and acquired disease of the hematopoietic system. Her group studies the means to improve the clinical results of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, crossing HLA-barriers, and the differentiation of mouse and human stem cells towards lymphocyte lineages. She has initiated several clinical trials based on the use of ex vivo gene modified hematopoietic stem cells to treat patients with inherited disorders, the preliminary clinical results of which are encouraging. Her work was rewarded by the American Society of Hematology (Award on Clinical Research in Gene Therapy in 1999), by the French Academy of Sciences (Special Medical Award in 2000 and Jean-Pierre Lecocq Award on Gene Therapy in 2004). She was awarded the title of Officier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur in 2011, and given the Irène Joliot Curie 2012 award "Scientific Women of the Year" (Science Academy and French Ministry of Education and Research). She was also awarded with the French National Academy of Medicine in 2016 and the 2017 Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize for Clinical Science (American Society of Hematology). She has also been elected as an International member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2019.
Christos Georgiadis
PhD
GOS Institute of Child Healtch, UCL
London, UNITED KINGDOM
Dr. Georgiadis, is an MRC/AstraZeneca funded senior postdoctoral research fellow at the GOS Institute of Child Health, UCL, operating at the translational interface between laboratory research and clinical application in Prof. Qasim's lab. His focus is on novel base editing technologies for the development of ‘off-the-shelf’ therapies catering for paediatric blood disorders.
Norman Iscove
PhD
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Toronto, CANADA
Norman Iscove is an Emeritus Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto. A pioneer of modern experimental hematology, his landmark contributions include development of methyl cellulose culture for multilineage colony growth, serum replacement by defined constituents in marrow and lymphoid cell cultures, identification of growth factors acting upstream of lineage-specific CSFs and erythropoietin, establishment of PCR for transcriptomics in single cells, and first phenotyping and purification of HSC defined by long-term in vivo assay. Recent work has focused on conditional models of HOXB4 expression to probe leukemia origin and potential vulnerabilities specific to self-renewal.
Irmela Jeremias
Prof. Dr
Helmholtz Centre Munich
Munich, GERMANY
Dr. Irmela Jeremias is Head of the Department Apoptosis in Hematopoietic Stem Cells (AHS) at Helmholtz Center Munich (HMGU) and a professor in Paediatrics at Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU). She works on therapeutic targeting of acute leukemia stem cells, using genetically engineered patient-derived xenograft in vivo models.
Arnold Kloos
Dr
Hanover Medical School
Hanover, GERMANY
CV of Dr Abdul-Ahad
Dr Abdul-Ahad was born in Baghdad and obtained his Bachelor’s degrees in Medicine and Surgery from Baghdad Medical School.
After his PhD in Cancer Immunotherapy from Southampton University, he worked at the Children’s Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Westminster Hospital conducting pioneering work in children with Leukaemia’s and various genetic disorders. From clinical practice Dr bdul-Ahad transferred to the pharmaceutical industry where he has played many different roles. He was the first to use a therapeutic antibody to treat cancer.
For the last 20 years Ayad has led Global Clinical Development and Medical Affairs of several drugs and vaccines, working in the US, Switzerland and the EU and has been involved in over 300 clinical trials.
Jan-Henning Klusmann
Prof. Dr
Goethe University Frankfurt
Frankfurt, GERMANY
Dr. Klusmann is full professor for Pediatrics and Director of the Department of Pediatrics at the Goethe University Frankfurt. He is grantee of the European Research Council (ERC). His research focuses on understanding the pathogenesis of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with the aim to develop novel therapeutic concepts.
Raphael Koch
Dr
University Medical Center Göttingen
Göttingen, GERMANY
I am a hematologist and oncologist, head of the clinical trial office for hematology and oncology and translational research group leader at the University Medical Center of Göttingen. My research group focusses on the biology and functional vulnerabilities in T-cell neoplasms. I am speaker of the T-cell lymphoma working group of the German Lymphoma Alliance.
Rafael Kramann
Prof. Dr
RWTH Aachen University
Aachen, GERMANY
CV of Dr Breithaupt-Grögler
Dr. Kerstin Breithaupt-Grögler (MD) studied medicine at J.W. Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany (1976‑1983). After state approval as physician and medical thesis (doctor of medicine, summa cum laude) worked as Junior Research Fellow at Center of Physiology, University Frankfurt (1983-1985).
From 1986 to 1995 Research Physician / Clinical Investigator at Center of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Mainz-Wiesbaden, Germany and Board Certification in Clinical Pharmacology. Since 1995 working as independent consultant in clinical pharmacology and medical writer. More than 20 years experience in planning, conduct, evaluation and reporting of clinical trials, writing of expert reports including safety dossiers, clinical summaries / overviews, scientific presentation and publication (30 original papers, more than 80 abstracts and oral presentations).
Founding member of the German Association of Applied Human Pharmacology (AGAH e.V., Hamburg), Board Member since 1997; President 2012-2014, Past President 2014-2018, since 2018 AGAH Regent / Consultant to the AGAH Board. AGAH Delegate to EUFEMED (European Federation for Exploratory Medicines Development, Brussels). Member of scientific programme committees, conduct of workshops and conferences, training courses in exploratory medicines development, qualification of study teams.
Nicolaus Kröger
Prof. Dr med. Dr h.c.
University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf
Hamburg, GERMANY
Dr. Nicolaus Kröger is Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. Prof. Kröger is board certified in Hematology-Oncology and Internal Medicine.
From 2018 to 2022 he was President of the European Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) and from 2012 to 2018 Chairman of the Chronic Malignancy Working Party of EBMT and from 2014 to 2018 Scientific Council Chair of EBMT
He served also as chairman of the German Stem Cell Working Group (DAG-KBT) from 2014-2020 and is member of several editorial boards such as Blood, Haematologica, Bone Marrow Transplantation and Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He is Co-Editor of the EBMT Handbook and the EBMT/EHA CAR-T Cell Handbook and also member of numerous Scientific Committees such as ASH, EHA, and ESH.
He has received several awards for his work to date including the prestigious EBMT van Bekkum Award in 2015. In 2020 he was awarded as Doctor Honoris Causa from the University Belgrade.
Prof. Kröger has published extensively in his area of expertise and has contributed to more than 800 publications in peer-reviewed journals such as NEJM, Lancet, JCO, JNCI, PNAS, Blood and Leukemia.
Sonja Loges
Prof. Dr Dr med.
University Medical Center Mannheim
Mannheim, GERMANY
-Unfortunately prevented-
CV of Dr Abdul-Ahad
Dr Abdul-Ahad was born in Baghdad and obtained his Bachelor’s degrees in Medicine and Surgery from Baghdad Medical School.
After his PhD in Cancer Immunotherapy from Southampton University, he worked at the Children’s Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Westminster Hospital conducting pioneering work in children with Leukaemia’s and various genetic disorders. From clinical practice Dr bdul-Ahad transferred to the pharmaceutical industry where he has played many different roles. He was the first to use a therapeutic antibody to treat cancer.
For the last 20 years Ayad has led Global Clinical Development and Medical Affairs of several drugs and vaccines, working in the US, Switzerland and the EU and has been involved in over 300 clinical trials.
Andreas Mackensen
Prof.Dr med.
University Hospital Erlangen
Erlangen, GERMANY
Prof. Andreas Mackensen is full professor for Hematology/Oncology and Director of the Dept. of Internal Medicine 5 – Hematology/Oncology at the University of Erlangen. Since 2020, Prof. Mackensen is the director of the Bavarian Center for Cancer Research (BZKF). His research focus is on T-cell based immunotherapy (CAR-T cells) in malignant and autoimmune diseases.
Simon Mendez-Ferrer
Prof.
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UNITED KINGDOM
CV of Dr Caplain
Dr. Henri Caplain, MD, MSc is a physician, senior adviser in early clinical development strategy and drug risk management. He is the past President of the ‘Association Française de Pharmacologie Translationnelle (AFPT) - Le Club Phase 1’ founding member of EUFEMED. After 15 years as primary investigator for early phase clinical trials and medical scientific director within an International CRO ‘Aster-Cephac Group’, he joined Sanofi-Synthelabo Research as head of clinical pharmacology and Exploratory, member of the R&D board. He became associate VP, deputy-head of worldwide clinical pharmacology for Sanofi-Aventis R&D, then head of the risk management center of excellence within Sanofi, member of the Benefit-Risk Assessment Committee chaired by the Sanofi Chief Medical Officer (CMO).
Matthias Merkenschlager
Prof. Dr
MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences
London, UNITED KINGDOM
Matthias Merkenschlager is a MD PhD with research interests in gene regulation and epigenetic mechanisms of cell commitment and differentiation. He trained in immunology with Av Mitchison, Diane Mathias and Christophe Benoist and started his lab at the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences in 1993. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a member of EMBO.
Eugenio Montini
Dr
I.R.C.C.S. Ospedal San Raffaele
Milan, ITALY
Prof. Andreas Mackensen is full professor for Hematology/Oncology and Director of the Dept. of Internal Medicine 5 – Hematology/Oncology at the University of Erlangen. Since 2020, Prof. Mackensen is the director of the Bavarian Center for Cancer Research (BZKF). His research focus is on T-cell based immunotherapy (CAR-T cells) in malignant and autoimmune diseases.
Carsten Müller-Tidow
Prof.Dr med.
Heidelberg University Hospital
Heidelberg, GERMANY
Carsten Müller-Tidow is Professor of Medicine at Heidelberg University and Director of the Department of Hematology, Oncology and Rheumatology at Heidelberg University Hospital. His research interests focus on the development of novel treatments in hematological malignancies including clinical trials with a special emphasis on cancer stem cells, epigenetics and epitranscriptomics.
Tata Nageswara Rao
Dr Phil. Hum. Biol.
Universitätsspital Bern
Bern, SWITZERLAND
CV of Dr Caplain
Dr. Henri Caplain, MD, MSc is a physician, senior adviser in early clinical development strategy and drug risk management. He is the past President of the ‘Association Française de Pharmacologie Translationnelle (AFPT) - Le Club Phase 1’ founding member of EUFEMED. After 15 years as primary investigator for early phase clinical trials and medical scientific director within an International CRO ‘Aster-Cephac Group’, he joined Sanofi-Synthelabo Research as head of clinical pharmacology and Exploratory, member of the R&D board. He became associate VP, deputy-head of worldwide clinical pharmacology for Sanofi-Aventis R&D, then head of the risk management center of excellence within Sanofi, member of the Benefit-Risk Assessment Committee chaired by the Sanofi Chief Medical Officer (CMO).
John Pimanda
Prof.
University of New South Wales
Sydney, AUSTRALIA
John Pimanda is a haematologist at the Prince of Wales Hospital and Professor of Medicine and Head, Stem Cell Laboratory at the Lowy Cancer Research Centre, UNSW Sydney. His research program is focussed on developing new strategies to improve patient outcomes in myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
Liane Preußner
Dr med.
BioNTech SE
Mainz, GERMANY
CV of Dr Abdul-Ahad
Dr Abdul-Ahad was born in Baghdad and obtained his Bachelor’s degrees in Medicine and Surgery from Baghdad Medical School.
After his PhD in Cancer Immunotherapy from Southampton University, he worked at the Children’s Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Westminster Hospital conducting pioneering work in children with Leukaemia’s and various genetic disorders. From clinical practice Dr bdul-Ahad transferred to the pharmaceutical industry where he has played many different roles. He was the first to use a therapeutic antibody to treat cancer.
For the last 20 years Ayad has led Global Clinical Development and Medical Affairs of several drugs and vaccines, working in the US, Switzerland and the EU and has been involved in over 300 clinical trials.
Axel Schambach
Prof.Dr
Hanover Medical School
Hanover, GERMANY
CV of Dr Caplain
Dr. Henri Caplain, MD, MSc is a physician, senior adviser in early clinical development strategy and drug risk management. He is the past President of the ‘Association Française de Pharmacologie Translationnelle (AFPT) - Le Club Phase 1’ founding member of EUFEMED. After 15 years as primary investigator for early phase clinical trials and medical scientific director within an International CRO ‘Aster-Cephac Group’, he joined Sanofi-Synthelabo Research as head of clinical pharmacology and Exploratory, member of the R&D board. He became associate VP, deputy-head of worldwide clinical pharmacology for Sanofi-Aventis R&D, then head of the risk management center of excellence within Sanofi, member of the Benefit-Risk Assessment Committee chaired by the Sanofi Chief Medical Officer (CMO).
Michael Schmitt
Prof.Dr med.
Heidelberg University Hospital
Department of Haematology, Oncology and Rheumatology, Internal Medicine V
Heidelberg, GERMANY
Cellular Immunotherapy, Department of Medicine V, University Clinic and University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Michael Schmitt, MD, PhD is currently Siebeneicher-Endowment Professor of Cellular Immunotherapy and Head of the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Facility at the University Clinic Heidelberg, Germany. He obtained his MD from the University of the Saarland, Homburg, Germany. At the Universities of Nagasaki and Mie, Japan he was introduced to the field of Tumor Immunology by Prof. H. Shiku. At the University of Ulm, Germany, Dr. Schmitt was trained by Prof. H. Döhner in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology as well as in Stem Cell Transplantation by Prof. D. Bunjes. At the University of Rostock he served as Director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program before he was appointed to his current position in Heidelberg. His main focus is on cell therapy with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, T cell receptor (TCR) T cells, tolerance induction by cells, cancer vaccines, and stem cell mobilization. Dr. Schmitt obtained the Novartis Research Prize in 1999, the Felix Skubiszewski Medal of the Medical University of Lublin in 2005 as well as the Hans-Jochen Illiger Memorial Prize in 2008.
Prof. Schmitt is currently the Head of the Cellular Therapy Working Party of the German Lymphoma Alliance (GLA) and the German Society for Hematology and Oncology (DGHO).
Rebekka Schneider-Kramann
Prof.Dr
RWTH Aachen University
Institute for Biomedical Technologies – Cell Biology
Aachen, GERMANY
I am the director of the Department for Cell and Tumor Biology at RWTH Aachen, Germany, and a Principal Investigator at Erasmus MC, Netherlands. I received my M.D. degree from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 2007 and my Ph.D. degree from Erasmus MC University, the Netherlands, in 2017. I am physician scientist and have a broad background in basic and translational research. My primary focus is disease-oriented laboratory investigation of clonal myeloid neoplasms, employing a range of genomic technologies as well as classical cellular and molecular biology experimental approaches. I am interested in dissecting the interaction between hematopoietic cells and the bone marrow niche, in both steady state and myeloid neoplasms. I was a postdoctoral fellow in Benjamin Ebert’s lab (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston) and focused on the role of genetic haploinsufficiency in hematopoietic stem cell biology and targeted therapy of del(5q) myelodysplastic syndrome (Schneider et al. Cancer Cell 2014; Schneider et al. Nature Medicine 2016).
As an independent investigator, one major achievement of my lab has been the identification of fibrosis-driving cells in primary myelofibrosis (PMF; Schneider et al. Cell Stem Cell 2017). Our recent studies on dissecting fibrosis-driving cells in the bone marrow on a single cell level (Gleitz et al. Blood 2020 and Leimkuhler et al. Cell Stem Cell 2020), puts us in the unique position to 1) dissect the molecular and cellular mechanisms of the fibrotic transformation, 2) define the stepwise disease evolution by genetic fate tracing and analysis of the previously unknown critical effector cells of BM fibrosis and 3) to understand early forms of BM fibrosis for improved diagnostics in patients, all with the ultimate aim to identify novel therapeutic targets to directly block the cellular and molecular changes occurring in BM fibrosis.
Christoph Schultheiß
Dr rer. Nat.
University Hospital Halle (Saale)
Halle (Saale), GERMANY
Christoph Schultheiß is senior postdoctoral research fellow at the Hematology/Oncology Department at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. His research addresses the role of the adaptive immune system in autoimmunity, cancer and infection with a particular focus on B cells and B cell receptor-related signaling.
Lea-Isabell Schwarze
Dr rer. Nat.
University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf
Hamburg, GERMANY
Dr. Lea Isabell Schwarze is a scientist in the research group for Cell and Gene Therapy (Dept. of Stem Cell Transplantation) of the UKE in Hamburg. Her research focuses on the translation of cell and gene therapies for HIV-positive patients and the establishment of GMP compliant manufacturing processes.
Matthias Serwe
Dr
Deutsche Krebshilfe
Bonn, GERMANY
CV of Dr Caplain
Dr. Henri Caplain, MD, MSc is a physician, senior adviser in early clinical development strategy and drug risk management. He is the past President of the ‘Association Française de Pharmacologie Translationnelle (AFPT) - Le Club Phase 1’ founding member of EUFEMED. After 15 years as primary investigator for early phase clinical trials and medical scientific director within an International CRO ‘Aster-Cephac Group’, he joined Sanofi-Synthelabo Research as head of clinical pharmacology and Exploratory, member of the R&D board. He became associate VP, deputy-head of worldwide clinical pharmacology for Sanofi-Aventis R&D, then head of the risk management center of excellence within Sanofi, member of the Benefit-Risk Assessment Committee chaired by the Sanofi Chief Medical Officer (CMO).
Julia Skokowa
Prof.Dr med.
University Hospital Tuebingen
Internal Medicine II – Haematology, Oncology, Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology
Tuebingen, GERMANY
Julia Skokowa is a full professor in Translational Oncology, Department Internal Medicine II, and the director of Gene Therapy Center, University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. Her research interests are understanding myeloid differentiation and leukemogenic transformation in pre-leukemia bone marrow failure syndromes, and developing gene therapy approaches using advanced disease modeling.
Ulrich Steidl
Prof.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
New York, UNITED STATES
Ulrich Steidl graduated from the University of Heidelberg Medical School and the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany. He trained as a resident physician at the University of Duesseldorf, Germany, and as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. He joined the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, USA, in 2008, where he is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell Biology, as well as Professor of Oncology. Ulrich Steidl also holds appointments as the Deputy Director, and Associate Director for Basic Science of Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center, and Co-Director of the Blood Cancer Institute. He currently also serves as the Interim Director of the Ruth L. and David S. Gottesman Institute for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine.
Dan Tenen
Prof.
National University of Singapore
Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Singapore, SINGAPORE
A native Southern Californian, Dr. Tenen has studied gene regulation for the past 4 decades in AML, lung, and liver cancer, and in the past 15 years nuclear long noncoding RNAs in gene regulation, DNA methylation, and DNA replication; and the oncofetal stem cell gene SALL4 in cancer.
Basant Kumar Thakur
PD Dr med.
University Hospital Essen
Essen, GERMANY
Dr. Thakur’s current research at the UK Essen in Germany primarily focuses on the biomarker potential of extracellular vesicles in cancer. Additionally, he investigates the mechanisms through which cancer spreads information via exosomes to neighboring or distant cells throughout the body, including the establishment of microenvironment necessary for cancer progression
Britta Will
Prof.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
New York, UNITED STATES
Britta Will is an Associate Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, USA. Her research concentrates on mechanisms endowing hematopoietic stem cells with their unique functional repertoire with a particular focus on gene regulation driving aging-associated decline and malignant transformation of stem cells when perturbed.
Marius Paul Johannes Witt
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
Hamburg, GERMANY
A native Southern Californian, Dr. Tenen has studied gene regulation for the past 4 decades in AML, lung, and liver cancer, and in the past 15 years nuclear long noncoding RNAs in gene regulation, DNA methylation, and DNA replication; and the oncofetal stem cell gene SALL4 in cancer.
Carol Stocking-Harbers
Dr
Hamburg, GERMANY
Carol Stocking-Harbers headed the Cell and Virus Genetics, Retroviral Pathogenesis, and the Molecular Pathology research groups at the Heinrich-Pette-Institute, Leibniz Institute of Virology from 1989 to 2016. Her research focus on the pathogenicity and evolution of murine retroviruses provided valuable insight into key hematopoietic regulatory genes that drive human leukemogenesis and the development of retroviral vectors for gene therapy. She co-organized the Wilsede Meetings from 2002 to 2012 with Boris Fehse and Axel Zander and has regularly participated in the meetings since 1982.
Axel R. Zander
Prof. Dr med.
-Unfortunately prevented-
CV of Dr Breithaupt-Grögler
Dr. Kerstin Breithaupt-Grögler (MD) studied medicine at J.W. Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany (1976‑1983). After state approval as physician and medical thesis (doctor of medicine, summa cum laude) worked as Junior Research Fellow at Center of Physiology, University Frankfurt (1983-1985).
From 1986 to 1995 Research Physician / Clinical Investigator at Center of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Mainz-Wiesbaden, Germany and Board Certification in Clinical Pharmacology. Since 1995 working as independent consultant in clinical pharmacology and medical writer. More than 20 years experience in planning, conduct, evaluation and reporting of clinical trials, writing of expert reports including safety dossiers, clinical summaries / overviews, scientific presentation and publication (30 original papers, more than 80 abstracts and oral presentations).
Founding member of the German Association of Applied Human Pharmacology (AGAH e.V., Hamburg), Board Member since 1997; President 2012-2014, Past President 2014-2018, since 2018 AGAH Regent / Consultant to the AGAH Board. AGAH Delegate to EUFEMED (European Federation for Exploratory Medicines Development, Brussels). Member of scientific programme committees, conduct of workshops and conferences, training courses in exploratory medicines development, qualification of study teams.
Britta Will
Prof.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Department of Medicine (Oncology)
Department of Cell Biology
New York, UNITED STATES
CV of Dr Breithaupt-Grögler
Dr. Kerstin Breithaupt-Grögler (MD) studied medicine at J.W. Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany (1976‑1983). After state approval as physician and medical thesis (doctor of medicine, summa cum laude) worked as Junior Research Fellow at Center of Physiology, University Frankfurt (1983-1985).
From 1986 to 1995 Research Physician / Clinical Investigator at Center of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Mainz-Wiesbaden, Germany and Board Certification in Clinical Pharmacology. Since 1995 working as independent consultant in clinical pharmacology and medical writer. More than 20 years experience in planning, conduct, evaluation and reporting of clinical trials, writing of expert reports including safety dossiers, clinical summaries / overviews, scientific presentation and publication (30 original papers, more than 80 abstracts and oral presentations).
Founding member of the German Association of Applied Human Pharmacology (AGAH e.V., Hamburg), Board Member since 1997; President 2012-2014, Past President 2014-2018, since 2018 AGAH Regent / Consultant to the AGAH Board. AGAH Delegate to EUFEMED (European Federation for Exploratory Medicines Development, Brussels). Member of scientific programme committees, conduct of workshops and conferences, training courses in exploratory medicines development, qualification of study teams.
Special 50-years of Wilsede LECTURE
Harald zur Hausen
Prof.
Nobel laureate and Wilsede pioneer
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum
Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts
German Cancer Research Center
Heidelberg, GERMANY
CV of Dr Abdul-Ahad
Dr Abdul-Ahad was born in Baghdad and obtained his Bachelor’s degrees in Medicine and Surgery from Baghdad Medical School.
After his PhD in Cancer Immunotherapy from Southampton University, he worked at the Children’s Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Westminster Hospital conducting pioneering work in children with Leukaemia’s and various genetic disorders. From clinical practice Dr bdul-Ahad transferred to the pharmaceutical industry where he has played many different roles. He was the first to use a therapeutic antibody to treat cancer.
For the last 20 years Ayad has led Global Clinical Development and Medical Affairs of several drugs and vaccines, working in the US, Switzerland and the EU and has been involved in over 300 clinical trials.
Special Guest
Carol Stocking-Harbers
Dr
Carol Stocking-Harbers headed the Cell and Virus Genetics, Retroviral Pathogenesis, and the Molecular Pathology research groups at the Heinrich-Pette-Institute, Leibniz Institute of Virology from 1989 to 2016. Her research focus on the pathogenicity and evolution of murine retroviruses provided valuable insight into key hematopoietic regulatory genes that drive human leukemogenesis and the development of retroviral vectors for gene therapy. She co-organized the Wilsede Meetings from 2002 to 2012 with Boris Fehse and Axel Zander and has regularly participated in the meetings since 1982.
Axel Zander
Prof. Dr med.
CV of Dr Breithaupt-Grögler
Dr. Kerstin Breithaupt-Grögler (MD) studied medicine at J.W. Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany (1976‑1983). After state approval as physician and medical thesis (doctor of medicine, summa cum laude) worked as Junior Research Fellow at Center of Physiology, University Frankfurt (1983-1985).
From 1986 to 1995 Research Physician / Clinical Investigator at Center of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Mainz-Wiesbaden, Germany and Board Certification in Clinical Pharmacology. Since 1995 working as independent consultant in clinical pharmacology and medical writer. More than 20 years experience in planning, conduct, evaluation and reporting of clinical trials, writing of expert reports including safety dossiers, clinical summaries / overviews, scientific presentation and publication (30 original papers, more than 80 abstracts and oral presentations).
Founding member of the German Association of Applied Human Pharmacology (AGAH e.V., Hamburg), Board Member since 1997; President 2012-2014, Past President 2014-2018, since 2018 AGAH Regent / Consultant to the AGAH Board. AGAH Delegate to EUFEMED (European Federation for Exploratory Medicines Development, Brussels). Member of scientific programme committees, conduct of workshops and conferences, training courses in exploratory medicines development, qualification of study teams.