International Speakers

Carlos Fernández de Larrea completed his training in hematology at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona. His doctoral thesis was awarded with the Extraordinary Award of the University of Barcelona (2012). He has been visiting investigator at the Centre for Amyloidosis of Pavia, the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, as well as at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York for 18 months, working in CAR-T cells for myeloma. He is currently consultant of the Department of Hematology at Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, research group leader at IDIBAPS and Associate Professor in the University of Barcelona. He participates actively in clinical trials for multiple myeloma and macroglobulinemia, particularly with the development of academic CAR-T cells for monoclonal gammopathies, either from the pre-clinical perspective or multicenter clinical trials.

Dr. Helen Heslop is Dan L. Duncan Chair, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital. Additionally, she holds the role of Deputy Director of the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr Heslop is a physician scientist engaged in translational research focusing on adoptive immunotherapy with gene-modified effector cells, to improve hemopoietic stem cell transplantation and cancer therapy. An additional focus is reconstituting antiviral immunity post-transplant. She therefore has extensive experience in developing and conducting transplant studies and cell and gene therapy studies and currently holds over 20 INDs.

She serves as Principal Investigator on several peer-reviewed research programs, including an NCI-funded SPORE in lymphoma and the Meg Vosberg Stand Up to Cancer Dream Team in T cell lymphoma. She is also the principal investigator on an NHLBI-funded training grant in Cell and Gene Therapy. She is a past President of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplant (ASBMT), and the Foundation for Accreditation of Cell Therapy (FACT) and the past chair of the BMT CTN Steering Committee. She is an elected member of the American Association of Physicians and the National Academy of Medicine.

Caron Jacobson is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a lymphoma clinical researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  Her research interests are in the use of cellular therapy for the treatment of lymphoma.  She also serves as the medical director of the Immune Effector Cell Therapy Program at Dana-Farber, which houses commercial and research interests in cellular therapies across the institute from hematologic malignances to solid tumors.

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 and chairman of the EHA Scientific Working Group on CLL. He is on the editor board of the journals Blood and Haematologica. Also, he is member of the scientific committee of the European School of Haematology. He is highly active for the Dutch CLL patient advocacy foundation, giving lectures for patients and family, both at meetings and online.

Dr. Ann Mullally is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a physician-scientist at Brigham/Dana-Farber and an Associate Member at the Broad Institute. Dr. Mullally’s laboratory studies the genetics, biology and therapy of myeloid blood cancers, with a focus on myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). Her research interests include the biology of mutant calreticulin (CALR) and JAK2V617F in MPN, the biology of myelofibrosis, MPN stem cells and the development of new strategies to target them. Dr. Mullally received her MD from University College Dublin, Ireland, completed residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Dana-Farber. She sees patients with MPN in her clinic and is actively involved in all aspects of patient-oriented research. The overarching goal of Dr. Mullally’s research is to advance understanding of MPN and to translate this into improved treatments for patients with these challenging chronic blood cancers.

Robert Zeiser is Full Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Tumor Immunology at the Department of Hematology, Oncology, and Stem-Cell Transplantation at the Medical Center-University of Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany. His work can be divided into clinical responsibilities, clinical and laboratory-based research, and teaching activities. Professor Zeiser’s laboratory research is focused on graft-versus-host disease, tumor biology, in vivo imaging, and signaling. In particular, his research group has used different imaging techniques, including bioluminescence imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, fluorescence imaging, and positron emission tomography/computerized tomography, to monitor the fate of different cell types from living animals. His group has made major contributions to the field of pre-clinical and clinical research, with publications in New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Blood, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, and Journal of Clinical Investigation, and has received several awards in Germany, Europe, and the USA and research grants from multiple funding agencies. Professor Zeiser has authored or co-authored > 270 peer-reviewed publications and 14 book chapters, and has served as a reviewer for Science, Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, Nature Methods, Nature Reviews Immunology, Nature Reviews Cancer, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Haematology, Blood, and other journals. Professor Zeiser is Section Editor of Blood and an expert reviewer for research funding bodies in Germany, France, Israel, China, the Netherlands, Austria, the UK, Poland, Belgium, and Switzerland, as well as the European Union. In 2023 Professor Zeiser received an ERC Advanced grant, the most prestigious and competitive funding scheme for researchers in Europe. He is Director of the Collaborative Research Center SFB 1479 and Director of the Division of Tumor Immunology at the University of Freiburg.

Meghan Delaney is the Chief of the Division of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, the Director of Transfusion Medicine and president of the medical staff at Children’s National Hospital.  She is Professor of Pathology and Pediatrics and the George Washington University in Washington, DC, USA.   Delaney received a bachelor’s degree from University of Vermont, a Master of Public Health from University of Washington and medical degree from University of New England. She completed her pathology residency at Beth Israel Deaconess / Harvard Medical School and transfusion medicine fellowship at Bloodworks NW (formerly Puget Sound Blood Center).  Dr Delaney serves as President elect of the Board of Directors for AABB and is a Board Member of the BEST Collaborative and is a member of the American Board of Pathology Test Development and Advisory Committee.   Delaney’s scholarly focus is pediatric transfusion medicine, laboratory management, transfusion medicine and immunohematology.  She has over 100 peer reviewed publications and lectures nationally and internationally.  In global health, Delaney focuses on improving access to safe blood transfusion in developing nations.  She serves as the Chair of NIH’s BLOODSAFE Program that aims to improve access to safe blood in Sub Saharan Africa.  

Dr. Rick Kapur is a Research Group Leader at Sanquin Research, and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Trained in the Netherlands as a medical doctor (MD) as well as a biologist specialized in fundamental biomedical sciences (MSc), he gained a PhD degree in medicine (immunohematology). His lab is focused on unraveling the pathophysiology and improving diagnostics of benign immune-hematological disorders. This includes immune responses to platelets: in immune-mediated thrombocytopenias including the autoimmune disorder immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), and immune responses towards the endothelium in adverse blood transfusion reactions: in Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI). 

His awards include the Jean Julliard Prize of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) in 2018, and the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) RISE award in 2016. He serves on international scientific committees including the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Scientific Committee on Transfusion Medicine, and the expert panel of European Hematology Association (EHA) - European Research Consortium on ITP (ERCI) Guidelines and recommendations on the terminology and management of primary and secondary ITP in children and adults. He currently has over 100 peer-reviewed journal publications, including multiple papers in high-quality journals such as Blood, Science Translational Medicine and Haematologica.

Denise Mckeown is the Regional Haemovigilance Coordinator for Northern Ireland and Manager of BHSCT Haemovigilance Team Prior to her current role, Denise held the position of Lead Transfusion Practitioner at Imperial College Hospital London for nine years. In this role, she was instrumental in developing and implementing transfusion protocols, conducting staff training, and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Before her tenure at Imperial College Hospital, Denise worked as a Biomedical Scientist at Hammersmith Hospital London for ten years. In this capacity, she gained extensive experience in blood bank operations. 

Nicole is Head of the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory (IBGRL) Red Cell Reference (RCR) department and the NHSBT National Frozen Blood Bank facility.  She maintains RCR as a national and international tertiary reference centre for identification of blood group antigens and antibodies.  She also coordinates the compilation and maintenance of the International Rare Donor Panel and advises on rare donor availability worldwide.  Nicole is an acknowledged expert in blood groups, antibody identification and rare blood provision and is particularly passionate about discovering new blood groups and applying a combined serological and molecular approach to solve the most complex immunohaematology problems.

Pierre Mangin is currently Director of Inserm research unit U1255, based in Strasbourg and entitled: Biology and pharmacology of blood platelets: hemostasis, thrombosis and transfusion. Dr Mangin is Scientific Director of Etablissement-Français du Sang-Grand-Est (France). From 2018 to 2022, Pierre served as Chairman of the Biorheology Standardization Subcommittee of the International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis (ISTH) and is currently theme leader on the Diagnostics, OMICs and Advanced Technologies Board of the ISTH 2024.  His research aims to better understand the adhesive properties of blood platelets, focusing on the GPIb-IX complex, GPVI and integrins. Pierre’s group studies the role of these receptors in hemostasis, arterial thrombosis and beyond.

Saskia Middeldorp is Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Internal Medicine of the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Prior to her transfer to Nijmegen in January 2021, she has been a professor of Medicine at Amsterdam University Medical Centers for over 10 years, leading the clinical thrombosis and haemostasis research lines of the Department of Vascular Medicine. Since January 2023, Saskia Middeldorp is one of the 4 Research Domain Leaders in the Radboudumc Research Institution for Medical Innovation. 

Her present research focuses on several aspects of hereditary and acquired thrombophilia, women’s issues in thrombosis and haemostasis, and the clinical evaluation of new anticoagulants and antidotes. She is principal investigator of practice-changing trials such as the investigator-initiated ALIFE, ALIFE2 and Highlow randomized controlled trials.

Saskia Middeldorp is elected council member of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, immediate past chair of the INVENT-VTE network, Associate Editor of the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis and Editorial Board Member of Blood. In December 2016, she held the Ham-Wasserman Lecture and received the accompanying award in recognition of pioneering work in inherited thrombophilia at the annual American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in San Diego. In October 2021, she received the Heijmans van den Bergh penning, a once-per-five-year honorary distinction of the Netherlands Internal Medicine Society for her achievements in terms of science, education, governance and being a role model for young internists.

She is chair of the Thrombophilia Chapter of ASH VTE Guidelines (2023). Saskia Middeldorp has co-authored the Pregnancy chapter of the ASH pregnancy guideline in 2018 as well as the 9th Edition Antithrombotic Guidelines of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) in 2012.

Saskia has supervised and still supervises numerous PhD students and has co-authored over 400 peer-reviewed papers and several book chapters, and reviews manuscripts for international scientific journals.

Dr Gael Morrow is a Chancellor’s Fellow at Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen, United Kingdom). Prior to joining Robert Gordon University, Dr Morrow was a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford for 6 years after obtaining her PhD in Medicine & Therapeutics (Immunohaematology) at the University of Aberdeen in 2018. Dr Morrow’s research interest is in the dysregulation of fibrinolysis in both inherited and acquired bleeding disorders. Her fellowship focusses on unpicking the cellular and molecular mechanisms that result in uncontrolled bleeding following traumatic injury. Her current research is funded by the UK Ministry of Defence to investigate how additives and storage solutions used to prolong the shelf life of blood component therapies alter clot structure and stability. Dr Morrow also leads research projects investigating the existence of an extravascular store of coagulation factors in haemophilia patients and defining changes in the haemostatic profile of patients with endometriosis. Dr Morrow is a Co-Chair of the ISTH Scientific and Standardisation Subcommittee on Fibrinolysis and sits on the committee for the British Society for Haemostasis and Thrombosis.

Guy Young, MD is the Director of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Center and the Clinical Coagulation Laboratory at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Young has published many journal articles, abstracts, and textbook chapters and has delivered lectures, workshops, and presentations at national and international meetings. He is the former chair of the Scientific and Standardization Committee on Factor VIII, Factor IX, and Rare Bleeding Disorders of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis and has been awarded the National Hemophilia Foundation Physician of the Year Award in 2013.

Michelle Kenyon is a Consultant Nurse in haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, whose interests focus on improving the patient and caregiver experience during transplantation and supporting patients throughout their post-transplant recovery. Her research and service development interests centre on patient experience, psychosocial issues, treatment consequences and the unmet needs of those living with and beyond their diagnosis. Her role also enables her to lead a team and teach regularly. As current President of the European Blood and Marrow Transplant (EBMT) Nurses’ Group, she has a strong commitment to delivering education for nurses both nationally and internationally to benefit patient care. Michelle has authored two patient information books, which are used as the basis for informed consent for transplant recipients throughout the UK, and she is Co-editor of the first EBMT Textbook for Nurses, the second edition of which was published in 2023.