Dr. Versha Banerji MD, FRCPC

Haematologist, Department of Haematology & Oncology, CancerCare Manitoba
Assistant Professor, Section of Haematology and Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, University of Manitoba
Senior Scientist, Research Institute in Oncology and Haematology, CancerCare Manitoba
Adjunct Professor, Department of Biology, University of Winnipeg
Research Manitoba New Investigator

Dr. Carlos Cervera, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta
Medical Director, Transplant Infectious Diseases

Carlos Cervera received his MD from Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, in 1994. He completed residency in Hospital Vall d’Hebron receiving Spanish Board Certification in 2001. After his residency, he joined Hospital Clinic of Barcelona in 2003. He received his PhD for his work on innate immune receptors and post-transplant infections in 2010 from the Department of Medicine, University of Barcelona. Since 2003, Dr. Cervera has been working as infectious diseases specialist with a major focus in transplant infectious disease. In February 2015, he joined the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, at the University of Alberta (Canada).

Dr Cervera’s main research interests include infections in immunosuppressed patients and patients with solid organ transplantation. His doctoral thesis focused on the study of genetic polymorphisms in innate immune receptors and the risk of infections in solid organ transplant recipients. In the field of immunosuppression, he has acquired wide experience with infections related to the use of lymphocyte-depletion drugs, calcineurin inhibitors and mTOR inhibitors, and other immunosuppressants. Other areas of interest include fungal infections, microbiota and viral infections. He is member in good standing of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, American Society of Transplantation, Canadian Society of Transplantation and Infectious Diseases Society of America. He has authored more than 180 original articles in indexed journals and over 25 book chapters.

Carlos Cervera has been reviewer for numerous Journals that include Clinical Infectious Diseases, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, American Journal of Transplantation, Transplantation, Liver Transplantation, Transplant Infectious Disease, and others. He is the Medical Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases at the University of Alberta.

Nicole Crisp

Nicole Crisp is a Nurse Practitioner working at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, Canada, with experience in acute leukemia, myelodysplasia and stem cell transplantation. She spent several years working internationally in New Zealand and the UK, with dedicated training from the Royal Marsden School of Cancer Nursing. She is an advocate and member of the International Nurse Leadership Board for the Myelodysplastic Syndromes Foundation. Nicole has several published articles on a selection of interests,  including the development of home chemotherapy and home transfusion programs, quality of life in patients with hematologic malignancies, and the evidence for (and against) medical cannabinoids in oncology. In order to get the energy to maintain everything previously described, she enjoys spending time with her three children and competing in triathlons.

Professor Andrew Davies, BSc (Hons), BM (Hons), FRCP, PhD

Professor of Haematological Oncology
Consultant in Medical Oncology

Andrew Davies is a Professor in Haematological Oncology and Consultant Medical Oncologist in the Cancer Sciences Unit in the Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Southampton, United Kingdom.  He was awarded honours in medicine, and also gained a first-class Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Southampton. He went on to train in Medical Oncology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, and as a Cancer Research UK clinical fellow undertook a PhD examining the molecular mechanisms underlying transformation of follicular lymphoma to more aggressive histological sub-types.

Professor Davies specialises in the treatment of malignant lymphoma and the use of high-dose chemotherapy. He has a particular interest in the investigation of monoclonal antibody-containing therapies applied to lymphoma and also in the translation of biomarkers and novel therapies to the clinical arena.  He has extensive experience in early phase trials, including leading several first in man lymphoma studies. He is the former Chair of the UK National Cancer Research Institute High Grade Lymphoma Study Group and Director of Cancer Research UK/National Institute of Health Research Southampton Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre. He is also the Wessex regional lead for cancers in Teenagers and Young Adults.

Dr. Steven Horwitz, MD

Dr. Steven Horwitz is an Associate Attending in the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He earned his medical degree at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital, and then completed a fellowship in medical oncology at Stanford University Medical Center.

Much of his current research is dedicated to investigating targeted or immunotherapeutic approaches to try to identify better, and often less toxic treatments for individuals with T-cell lymphomas. His research also focuses on better understanding mechanisms of response and resistance to novel drugs in T-cell lymphoma to help provide individualized treatments in the future.

Dr. Horwitz participates in several national, and international committees and consortiums dedicated to the understanding and advancement of treatment for T-cell lymphoma. Since 2017 he has been the Chair of the NCCN panel on Guidelines for Treatment of T-Cell/Primary Cutaneous B-Cell Lymphomas.

Dr. Thomas Kipps, MD, PhD

Professor of Clinical Medicine
Deputy Director of Research
Evelyn & Edwin Tasch Chair in Cancer Research
University of California
San Diego, California

Dr. Thomas Kipps is Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Evelyn and Edwin Tasch Chair in Cancer Research, Director of the Center for Novel Therapeutics, and Deputy Director of Research Operations at the UC San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center.  Dr. Kipps is a two-time awardee of a Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) in Leukemia grant from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a two-time awardee of the NIH MERIT Award, and principal investigator of the CLL Research Consortium (CRC), which directed inter-institutional research among the leading investigators in CLL from across the country and abroad. Dr. Kipps is a core member of the international workshop on CLL (iwCLL) and an awardee of the Rai/Binet medal for outstanding contributions to the field of leukemia research.  Dr. Kipps is the current Chair of the NCI Developmental Therapeutics Study Section and Associate Editor for Leukemia. He has received continuous peer-reviewed, extra-mural funding for research throughout his career and maintained a high level of research productivity, >400 peer-reviewed publications of high impact (current h-index is 113; Google Scholar i10-index is 453, (# publications with ≥10 citations).

Maria Malcolm

Child Life Specialist
Chinook Regional Hospital
Lethbridge, Alberta

Maria is a former classroom teacher who has spent the past 20 years as a Child Life Specialist at Chinook Regional Hospital.  During the course of her work with seriously ill children and their families, the Palliative Care team took note of the impact it had on the siblings.  Maria then joined the Palliative team to work with children whose parents were in palliative care.  She has worked with hundreds of children from two to 16 years old during the past two decades; helping them to understand the parent’s illness, helping them prepare for the death, and supporting them after their loved one has passed. Teams in other facilities are now asking for how they, too can implement a unique and impactful partnership like the one Maria has formed through development of this program.

Dr. Lynne Nakashima, BSc(Pharm), Pharm.D.

BC Cancer Agency

Dr. Lynne Nakashima received her BSc(Pharm) from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and her Pharm.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She was awarded a fellowship in the Canadian Association of Pharmacy in Oncology (CAPhO) in 2016.  She is currently the Provincial Pharmacy Director and the Pharmacy Residency Program Director for BC Cancer.  Dr. Nakashima also holds a clinical appointment at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC.

Dr. Nakashima is currently responsible for the provincial oncology medication management, supporting the Systemic Therapy drug budgeting, formulary and negotiation processes as well as providing pharmacy leadership across the organization.  She is the lead Pharmacist representing BC Cancer on the Canadian Association of Provincial Cancer Agencies (CAPCA) Drug Supplies Disruptions Team, a national committee that works together to mitigate drug shortages.  With her team at BC Cancer, she coordinates drug shortages within the province, including developing mitigation strategies, coordinating communication and managing inventory.

Professor H. Miles Prince, AM, MBBS (Hons), MD, FRACP, FRCPA, AFRCMA, MACD, FAHMS

Professor, University of Melbourne
Professor, Monash University
Professor/Director of Molecular Oncology and Cancer Immunology, Epworth Healthcare
Director, Centre for Blood Cell Therapies, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Professor Miles Prince is a specialist haematologist who manages all types of blood-related conditions which include anaemia, bleeding and blood clotting disorders, as well as cancers of the blood. He is a full professor at both The University of Melbourne and Monash University.

Professor Prince is involved in major research programs involving stem cell research and the mechanism of the immune systems control of blood and cancer growth. He is also involved in many clinical trials related to this research. He holds major Australian, American and European research grants and has published over 300 journal articles. Professor Prince is a member of Australian, American and European Societies of Haematology and Oncology, and is on the boards of International Society of cutaneous lymphoma, International Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia Foundation and chairman of the Medical Scientific Advisory Group of Myeloma Australia. Professor Prince has recently been appointed Director of Molecular Oncology and Cancer Immunology at the Epworth Hospital.

Dr. Noopur Raje, MD

Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Director, Center for Multiple Myeloma
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts

Dr. Noopur Raje received her medical degree from B.J. Medical College, Pune University, India. She has trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and has completed a fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. Dr. Raje has a joint faculty appointment at MGH and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and is the director of the Multiple Myeloma Program, Medical Oncology, at MGH. As a hematologist/oncologist at MGH, Dr. Raje’s primary focus is in multiple myeloma and related research. Her laboratory focuses on bone biology and the development of novel therapeutics for multiple myeloma, as well as identifying and validating novel targets and translating them into clinical trials.

Dr. Raje is a member of the American Medical Association, America Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and American Association of Cancer Research, she is also an ad hoc reviewer for several journals including Blood, Clinical Cancer Research, Leukemia, and the American Journal of Hematology. Dr. Raje is the recipient of several awards and has published extensively in the field of multiple myeloma research. Her hope is to continue pursing laboratory and clinical research in the area of multiple myeloma with the goal of translating her efforts to the improvement of patients’ lives.

Dr. Kerry J. Savage

Medical Oncologist, BC Cancer
Professor of Medicine, UBC

Dr. Kerry J. Savage is a Medical Oncologist at BC Cancer and a Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She received a BSc and a M.D. from UBC.   She completed an Internal Medicine residency at the University of Western Ontario and a Medical Oncology residency at BC Cancer.   She completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in lymphoma at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and earned a MSc in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Savage is active in clinical trials in lymphoma and melanoma and involved in translational research. She is the Clinical Lead for the lymphoma and melanoma Clinical Trials Unit. Her main areas of research focus are peripheral T-cell lymphomas, Hodgkin lymphoma, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma and investigating predictors of central nervous system relapse in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Dr. Jan Storek, MD, PhD, FACP

EDUCATION, TRAINING, EMPLOYMENT:

• Charles University School of General Medicine, Prague
  • MUDr (MD equivalent), Cum Laude
  • CSc (PhD equivalent)
  • Internal Medicine resident
• University of California, Los Angeles
  • Hematology & Oncology fellow
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center & Univ. of Washington, Seattle
  • Blood/Marrow Transplant fellow, Assistant Professor
• University of Calgary
  • Associate Professor, Full Professor

BOARD CERTIFICATIONS:

• American Board of Internal Medicine – Certified in Int.Med., Hematology, Oncology

SELECTED HONORS / INVITED ADDRESSES:

• Canada Research Chair in Transplant Immunology [2005-2009]
• Fujian Inst. of Hematology conference (keynote speaker), Fuzhou, China [Nov 2019]
• EBMT (Europ. Blood/Marrow Transplant) invited speaker 5-times
• Various Canadian societies – invited speaker 5-times
• Clinical Immunology Society, Seattle (plenary talk) [Mar 2017]
• International Congress on Stem Cells, Tehran, Iran [May 2016]
• CIBMTR (Ctr. for Int’l Blood/Marrow Transplant Research), Minneapolis [2009]
• Danish Society of Immunology, Copenhagen, Denmark [2007]
• International Society for Cellular Therapy, Sydney, Australia [2007]
• French Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cell Therapy Society, Paris [2003]
• NIH (National Institutes of Health) Bethesda, MD, USA [2002]

COMMITTEES:

• CIBMTR (Ctr. For Int’l Blood/Marrow Transplant Research) – 3 committees
• Grant Reviews for CIHR, NIH, and US, Canadian, French, Czech, Swiss foundations

RESEARCH FUNDING

• >$40M total (since 1991), including NIH, CIHR, ACF, multiple other foundations

PUBLICATIONS

• 151 peer-reviewed articles, including in New England Journal of Medicine, Leukemia, Blood (>20), Blood Advances, PLOS One, J Rheumatol, Lancet Neurol
• 12 non-peer-reviewed book chapters or articles, including in Blood, Lancet, Lancet Haematol
• 189 abstracts at international/national meetings, including 18 award-winning abstracts

Dr. Paolo Strati, MD

Assistant Professor
Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma
UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX

Dr. Strati completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Universita’ Vita-Salute San Raffaele of Milan (Italy) and at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), and his clinical fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC; Houston, TX). He has also completed subspecialty training in B-cell lymphoid malignancies at the Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London (UK) and at MDACC. He is currently as Assistant Professor in Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at MDACC.
As a clinical and translational investigator, Dr. Strati has been focused on the development of strategies aimed at targeting the tumor microenvironment for the treatment of patients with B-cell lymphoma, including immunotherapy and cellular therapy. His work has been crucial for the clinical development of lenalidomide, an oral immunomodulatory agent, for the treatment of patients with indolent B-cell lymphomas. He is author of over 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and recipients of multiple awards and grants, including the Conquer Cancer Foundation ASCO Young Investigator Award and the Lymphoma Research Foundation Career Development Award.

Dr. Christopher Venner, MD, FRCPC Director

Dr Venner completed his medical training at the University of Calgary and later attended the University of British Columbia to complete a specialty degree in Hematology. He then went on to become the inaugural Plasma Cell Dyscrasias Fellow, a position funded jointly through the Leukemia/Bone Marrow Transplant Program of British Columbia, St. Bartholomew’s, and the London School of Medicine. After spending a year completing his fellowship training in the UK, he joined the National Amyloid Centre as a staff physician before returning to Edmonton and the Cross Cancer Institute (CCI). He is currently the clinical lead for the Malignant Hematology Program at the CCI. In addition to being actively involved in hematology clinical trials, his current academic interest involves clinical research in plasma cell dyscrasias. He is examining the evolution of therapy in these diseases as well as the impact novel combinations have had on survival.

Jennifer Wiernikowski, MN, NP-Adult, CON(C)

Jennifer Wiernikowski is a Nurse Practitioner in Hematology at the Juravinski Cancer Hospital in Hamilton Ontario. Her clinical work focuses on caring for patients and families facing hematological malignancies, autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplant. She is the past secretary of the Canadian Blood and Marrow Transplant Group (CBMTG), past President of the Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology (CANO/ACIO). Jennifer holds a clinical cross appointment in the McMaster University School of Nursing and is an Associate Member of the Department of Oncology, Michael G DeGroot School of Medicine at McMaster University.