Inhye Ahn, MD

Assistant Professor
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, USA

Dr. Ahn is an Assistant Professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School who specializes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Despite significant advances made in the field, CLL patients continue to have heterogeneous outcomes and frequently develop drug resistance against targeted agents. Her research focuses on genomic analysis to improve the identification of high-risk CLL and the development of novel treatment strategies that can overcome treatment resistance.

Professor Kate Cwynarski, MD, PhD

Professor of Hematology, UCL
Lymphoma Haem-Oncologist,  University College London Hospital
London, UK

Kate Cwynarski is Professor of Hematology at UCL and a Haem-Oncologist specializing in Lymphoma at University College London Hospital, London, UK. She trained in London and received her MRC-funded PhD in Immunology at Imperial College. Her sub-specialist interests include Central Nervous System (CNS) Lymphoma, T-cell Lymphomas, HIV-related, PTLD and high-grade B-cell lymphomas. She is involved in CAR-T cell trials for refractory DLBCL and T-cell lymphomas. She leads the UK T cell Lymphoma Group and previously led the UK CNSL Group and British Society for Hematology (BSH) Lymphoma Specialist Interest Group. She is involved in clinical trials and has led and co-authored BSH, EHA, EBMT and ESMO guidelines. She has co-authored over 150 journal articles.

Alex F. Herrera, MD

Chief, Division of Lymphoma
Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
Associate Medical Director, Briskin Center for Clinical Research & Duarte Clinical Trials Office

Dr. Alex F. Herrera, is the Chief of the Division of Lymphoma in the Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope and is the Associate Medical Director of the Briskin Center for Clinical Research & City of Hope Duarte Clinical Trials Office. He earned his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Princeton University and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Herrera completed his residency in internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, before pursuing a hematology-oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Massachusetts General Hospital and ultimately a Bone Marrow Transplantation fellowship at City of Hope. Dr. Herrera’s clinical and research interests center on immunotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with lymphoma. He leads several clinical trials evaluating immune checkpoint inhibitors and other novel agents for the treatment of relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma or classical Hodgkin lymphoma. He also studies biomarkers of response and outcome in patients with lymphoma treated with immunotherapies or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Dr. Herrera is the recipient of several honors, grants and awards, has published over 120 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and is a member of several national and international committees including the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Hodgkin Lymphoma, the SWOG Lymphoma Committee Working Group, the CIBMTR Committee on Practice Guidelines, Incoming Co-director of ASH Clinical Research Training Institute, Vice-Chair of the ASH DEI Committee and he is a Co-Chair of the CIBMTR Lymphoma Working Committee.

Calvin Kruger RN, BSc Biology, BScN(AD), MScRM, PhD Student

Registered Nurse, Royal Alexandra Emergency Department
PhD Student, University of Alberta
Calgary, AB

Calvin is a registered nurse at the Royal Alexandra Emergency Department and a PhD student at the University of Alberta. His research interests include changes in body composition, functional capacity, and patient experiences in chronic disease and oncology populations. He has previously completed an MSc in Rehabilitation Medicine, investigating the effects of home-based exercise interventions in patients with liver cirrhosis. His recent work on the life experiences of chronic cancer patients has been nationally recognized at the Canadian Nurses in Oncology national conference. In his free time, he enjoys a good pour over coffee, riding his mountain bike, and spending time with his three young kids.

Dr. Matthew Lunning D.O., FACP

Professor & Interim Chief, Division of Hematology, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Associate Vice Chair, Internal Medicine
Assistant Vice Chancellor,  Clinical Research
Medical Director of Gene & Cellular Therapies
Nebraska, USA

Dr. Matthew Lunning is a Professor and Interim Chief of the Division of Hematology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Lunning also is the James O. Armitage, MD, Chair in Hematological Malignancies, Associate Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Internal Medicine, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Clinical Research, and Medical Director of Gene & Cellular Therapies.

He received his medical degree from Des Moines University in 2006. Dr. Lunning completed his internal medicine residency at UNMC where he served as Chief Medical Resident. He completed his Hematology/Oncology fellowship and served as the Hematology Chief Fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Lunning returned to UNMC in 2013 and has been active in clinic research, research mentoring, education, and patient care. Dr. Lunning was the recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award in 2019.

Dr. Lunning has served on several National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s guidelines committees, including the Immunotherapy Toxicity & T-cell lymphoma panels. He has served as an invited member of ASCO’s Cancer Education Committee on Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. He is the co-organizer of the Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference.

Robert Puckrin, MD, PhD

Hematologist, Arthur Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre
Clinician-investigator, University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta

Dr. Robert Puckrin is a Hematologist and clinician-investigator at the Arthur Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Alberta Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, and the University of Calgary in Calgary, Canada. Having obtained his medical degree from McGill University, he completed Internal Medicine training at the University of Toronto and subsequent training in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at the University of Calgary. His main clinical and research interests are in lymphoma, hematopoietic cell transplantation, CAR-T cells and bispecific antibodies, clinical trials, and real-world data.

John Seymour, MBBS, PhD, FRACP, FRCPA

Professor, Director of Haematology
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre & Royal Melbourne Hospital
University of Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia

John Seymour, MBBS, PhD, is Professor of Haematology and Director of the Department of Haematology at both the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. He completed his medical training at the University of Melbourne and undertook a translational research fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where he was later recognized with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2011. He earned his PhD through research conducted at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

Professor Seymour is internationally recognized for his work in hematologic malignancies, particularly in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and lymphoma. He serves as co-chair of Australia’s federal ministerial Blood Cancer Taskforce and is a member of numerous national and international advisory boards, including the International Workshop on CLL, Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation, International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma, and the International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group.

A dedicated academic, he is Editor-in-Chief of Leukemia & Lymphoma, serves on multiple editorial boards, and has authored more than 600 peer-reviewed publications, over 20 book chapters, and more than 900 conference abstracts. His research leadership includes acting as principal investigator on over 90 clinical trials and securing more than AUD $90 million in competitive research funding over the past decade. In recognition of his contributions to hematology, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2015 and elected to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Xavier Leleu, MD, PhD

Professor, Head of the Myeloma Clinic
Head, Department of Hematology
Hôpital La Mileterie – CHU de Poitiers
Poitiers, France

Xavier Leleu, MD, PhD, is Professor of Hematology at the Hôpital La Mileterie, part of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) de Poitiers in Poitiers, France. He serves as Head of the Myeloma Clinic and the Department of Hematology, and leads the Thor axis early-phase clinical research team at CIC U Inserm 1082. He works in close collaboration with the Immunology fundamental lab U Inserm 1313.

Professor Leleu earned his medical degree from the University of Bordeaux, France. He completed his specialization in public healthcare and statistics at the University of Medicine of Paris, and in hematology at the University of Medicine of Lille. He also holds a Master’s degree in cellular biology and a PhD from the University of Lille, completing his doctoral research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, affiliated with Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Before joining Poitiers, Professor Leleu led the Myeloma Clinic in Lille for nearly 15 years under the mentorship of Professor Thierry Facon. His research has focused on the preclinical development of novel agents, resistance mechanisms, and dormancy in Waldenström macroglobulinemia, as well as the clinical development of innovative therapies in multiple myeloma.

He was trained under Dr. Irene Ghobrial and Dr. Steven Treon in Professor Kenneth Anderson’s laboratory. Professor Leleu is a member of the Board of Directors of the Intergroupe Francophone du Myélome (IFM). His current research explores emerging immunologic and immunotherapy-based approaches with the goal of advancing toward a cure in multiple myeloma.

Suzanne Trudel, MD, FRCPC

Consultant Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Bloom-Reece Professorship in Multiple Myeloma
Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto
Clinician Scientist. Ontario Cancer Institute

Dr. Trudel received her MD degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and subsequently completed subspecialty training in Hematology at the University of Toronto-affiliated hospitals. This was followed by a research fellowship at Weill Medical College of Cornell in New York City. Dr. Trudel returned to Toronto as a consultant and clinician scientist in the Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and is currently appointed as Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr Trudel has served on the Steering Committee of the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC). She is a member of the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG). She is a previous member of the Ad Hoc Scientific Committee on Plasma Cell Biology for the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and a previous recipient of an ASH Scholar Award. Currently, Dr Trudel is appointed as a special expert member of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) myeloma steering committee.