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.

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.