Dr Giuseppe Saglio is Professor of Internal Medicine and Haematology at the University of Turin. He is Director of the Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences at the University of Turin and responsible for the Division of Internal Medicine and Haematology at San Luigi University Hospital. He graduated from the University of Turin in 1975. Since then he has studied Internal Medicine at the University of Turin (1975-1980), Haematology at the University of Milan (1980-1983) and Molecular Biology at the University of Leiden (1976), Inserm-Creteil, Paris (1979) and the University of California (1983).
Dr Saglio is co-ordinator of the PhD programme in Molecular Medicine and Experimental Therapy at the University of Turin, past-president of the Italian Society of Experimental Haematology (SIES) and general secretary of the IACRLRD (International Association for Comparative Research on Leukemia and Related Diseases). He has published more than 500 peer-reviewed articles in the fields of molecular pathogenesis of haematological malignancies (1986-present), molecular medicine applied to clinical medicine (1978-present) and the molecular basis of thalassemia and related haemoglobinopathies (1978-1990).
In July 2001, Jan received his diagnosis of a rare cancer, Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), at a routine check-up. He then joined a phase I/II clinical trial. As hardly any information on upcoming treatments was available in the German language, he started to simplify and translate medical publications into German language. In 2002, he started to publish them by founding the online patient community Leukämie-Online (http://www.leukaemie-online.de), which is one of the most frequented patient websites on leukemia in the German speaking Internet today. Leukämie-Online became a charitable organisation in Germany in 2006, with Jan being the Chair.
In 2007, Jan has co-founded the CML Advocates Network (http://www.cmladvocates.net) together with other CML patient groups from Israel, the UK and Czech Republic. The goal of the web-based platform is to get organisations connected that are supporting patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Today, members include 57 CML groups from all continents, sharing best practice in cancer patient advocacy and campaigning for better treatment and care of CML patients world wide.
Jan is also a co-founder of the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC), a board member of the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP), and acts on a number of advisory boards.
In the International CML Foundation (iCMLf), Jan acts as Communications Coordinator and runs the foundation's Pediatric CML program.
Jan Geissler <jan@cml-foundation.org>
Andreas Hochhaus is a Professor of Internal Medicine, Hematology and Oncology and interim Head of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the University Medical Center Jena in Germany. He was awarded the Endowed Professorship for Leukemia Research from the German José Carreras Leukemia Foundation in 2007.
He has been interested in treatment optimization of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and has been involved in the management of the randomized CML Studies I-IV of the German CML Study Group for more than 19 years. His special interests are the molecular monitoring of minimal residual disease and mechanisms of resistance in CML, and targeted therapy in a variety of neoplastic disorders.
Dr. Hochhaus is investigator for the nilotinib, dasatinib and bosutinib phase II and phase III studies, has been participating in imatinib phase II and III studies and is conducting trials of imatinib combined with pegylated interferon alpha, lonafarnib and everolimus.
He is a member of the European Hematology Association, the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the International Society of Hematology, the International Association for Comparative Research on Leukemia and Related Diseases, and the German Society for Hematology and Oncology. He has published over 240 peer-reviewed papers and is regularly invited to speak at national and international symposia.
Professor Susan Branford is Head of the Leukaemia lab in the Department of Genetics and Molecular Pathology at SA Pathology.
Sue has expertise in molecular monitoring of the BCR-ABL1 gene for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. As such she is a major contributor to International collaborative initiatives to establish guidelines and recommendations for producing reliable molecular data.
Dr Branford's research is focused on understanding the factors that predict response to tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy and mechanisms of drug resistance.