March 2020 - We are delighted to announce that this year Professor Ravi Bhatia, Director of the University of Alabama Division of Hematology-Oncology and Deputy Director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, USA, joins the long line of internationally renowned scientists awarded the iCMLf Rowley Prize. This annual prize awarded by the International CML Foundation recognises outstanding contributions to the understanding of the biology of CML.

‘Ravi Bhatia is a global leader in leukemia research who has made fundamental discoveries about the nature of the leukemic stem cell in CML. These discoveries are leading to promising therapeutic developments. He is also a generous and inspirational mentor and educator. Ravi is a very worthy winner of the Rowley Prize for 2020.’
(Timothy Hughes, Chairman of the iCMLf)

Professor Bhatia’s most significant contribution has been to advance our understanding of the biology and targeting of leukemia stem cells (LSC) in myeloid malignancies. He was instrumental in the discovery that quiescent malignant stem cells can persist in CML patients who are in complete remission after having been treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. He has also identified critical alterations in intrinsic regulatory pathways and in microenvironmental interactions that contribute to LSC maintenance. Insights derived from these mechanistic studies are being used to develop strategies to selectively target LSC.

The seminal observation that treatment of CML patients with tyrosine kinase inhibitors fails to eliminate LSCs, which persist despite achievement of deep remission, is of high clinical impact as residual stem cells can lead to relapse on treatment discontinuation. As a result, at present a major focus in CML research is development of measures to eliminate leukemia stem cells to enhance opportunities for treatment-free remission and ultimately a cure for CML.

Prior to joining the University of Alabama, Ravi Bhatia was Director of the Division of Hematopoietic Stem Cell and Leukemia Research and co-Director of the Hematological Malignancies Program in the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center where he developed a basic and translational program in hematologicial malignancies and hematopoietic stem cells.

Dr. Bhatia is author of over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals. In addition to his extensive experience in studying normal and malignant hematopoietic stem cell growth and therapeutic targeting of leukemia stem cells in the translational laboratory setting, Ravi Bhatia is also a practicing clinical hematologist-oncologist and hematopoietic cell transplant physician.

He received his medical training at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi and completed his fellowship in hematology-oncology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Read more about Ravi Bhatia here