Jeff Lipton, PhD MD FRCPC

Jeff Lipton is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Staff Physician on the Leukemia and Allogeneic Blood and Marrow Transplant Services at the Princess Margaret Hospital. He received and honors BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Calgary and went on to a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario. An MRC post-doctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute in Israel with Leo Sachs led to his developing interests in leukemia. After a short time as a junior staff at the University of Connecticut, he had a mid-life crisis and went back to Calgary to go to medical school, followed by a residency in Internal Medicine. He then completed sub-specialty training in Medical Oncology at the University of Toronto and stayed on at the PMH as a staff physician. His clinical practice is in chronic leukemias and bone marrow failure syndromes as well as allogeneic stem cell transplant. Research interests in particular are in CML and its therapy, outcomes and supportive care in BMT, and in the therapy of bone marrow failure syndromes. Jeff serves on the Unrelated Donor Transplant Advisory Board of OneMatch, Past President of the Canadian Bone Marrow Transplant Group (CBMTG), was an advisor to the Center for Research on Bone Marrow Transplantation (CIBMTR), has served on the Clinical Trials Group of the CBMTG, was Director of the Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant Program at PMH, is Head of the CML Study Group at PMH and is on several international advisory boards relating to the therapy of CML including the International CML Foundations and the ELN and Canadian CML Guidelines Committee. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 peer reviewed papers and 350 abstracts.

Nick Cross, MA PhD FRCPath 

Nick Cross MA PhD FRCPath studies at the University of Cambridge, initially reading Natural
Sciences and subsequently undertaking a PhD in the Department of Genetics. He started his postdoctoral career at the Hammersmith Hospital, London in 1987, where he developed an interest in chronic myeloid leukaemia under the mentorship of Prof John Goldman. In 2001 he relocated to Salisbury to take up Directorship of the Wessex Regional Genetics Laboratory and Chair of Human Genetics at the University of Southampton. His research, which has resulted in more than 290 peer reviewed publications, focuses on the molecular pathogenesis of myeloid malignancies as well as the development, validation and standardisation of genetic tests.

Charles A. Schiffer, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Oncology at Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Michigan. He is the director of the Leukemia/Lymphoma Multidisciplinary Program.

Dr. Schiffer earned his BA cum laude at Brandeis University and his M.D. at New York University School of Medicine. He completed his internship, residency, and chief residency in Internal Medicine at Bellevue Hospital under the auspices of New York University School of Medicine and had subsequent training and positions at the Baltimore Cancer Research Institute, National Cancer Institute and the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he served as Chief of the Division of Hematology. He has also served as Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and Director of Clinical Research at the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

Dr. Schiffer has authored and co-authored more than 300 articles and 80 book chapters on topics concerning the treatment of leukemia in adults, platelet transfusion, and granulocyte transfusion therapy, among others. He has served on the Editorial Boards for Blood, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, International Journal of Hematology, Transfusion Medicine Reviews and Transfusion, and reviews articles for multiple journals. Committee memberships have included Chairman of the Leukemia Committee of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, Chairman of the Food and Drug Administration Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee, and grant reviews for the NCI and Leukemia/Lymphoma Society of America. Dr. Schiffer has been named among American Health Magazine’s and Castle Connelly’s “Best Doctors in America,” “Best Cancer Specialists in the US.” In 2006, he received the Dr. John J. Kenney Award from the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society of America and the Celgene Award for Career Achievement in Hematology. He has received multiple teaching awards from Wayne State University and was recently inducted into the Academy of Scholars, the highest recognition accorded to academic faculty at the University.

Universitätsklinikum Jena

Jena, Germany

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.