Francisco Cervantes, MD, PhD

Hematology Department

Hospital Clínic

University of Barcelona

Barcelona, Spain

Dr Francisco Cervantes is senior consultant at the Hematology Department of the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona and professor at the University of Barcelona. His scientific interest has been focused on the study of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and the Ph-negative chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), mainly their natural history, prognosis, biology, and treatment. As a result of the activity in this field, he has published over 300 articles in peer-review journals. He was coauthor of the publications of the IRIS study that allowed the approval of imatinib as frontline treatment of CML, participated in the introduction of the second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and is a member of the expert panels of the European LeukemiaNet for CML and MPN treatment. In the MPN field, he was the leading author of the prognostic classification of primary myelofibrosis or IPSS. Dr Cervantes is a member of the American Society of Hematology, the European Hematology Association, the International Working Group for MPN Research and Treatment, the European LeukemiaNet, and the PETHEMA Spanish Collaborative Group.

Professor Francois-Xavier Mahon

Professor and Senior House Physician

University of Bordeaux, France

Professor Mahon gratuated in clinical hematology from the faculty of medicine, University of Bordeaux and received a PhD for his work on "Selection of Normal Cells in Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia". Professor Mahon has completed a Research Fellowship at the Imperial College in London (UK) and is a felllow of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the European Hematology Association (EHA), the French Society of Hematology, and the European Investigators on CML Group (El-CML). He currently serves as the President of the French Group of CML (Fl-LMC) and today has authored or co-authored for than 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals.   

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.

Professor Peter Valent, MD

Senior Researcher and Senior Clinician 
Medical University of Vienna, Austria 

Professor Dr. Peter Valent is M.D. and a Senior Researcher as well as Senior Clinician at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He is the Scientific Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Cluster Oncology (LB-CO) and leads a Special Research Program on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms in his University. He also coordinates a Clinical Study Group working in the field of myeloid neoplasms (focusing on CML, MDS, AML and mastocytosis) and is head of the Outpatient Clinics and Hematology Ambulatory in his institution. Professor Valent also participates in several other Research Programs in Vienna, including one dedicated to Cardiovascular Biology (10 years) and one dedicated to Allergic Diseases (20 years). Professor Valent is coordinator of the Vienna Cancer Stem Cell Club (VCSCC), coordinator of an International Working Group on Eosinophil Disorders (ICOG-EO), and coordinator of the European Competence Network on Mastocytosis (ECNM). He also coordinates the CML-Platform and MDS-Platform of the Austrian Society for Hematology and Oncology (ÖGHO), runs a Center of Excellence of the MDS Foundation, a Center of Excellence and Reference Center of the ECNM, and a Reference Center in CML. During the past 15 years, Professor Valent has organized a number of scientific meetings in Vienna, including several Consensus Conferences on Diagnostic Criteria and Diagnostic Standards. A special focus in his research are neoplastic stem cells; the identification of novel markers and targets in myeloid neoplasms; the development of disease-related criteria and targeted drug therapies in myeloid neoplasms; and the evaluation of target interaction profiles and side effects of novel drugs. Professor Valent is member in diverse Medical Societies, including the American Society of Hematology (ASH), and serves on various editorial boards and as a reviewer in most top hematology journals. He published more than 500 peer-reviewed articles and numerous review articles in his areas of expertise, lectured widely in Europe, North America, and Japan, and received numerous scientific awards. His h index arrived at 74, first-author h index at 32, and total citations at >21,000.