Dr. Tarec Christoffer El-Galaly

Professor, Aarhus University Consultant Hematologist, Aarhus University Hospital Chair, Danish Lymphoma Group and The Nordic Lymphoma Epidemiology Group

Tarec Christoffer El-Galaly is a consultant hematologist and professor at Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University. His main clinical and research area is lymphoid malignancies with a focus on outcomes research and epidemiology. He has published >150 papers and is involved in many national and international activities related to research in lymphoma and clinical guidelines. He is chair of the Danish Lymphoma Group and The Nordic Lymphoma Epidemiology Group.

Dr. Kostas Stamatopoulos

Research Director, Institute of Applied Biosciences at CERTH, Thessaloniki, Greece Visiting Professor, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Kostas Stamatopoulos is a specialist in Hematology, Research Director at the Institute of Applied Biosciences at CERTH, the Center for Research and Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece. He also holds the position of Visiting Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Dr Stamatopoulos is the Scientific Coordinator of GRECRIN, the Greek Clinical Infrastructure Network; national representative in the EU Cancer Mission; member of the Research and European Affairs Committes of the European Hematology association; Board member of ERIC, the European Research Initiative on chronic lymphocytic leukemia; Steering Committee member of the Scientific Working Group on Precision Hematology of the European Hematology Association. Between 2018-2021 he has served as Coordinator of the Hellenic Precision Medicine in Oncology. His research interests include: precision medicine in cancer; immunobiology of lymphoid malignancies with a particular focus on CLL; and, patient empowerment in care.

Dr. Julio Delgado

Head, Oncoimmunotherapy Unit, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona (HCB) Consultant Haematologist, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona (HCB) Researcher, IDIBAPS Biomedical Research Institute Associate Professor, University of Barcelona

Dr. Julio Delgado is the Head of the Oncoimmunotherapy Unit and consultant haematologist at Hospital Clínic, Barcelona (HCB), researcher at IDIBAPS Biomedical Research Institute, and associate professor at the University of Barcelona. He has been involved in the clinical development of ARI-0001 (varnimcabtagene autoleucel), the first 100% academic CART-cell product ever approved in an EU member state. He is a founding member of the Spanish Group for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and runs most CLL and CART-cell clinical trials at HCB. He is a core member of the EMA’s Scientific Advisory Group for Oncology, and advisor to the Spanish Medicines Agency and the Catalan Pharmacotherapy Committee. He is a member of HCB’s Advanced Therapies Committee and vice-president of the Institution’s Review Board/Ethics Committee. He is a past member of the EHA’s Education Committee and current member of the EHA’s European Affairs Committee. He is also the EHA’s representative at EMA’s health-care professionals working party (HCPWP). He has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers.

Dr. Shankara Paneesha, MD FRCP FRCPath

Consultant Haematologist Honorary Associate Clinical Professor, University of Birmingham University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation

Dr Shankara Paneesha graduated from Mysore University, India, in 1993, and obtained a postgraduate qualification in General Medicine from Bombay University, India, in 1996. He completed specialist training in haematology at the West Midlands Deanery following initial training at the Royal Free and the Royal Marsden Hospitals in London and was appointed as Consultant Haematologist at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust in March 2007. Dr Paneesha is currently involved in many trials in haemato-oncology, either as Principal Investigator or as Co-Investigator. Dr Paneesha is the Haematology MDT lead from 2012 and the current Ordinary Trustee for the British Society for Haematology, Deputy Medical Director - of Tertiary Services at UHB, Birmingham and Honorary Associate Clinical Professor, at the University of Birmingham.

Dr. Othman Al-Sawaf

Haematologist and Medical Oncologist, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany Principal Investigator, German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG)

Othman Al-Sawaf is a haematologist and medical oncologist at the University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany, and principal investigator at the German CLL Study Group (GCLLSG). He studied medicine at the University of Aachen, Germany, and joined the Department I of Internal Medicine I of Professor Michael Hallek at the University Hospital of Cologne in 2016. Following his postdoctoral studies at the Francis Crick Institute and UCL Cancer Institute in London, he became group leader of the Integrated Cancer Research Laboratory at the CECAD Research Centre in Cologne in 2024. His clinical work focusses on the treatment of lymphoid and myeloid malignancies with particular focus on CLL and lymphoma. In addition to his clinical trial work that covers national and international phase I to III trials, he is interested in the principles of cancer evolution & metabolism. His research laboratory focusses on computational approaches for the discovery and development of new treatment strategies in clinical oncology.

Dr. Elias Campo, MD, PhD

Professor of Pathology and Senior Consultant, Hematopathology, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, University of Barcelona Director, Institute for Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona

Elias Campo. MD, PhD, is Professor of Pathology and Senior Consultant of Hematopathology at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, University of Barcelona, and Director of the Institute for Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) of Barcelona. His research focuses on the characterization of the pathology of lymphoid neoplasms and the understanding of the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of these tumors. In the last years his work has concentrated in elucidating the genomic/epigenomic alterations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, mantle cell lymphoma and other aggressive lymphomas and their impact in understanding the biology of these diseases and clinical management of the patients. He has been co-Director of the Spanish ICGC-CLL genome project and was elected member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia, Spain, in 2012, member of the USA National Academy of Medicine in 2018, and Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France (2024), among others.

Dr. Romain Guieze

Professor of Hematology, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, University Clermont Auvergne, France

Romain Guieze is Professor at the department of clinical hematology and cell therapy at University Hospital of Clermont-Ferrand (France). He has been trained in Clermont-Ferrand and Lille University Hospitals (medical school, residency), Institut Gustave Roussy, Paris (master degree) and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston (post-doc). He co-chairs the committee in charge of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in the LYSA group. His research studies focus on CLL. He is developing clinical trials in the frontline CLL setting (STAIR, NCT04963946) and for patients with Richter transformation (BLINART, NCT03931642, Nat Commun 2024; GLORIFY, EUCT 2022-501554-11-00). A longstanding theme of his studies has been how to take into account the molecular features of leukemia cells to improve the management of patients. He contributed to investigate the factors driving resistance to cytotoxic agent (Blood 2015) or novel agents (Cancer Cell 2019) and to the transformation processes (Nat Med 2023).

Dr. Martin Šimkovič, Ph.D

Lead, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) treatment group, IV. Internal Hematology Clinic, University Hospital Hradec Králové

Dr. Martin Šimkovič, Ph.D., leads the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) treatment group at the IV. Internal Hematology Clinic, University Hospital Hradec Králové. His dissertation focused on CLL, and since 2017, he has been an active board member of the Czech Group for the Treatment of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (ČSCLL). Dr. Šimkovič's research primarily explores advanced therapies for relapsed/refractory CLL, CLL epidemiology, and supportive treatment strategies. He has contributed to over 90 publications, garnering over 1,500 citations and achieving an H-index of 16 (Web of Science). As a co-investigator on numerous grants from the Czech Ministry of Health, he regularly presents his findings at prestigious international congresses such as ASH, EHA, and IWCLL. His clinical expertise extends to principal and co-investigator roles in studies focusing on CLL, non-Hodgkin lymphomas, Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, and immune thrombocytopenia.