SPEAKERS

The Scientific and Organising Committees are pleased to announce the opening list of Invited Speakers taking part in the NDLR 2024 program.

**please note this is a preliminary list of speakers and will continue to be updated on regular basis**

Professor Katy Rezvani, MD, PhD

Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, Division of Cancer Medicine. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Katy Rezvani, MD, PhD is a professor of medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she serves as the Sally Cooper Murray Chair in Cancer Research, chief of the section for cellular therapy, director of translational research, and medical director of the GMP Facility. She also serves as executive director of MD Anderson's Adoptive Cell Therapy Platform. She leads a research lab with a focus on NK cell biology and developing novel NK cell engineering strategies for cancer, with the aim of translating these discoveries to the clinic. Dr. Rezvani completed her medical training at University College London, England and her PhD at Imperial College London. She completed her training in immunology and transplantation biology at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. In addition, she has co-authored over 250 hundred peer-reviewed publications and received multiple prizes and awards, including the American Society of Hematology E. Donnall Thomas award.

Associate Professor Matthew Greenwood

Director of Stem Cell Transplantation at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney.

A/Prof Matthew Greenwood is Director of Stem Cell Transplantation at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney. He is currently co-chair of the Acute Leukaemia Working Party of the Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group (ALLG) and a lead investigator on the ALLG ALL06 and ALL09 studies in AYA ALL.

Dr Naranie Shanmuganathan MBBS FRACP FRCPA PhD

Consultant Haematologist, Royal Adelaide Hospital & SA Pathology

Dr Naranie Shanmuganathan is a dual trained haematologist who completed a CML fellowship with Professor Timothy Hughes and Professor Susan Branford at the SAHMRI. Following this, she completed her PhD investigating the genomic pathways of resistance and response in CML, publishing a number of high impact manuscripts. She currently works as a haematologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and a clinical research fellow at the SAHMRI.

Professor Timothy P. Hughes, MD, FRACP, FRCPA, FAAHMS, FAA

Precision Cancer Medicine Theme Co-Leader, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI); Professor of Haematology, University of Adelaide and Consultant Haematologist, Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Professor Timothy Hughes is the Precision Cancer Medicine Theme Co-Leader at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI); Professor of Haematology at the University of Adelaide and Consultant Haematologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He is also Chair of the International Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Foundation (iCMLf) and an inaugural Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Professor Hughes is an international expert in the biology and treatment of leukaemia. He has published over 300 papers with over 63,000 citations.

Dr Chyn Chua

Clinical and Laboratory Haematologist, Monash Hospital and Northern Hospital; Research Fellow, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.

Dr Chyn Chua is an emerging clinician researcher who is a clinical and laboratory haematologist from Melbourne, Australia. She has a strong subspecialty interest in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and myeloid disorders. She obtained her PhD in July 2023 under the supervision of Professor Andrew Wei, investigating novel therapeutic strategies and determinants of outcomes in patients with AML as part of two Australasian investigator-initiated clinical trials. She is passionate about improving outcomes of older patients with AML, as evident by her significant involvement in the Chemotherapy and Venetoclax in Elderly AML Trial (CAVEAT) study (completed) and her current role as co-principal investigator in three investigator-initiated trials in Australasia for patients with AML.

Associate Professor Dan Landau, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medicine, Core Member, New York Genome Center

Dan Landau, MD, PhD is Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a Core Member of the New York Genome Center. He is an oncologist whose long-term goal is to develop novel technologies to address cancer evolution as a central obstacle to cure. His research group is funded by the NCI, NHLBI, and NHGRI. His work has led to recognition and awards, including Stand Up to Cancer, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Vallee Scholar, and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.

Dr Megan Bywater

Senior Research Officer, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

Megan Bywater is a Senior Research Officer in the Gilmour Leukaemia Research Laboratory at the QIMR Berghofer, Brisbane. During her PhD at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Melbourne) and postdoctoral studies at the University of Cambridge (UK), she utilised genetically modified mouse models to study cancer-associated transcription factors, most notably Myc and p53. At QIMRB, she leads a program focussed on developing clinically relevant genetic models of myeloid malignancies in order to determine the mechanistic basis of transformation and treatment responses. Recent studies have focussed on the use of pegylated interferon alpha (pegIFNa) in the preferential targeting of Jak2-mutant stem cell function in myeloid proliferative neoplasms (MPN). Her current work looks at the role of co-existing mutations in disease progression of Jak2-mutant MPN to secondary acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and the therapeutic potential of pegIFNa in this disease context.

Professor David Lynn

Academic Qualifications: BA (Trinity College Dublin, Genetics; 2000), MSc (U. Ottawa, Bioinformatics & Bacterial Genomics; 2001), PhD (University College Dublin, Immunology; 2004).

Prof. David Lynn is Director of the Computational and Systems Biology Program in the SAHMRI Precision Medicine Theme; Scientific Director of SA Genomics Centre; and Professor of Systems Immunology at Flinders University. His research team apply systems immunology approaches to investigate how microbes (pathogenic and commensal) modulate the immune system in a range of contexts from infection and immunisation to cancer therapy. His research spans from computational modelling and bioinformatics software development to mechanistic studies in preclinical mouse models (including gnotobiotic). He also leads a number of clinical studies including 3 NHMRC-funded systems studies. He was also the PI in South Australia for the Gates Foundation-funded BRACE RCT, which investigated whether the BCG vaccine provides non-specific protection against COVID-19 in ~7,000 participants worldwide. Prof. Lynn’s research is currently supported by the NHMRC, MRFF, ARC, The Hospital Research Foundation, The Flinders Foundation and others.

Professor Constanze Bonifer

Chair of Experimental Haematology, Founding Director of the Birmingham Centre of Genome Biology, Institute for Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham

Constanze Bonifer did her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Centre for Molecular Biology, University of Heidelberg. Her postdoctoral training was at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and the National Institute for Medical Research in London. Since August 2011, Constanze holds a Chair of Experimental Haematology in Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham. She is the Founding Director of the Birmingham Centre of Genome Biology BCGB and a member of the BCGB Executive.

For more than 30 years she has been engaged in research in the field of gene regulation in the hematopoietic system. Her group is particularly interested in the question of how transcription factors program chromatin in development and in leukaemia. Highlights of her work include the identification of chromatin priming mechanisms in early blood progenitor cells, the discovery that aberrantly activated repeat elements can drive the expression of oncogenes in lymphoma and her studies of transcriptional reprogramming in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia AML as a consequence of mutations in transcriptional regulator genes. Her recent work studies how gene regulatory networks (GRNs) and enhancers define cellular identities, how signalling processes regulate the transition of one GRN to another and how this process is subverted in AML.

Constanze Bonifer has recently joined the Center for Stem Cell Medicine at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne.

Professor Tony Green, PhD, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci

Professor of Haemato-oncology, Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge

Honorary Consultant Haematologist, Addenbrookes Hospital

Tony Green is currently Professor of Haemato-oncology at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant Haematologist at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. He was Head of the University of Cambridge Department of Haematology (2000-2020), President of the European Hematology Association (2015-1017) and Director of the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (2016-2022).

His early research explored the transcriptional control of normal blood stem cells and more recently the mechanisms by which stem cells are subverted to cause haematological malignancies, using the myeloproliferative neoplasms as a tractable model. In work which spans basic, translational and clinical research he has identified key causal mutations, described their biological consequences, led practice-changing clinical studies and discovered basic mechanisms of broad relevance for both cancer biology and cytokine signalling.

Professor Louise Purton, PhD

NDLR Donald Metcalf Orator

Laboratory Head, St Vincent's Institute Medical Research

Professor Louise Purton received her PhD from The University of Melbourne in 1995 and undertook post-doctoral studies at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Her independent research contributions include the discovery that the vitamin A derivative, all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), has different effects in haematopoiesis and that ATRA enhances haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) self-renewal. She continued her independent research at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac) from 2000-2004, focusing on the distinct effects of the different retinoic acid receptors (RARs) in haematopoiesis. She identified that RARγ has profound effects on haematopoiesis, due to both intrinsic and extrinsic effects. She was a visiting scientist in Professor David Scadden’s laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, 2004-2007, continuing to supervise a research team at Peter Mac until the end of 2005. Her 2007 senior author and co-author Cell publications were the first to identify novel roles for cells of the bone marrow microenvironment in regulating haematopoietic malignancies, pioneering a new research field to which she continues to contribute.

Louise returned to Melbourne in 2008 to establish and head the Stem Cell Regulation Unit at St. Vincent’s Institute. She was an Associate Director there from 2010 to 2019. Her research focuses on understanding how haematopoiesis is regulated both intrinsically and extrinsically in normal and diseased states, the latter primarily focusing on bone marrow failure syndromes, including myelodysplastic syndromes. Louise has a passion for translational research and to date her discovery research has resulted in four clinical trials. She is internationally recognised for her research and has received funding from numerous national and international funding bodies. She received the 2022 International Society for Experimental Hematology (ISEH) McCulloch and Till Award for her exceptional research contributions to the field of haematology and stem cells, being the first Australian woman to receive this award.

Throughout her career Louise has also advocated to increase support of underrepresented groups in academia, leading to significant changes nationally and internationally. She significantly contributes to leadership roles in ASH and ISEH. In 2023 she was awarded the ISEH Award for Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion.

Professor Maher Gandhi

Executive Director Mater Research & MRI-UQ (Haematologist, Princess Alexandra Hospital)

Mater Research

Professor Maher Gandhi is Executive Director of Mater Research, and a Pre-Eminent Specialist Haematologist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. He completed his specialist training at Cambridge and Toronto Canada. He is a member of the Federal Government-appointed National Blood Cancer Task Force steering committee that aims to improve access to blood cancer services across Australia. He completed a PhD in Viral Immunology at Cambridge and came to Brisbane on a Fellowship in 2003. Between 2014 to 2018 he was the inaugural Leukaemia Foundation Chair of Blood Cancer Research at the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute. He has received uninterrupted NHMRC/MRFF funding since 2005. He has sat on numerous NHMRC and philanthropic grant review panels, and given frequent international and national keynote lectures. He has authored more than 120 scientific publications, with a very high proportion of these being in high-impact journals as senior author. Within his field, Maher and his team have made significant contributions to the understanding of the role of immune evasion within the tumour microenvironment of patients with lymphoma (in the areas of EBV-driven and non-viral driven lymphomas). To translate his findings, he runs a number of innovative early phase clinical trials. These are funded by the Federal Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF ) as part of the Rare Cancers, Rare Diseases and Unmet Need Clinical Trials program. This includes the TREBL-1 'chemo-free' study of EBV-driven lymphomas in the immunosuppressed, the CLARIFY study to provide CAR T cells in relapsed/ refractory lymphoma, and the TREBL-2 study of EBV-driven lymphomas in the immunocompetent. He is also leading the lab correlative aspects of the Australian component of the international RADAR study of early-stage Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Dr Siok Tey

Group Leader, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

Clinical Haematologist, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital

Dr Tey graduated from the University of Queensland and completed her training in clinical haematology and haematopathology in Brisbane. She then undertook a 2-year research fellowship at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, where she helped develop a “safety switch” for cellular therapeutics. This was followed by a PhD in anti-viral T cell immunity and a post-doctorate in experimental bone marrow transplantation, both at QIMR Berghofer. Dr Tey’s laboratory research has a strong translational focus and is centred on the immunobiology of bone marrow transplantation and the development of novel cellular therapeutics. She conducted one of the first clinical trials in Australia to use in-house manufactured gene-modified T cells, and currently leads a phase I trial using point-of-care manufactured CD19 CAR T cells for patients who are ineligible for publicly funded CAR. Dr Tey led the Brisbane node of the NHMRC CRE Centre for Blood Transplant and Cell Therapy and co-chairs the ALLG Stem Cell Transplantation Working Party. She was awarded the 2021 Metcalf Prize by the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia.

Professor Steve Wesselingh FRACP FAHMS

Chief Executive Officer, National Health and Medical Research Council

Professor Wesselingh took up the position of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in August 2023.

Professor Wesselingh is an infectious diseases physician and researcher in HIV, vaccine development and the impact of the microbiome on human health. He undertook his undergraduate and doctoral training at Flinders University/Flinders Medical Centre in South Australia and his post-doctoral training at Johns Hopkins in the United States.

Until July 2023, Professor Wesselingh was the inaugural Executive Director of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and the Research Director of Health Translation SA. He was also a member of NHMRC Council, Chair of Research Committee, and the President of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS).

Professor Wesselingh brings a wealth of medical experience, clinical leadership as well as national and international success. Between 2007-2011, he was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University and from 2002-2007, he was Director of the Burnet Institute an independent medical research institute specialising in infectious diseases, immunology and global health.

Throughout his career, Professor Wesselingh has consistently worked towards the integration of high-quality medical research with health-care delivery, leading to improved health outcomes for Australia and the poorly resourced countries of the region.

Dr Justine Clark, PhD

Indigenous Genomics Team, Telethon Kids Institute, Adelaide

Dr Justine Clark is an Aboriginal South Australian and early career cancer researcher. Her research aims to utilise precision medicine to reduce cancer health disparities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Dr Clark completed her PhD in the Myeloma Research Laboratory at SAHMRI focussing on the roles of receptor tyrosine kinases in myeloma disease development. She is currently undertaking her postdoctoral research within the Indigenous Genomics Team at Telethon Kids Institute.

Dr Charles de Bock

Team Leader, Functional Genomics of Leukemia, Children's Cancer Institute

Dr Charles de Bock joined the Children’s Cancer Institute, Sydney, Australia in January 2019 to establish the Functional Genomics of Leukaemia group. Prior to this, Charles undertook two post-doctoral positions with the first at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia under Dr. Rick Thorne followed by a second at VIB/KU Leuven, Belgium under Prof. Jan Cools. Charles’ research focuses on understanding the molecular biology of leukaemia, develop specialised mouse models to improve our understanding of how different oncogenic events contribute leukaemia development, as well as to study the efficacy of newly developed therapies.

Dr Carolyn Grove

Associate Professor, University of Western Australia Medical School

Consultant Haematologist, PathWest, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital & Linear Clinical Research

Carolyn Grove is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia Medical School and a Consultant Haematologist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, PathWest and Linear Clinical Research. She sub-specialises in the diagnosis and management of AML. She obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2015 for her work in George Vassilious’ lab at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute on the clonal evolution of haematopoietic malignancies.

Dr Thomas Köhnke

Instructor, Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University

Dr Köhnke completed medical school at the University of Goettingen, Germany and performed laboratory research at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the Charité University hospital in Berlin, for which he received his doctorate from the University of Berlin. He performed his clinical training in Hematology/Oncology at the University of Munich, Germany, where he was co-investigator for several clinical trials studying treatments for patients with leukemia. Following this, he trained as postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Ravi Majeti at Stanford studying pre-leukemic evolution and progression into leukemia. He currently works as an Instructor at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford developing novel approaches to perform prospective genetic experiments directly in patient specimens.

Associate Professor Cindy Lee

Consultant Haematologist, Royal Adelaide Hospital and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Clinical Associate Professor, University of Adelaide

Associate Professor Cindy Lee is a clinical and laboratory haematologist at the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals, with a particular focus on Myeloma and Amyloidosis. She trained as a haematologist in Perth, then further her studies in the UK on a clinical fellowship awarded by the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT). There, she studied immunotherapies and targeted radiotherapy in Myeloma. She is a member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Group (MSAG) for Myeloma Australia, International Myeloma Society, and the writing committee for the Centre for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry (CIBMTR).