I am currently Professor of Hematology and Medicine and Chair of the Department of Hematology and Internal medicine at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire UCL Namur, Yvoir, Belgium.

I have extensive experience in clinical and laboratory research in lymphoma, and a particular interest in Holdgkin lymphoma and late toxicities of treatments. 

I have personally conducted or been involved in more than 50 clinical studies in the field of lymphoma, either early phase clinical trials or larger-scale studies, national or international, such as the large-scale clinical trial H10 (André et al. JCO 2017) on Hodgkin lymphoma. I am currently involved as principal investigator or steering committee member in several clinical trials evaluating new agents or innovative therapeutic strategies in lymphoma.

I have assumed leadership positions in lymphoma related research projects: since 2012, I have been serving as Hodgkin committee Chairperson of the international cooperative group LYSA (The Lymphoma Study association), which is, currently, conducting over 40 clinical and translational studies, from phase I/II trials to phase III studies, some of them performed in partnership with industrial entities and used for registration of new agents.

 I have served for 6 years as member of the board of the Belgian Hematology Society and I serve since 3 years as Vice-President of this Society.

Finally, I have also undertaken over the years multiple institutional and scientific responsibilities in CHU UCL Namur, Belgium (Head of Internal Medicine department) and the University Catholic de Louvain and Université de Namur.

Professor Guillaume Cartron has headed the Department of Clinical Hematology at Montpellier University Hospital, in Montpellier, France, since 2012, focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of lymphoproliferative disorders and the development of new immunotherapies. He received his medical training and a doctoral degree from the François Rabelais University of Tours, France, in 1997, followed by positions at the University Hospital of Tours, the Victor Hugo Clinic in Le Mans, and a professorship at the University of Montpellier.

Professor Cartron was involved very early in the field of immunotherapy and specifically in understanding the mechanisms of action of monoclonal antibodies. He was the first to demonstrate the role of ADCC and NK cells in the therapeutic activity of rituximab via its interaction with CD16, contributing to the development of a new generation of anti-CD20 antibodies. His current research concentrates on the metabolic factors involved in the mechanisms of resistance to CAR T cells and the development of cell therapy strategies using NK-CD16+ cells. With a particular focus on clinical research, the department was involved in more than 70 clinical trials in 2019.

Professor Cartron is a founding member of the Lymphoma Study Association (LYSA) and the head of the scientific committee for indolent lymphomas. He is the president of the CALYM Carnot Institute, which brings together all French research teams involved in research on lymphomas and their treatment. He is the director of the EVOCAN University Hospital Federation and a member of the Labex MabImprove. He is the author of numerous articles in the fields of immunotherapy and the treatment of lymphoma.

Dr. Dries Deeren is a clinical hematologist and head of the hematology department at AZ Delta. He was local principal investigator in 90+ trials, including several PNH studies (PEGASUS, APL2-307, COMMODORE, PNH registry) and leads a “physician meets engineer” research project focusing on analysis of electronic patient records to diagnose PNH in an earlier stage. He is chair of the medical advisory committee of the Me To You foundation supporting leukemia research.

Dr. Helena Devos is a clinical biologist working in the laboratory of the Sint Jan Hospital in Brugge. She leads the molecular hematology department and focusses on implementation of the most novel molecular techniques, such as massive parallel sequencing and optical genome mapping, in the routine diagnostic workup of hematological patients. Furthermore dr. Devos is medical director of the apheresis collection facility, where stem cell collections and photopheresis treatments  are performed . She is treasurer and liaison clinical biologists of the BHS since 2019. In 2020 she became president of the Wetenschappelijk Fonds Hematologie v.z.w. Furthermore dr. Devos is an active member of the Commitee for Personalized Medicine.  

Rosanne Janssens is a postdoc researcher at the Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy Unit of the KU Leuven. Here, she studies patients’ preferences in various disease domains including multiple myeloma. Her research aims to capture the views of patients towards their most important unmet needs, treatment outcomes and uncertainties, and understand how this evidence can inform treatment development, evaluation and use in clinical practice. To this end, she applies qualitative and quantitative research methods such as interviews, focus group discussions and surveys, and works with patients, patients’ organizations, oncology nurses and hematologists across Europe. Her current research aims to understand the level and ways in which shared-decision making is currently implemented in myeloma treatment decision-making and based on these results, develop shared-decision making tools and recommendations that address the needs of patients and healthcare providers. Other research activities are focused on investigating multi-stakeholder challenges and solutions towards optimizing drug development, regulatory, and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) decision-making frameworks spanning across the medicinal product life cycle. During her PhD, she derived methodological and policy-related recommendations regarding the design, conduct and use of patient preference studies for informing drug development, regulatory and HTA decisions. Rosanne holds a Master's degree in Biomedical Sciences (KU Leuven, 2016, summa cum laude) with a specialization in Management and Communication.

Prof. Ann Janssens is Head of Clinics in the Department of Hematology at Leuven University Hospital, Leuven, Belgium. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Ghent, before specializing there in hematology. In vitro apoptosis and clonal evolution in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was the title of her doctoral thesis.

Prof. Janssens has a special interest in CLL and other indolent lymphomas and also in immune thrombocytopenias (ITP). She acts as a co-ordinator for Phase I–IV clinical studies relating to CLL-low grade lymphomas and ITP. She has published in several peer-reviewed journals. She is a member of the editorial board of The Belgian Journal of Hematology. Since 2019 she is the President of the Belgian Hematological Society.

Dr. Richard Kelly is a Consultant Haematologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Leeds, UK. He is the Leeds joint lead for the English National Paroxysmal Nocturnal Haemoglobinuria (PNH) Service.

He qualified with honours from the University of St. Andrews and completed his training at the University of Manchester.

He was involved in setting up the English National PNH service in 2007. In 2014 Dr. Kelly received his PhD thesis on “The Pathogenesis of PNH“ with an award for research excellence from the University of Leeds and he has published key papers on PNH in peer reviewed journals.

Dr Kelly is a board member of the International PNH Interest Group (IPIG) with responsibility for the design and running of the planned IPIG global PNH registry. He chairs the IPIG registry stakeholder committee and sits on the IPIG registry committee.

He has been a regional lead for the acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) service since 2014. He is a principal investigator for clinical trials in PNH, ALL, acute myeloid leukaemia and haemolytic anaemias. He also sits on the NCRI ALL subgroup.

Dr Kelly is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and a member of the British Society for Haematology. He is also an examiner for the Royal College of Pathologists.

Diane Kleinermans has been appointed President of the Commission of Reimbursement of Medicines at the Belgian National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV) in October 2020 after having served as an internal expert to the Commission since 2008, being amongst others in charge of orphan drugs assessments.

From 2015 to 2020, she was an advisor to the Belgian Minister of Public Health and Social Affairs, Maggie De Block, focusing on drug policy, clinical trials and the BeNeLuxA initiative. Diane started her career as a GP in Brussels. Until 2007, she worked with the pharmaceutical industry in R&D in Belgium and abroad: she worked amongst other for Pfizer, Novartis Opthalmics and GSK.

Nathalie Meuleman completed her specialization in general Internal Medicine and Hematology at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium. She made her research work on mesenchymal stem cells in the laboratory of hematology at the Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels and obtained her PhD in Biomedical Sciences on this subject in 2010. She is still working in the Clinical Cellular Laboratory of the Free University of Brussels in the area of multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. She is ordinary Professor and Professor at the medical school of the Free University of Brussels since 2014 and currently Head of the Clinical Department of Hematology at the Jules Bordet Institute (ULB). She is member of several scientific societies and past president of the Belgian Hematology Society. Pr. Meuleman is particularly engaged in myeloma field and participates in several clinical and research studies on the treatment of this disease.

Dr Oliva is an hematologist in the university of Torino (Italy), AOU, Città della Salute e della Scienza, her job- related skills are mainly focused on the clinical management of patients affected by Multiple Myeloma, treated with both standard of care strategies and enrolled in phase 1-2 and 3 clinical trials. She's also fully involved in the "in-patient " clinical care of subjects with different hematological diseases (ex. lymphoproliferative diseases, multiple myeloma, acute and lymphoblastic leukemia).

Her research interest is mainly focused on the use of MRD in myeloma clinical trials, in particular working on MFC/NGF data from the centralized laboratory of Turin, the correlation with other Bone marrow techniques such as NGS performed by "Adaptive biothecologies", the clinical impact of MRD in different treatment settings and myeloma patients and the analysis of sustained vs un-sustained MRD negativity.

Dr Bruno Paiva, PharmD, PhD, is a research fellow of the Department of Hematology at the Clinica and CIMA Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. He is the Director of the Flow Cytometry Core of Co-Director of the Myeloma Research Laboratory. Dr Paiva’s main area of expertise is the multidimensional flow cytometry analysis of hematological malignancies. His research focuses on immunogenomics to improve differential diagnosis, risk stratification, and monitoring of patients with monoclonal gammopathies and myeloid malignancies. He is an author or co-author of hundreds of publications in peer-reviewed journals, and has been recognized with numerous awards.

More than 20 years working in the field of hematology. Since 2009 working as a clinical nurse specialist in UZ Gent at hematology and SCT. Working with hematological patients as wel in- as outpatient. Involved in the board of the BHS nursing comite, as well in the patient BHS organisation group. Since 2019 member of the Scientific Nursing Group of EBMT. Topic of interest, care for young adults ; patient information, teaching nursing hematological topics, donor follow up…

Dr. Florence Roufosse is Professor of Medicine, Internist and Clinical Immunologist at CUB- Hôpital Erasme, Brussels, and is President of the International Eosinophil Society. She is in charge of a specialized consultation dedicated to diagnosing and treating eosinophil-related conditions, that is integrated in the European Reference Network: EuroBloodNet. She also manages patients with systemic auto-immune and auto-inflammatory conditions. Besides these clinical activities, Dr. Roufosse leads translational research projects to improve understanding and treatment of lymphocytic variant hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES), and participates in international research efforts to better delineate disease course and treatment responses of HES. She is involved in the design and conduct of international clinical trials evaluating efficacy of novel treatment options in patients with HES and eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), as well as sub-studies that aim to identify biomarkers and/or disease variants predicting treatment responses.

Dr Servais is a doctor in clinical hematology at the University Hospital of Liège. In addition, she is also a post-doctoral researcher of the Belgian Foundation against Cancer. She graduated from the University of Liège as Doctor in Medicine, with the highest possible grade, in 2009, and as Doctor in Biomedical Science in 2014, also from the University of Liège. She continued her studies and obtained two complementary masters. From the University of Liège, she obtained her complementary master in internal medicine in 2015 and her complementary master in hematology in 2016. Both with the highest possible grade.

She also plays an active part in scientific society. For instance, she is member of the Board of the Belgian Hematological Society, member of the French Society for Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, member of the Antibiotics Management Group of the University Hospital of Liège, and is a reviewer for scientific papers such as “Leukemia Lymphoma” and “Nature Scientific Reports”.

Lastly, she has won several awards, including Award of the best student researcher of the Medicine faculty (Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium), “Prix Promouvoir la Recherche” (ULiège), PACE award (Belgian Hematological Society) and the “Oral Presentation Award” at the 28th and 30th General Annual Meeting of the Belgian Hematological Society.

I am Professor in Hematology at the University of Paris and work at the Hospital St Louis in the Hematology Transplantation Unit as Head of the Transplantation Program I got my MD degree in 1988 and my PhD degree in 1993. I am full Professor of Hematology at the University of Paris since 2001. I am also director of a research program at INSERM since 2013. My main field of expertise (clinical and biological) is on allogeneic stem cell transplantation with special focus on graft-versus-host disease and study of late effects, and on aplastic anemia with special focus on PNH, and Fanconi anemia 820 peer-reviewed publications referenced article in PubMed; as of November 24th, 2022: (Web of Science H index: 120)

Koen Theunissen graduated as a Physician at the KU Leuven in 1994, and continued his training in Internal Medicine, and further on in Hematology in Leuven and Minneapolis. He joined the Stem Cell Institute in Minnesota in 1998 and received a laboratory training in hematopoietic stem cell biology under the guidance of Prof C Verfaillie. He joined the Hematology staff of the UZ Leuven as an associate head of Clinic from 2002 to 2007, with a special interest in apheresis, cell therapy, and transplantation. In 2007 he joined the Hematology staff of the Jessa Hospital in Hasselt and the LOC ( Limburgs Oncologisch Centrum), and became Head of Department in 2011. Besides the clinical work, he has been involved in JAICE as a clinical and collection inspector, and has served on the Standards review committee on several rounds. He is an active member of several professional societies, and is on the editorial board of the Belgian Hematological Journal. He joined the BHS board in 2019, where he serves as Webmaster and educational councilor. He authored and co authored several p reviewed papers. Besides Intensive Hematological Treatments and cellular therapies, his professional interests are focused on quality initiatives and clinical research.

TRAINING: Dr. Peter J.M. Valk received his PhD degree in 1999 at the Department of Hematology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, on the identification of novel leukemia oncogenes using retroviral mutagenesis (with Prof. Dr. B. Löwenberg). He worked as a research fellow awarded by the Dutch Cancer Society in the Department of Hemato-oncology at the Children’s Hospital in Boston (with Prof. Stuart Orkin). In 2000, Dr. Valk returned to the Department of Hematology at the Erasmus University Medical Center as Associate Professor and Head of the Hemato-oncology Laboratory (cytology and molecular diagnostics – reference laboratory in HOVON-AMLSG-NCRI clinical trials). RESEARCH: Dr. Valk’s main interest is unraveling the molecular heterogeneity of hematologic malignancies, in particular acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Using various genome-wide technologies, such as gene expression profiling, genotyping and next generation sequencing, Dr. Valk revealed novel insights into the heterogeneity and biology of AML. His work has developed molecular biomarkers that are incorporated into routine risk-stratification and clinical care of AML patients. More recently Dr. Valk has focused on the detection of molecular minimal residual disease In AML, clonal hematopoiesis and germline predisposition to myeloid malignancy. LEADERSHIP: Dr. Valk’s major contributions in leukaemia has been recognised by election as chair of the American Society of Hematology Scientific Program Committees on Hematopathology & Clinical Laboratory Hematology and Precison Medicine, former membership of the Editorial Board of Blood and advisory board of the European Hematology Association.

Dr Van Hende graduated in Hematology at the University of Gent in 2008, and after working at UZ Gent for several years she's now a member of the staff in VITAZ, working in Sint Niklaas and Lokeren.

She has always had a special interest in lymphoproliferative disorders. Within the lymphomas, she is especially intrigued by Hodgkin's disease, Morbus Waldenström, and CLL.

For the last 4 years, she has been the chair of the LPD working group in the BHS which was an excellent way to get to know a lot of colleagues in the field better nationally and internationally, as well as interesting cooperations with the pharmaceutical companies.

She's also a member of the board of the Belgian Journal of Hematology. She's happy to be able to participate in clinical trials, to keep up with the latest developments in the quickly evolving landscape of hematology. The part of her job however that she still enjoyes most is the basic clinical work. Being able to interact with patients, families, and other caregivers daily is what gives her the most pleasure and satisfaction. Besides her job, She is above all a family woman trying to be a loving wife and mother to her three fantastic kids and her adorable dog.

Dr. Ivan Van Riet is processing facility director and clinical scientist in the department Hematology of the University hospital Brussel (UZ Brussel) – He is professor at the faculty of medicine of the Free University Brussels (VUB) and member of the research group Hematology and Immunology – His expertise and interest include cell processing and regulation for clinical cell therapy as well as multiple myeloma research. He is national JACIE representative, international JACIE processing laboratory inspector, board member of the Belgian Hematology Society (BHS) and chair of the BHS-JACIE committee.

Anneleen Vanhellemont is a clinical nurse specialist at UZ Leuven with a special interest in multiple myeloma and other plasma cell disorders. She is a board member of the national BHS nursing group and is experienced and interested in adherence, patient-reported outcome measures, remote patient monitoring and homecare.

Marjan Willaert is an Industrial Pharmacist who studied at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and the University of Lille (France). She started her professional career in International & European Regulatory Affairs, first at Organon Teknika and later as a consultant. In the course of her professional career she has developed a deep interest and understanding of European policy. Through personal contacts and involvement in the organisation of events (for national and European trade organisations) with the European Commission and the European Parliament, she has developed an in-depth knowledge of the EU’s decision-making mechanisms. In 2016 she joined Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies as Senior Market Access Manager which allowed her to expand her Market Access experience. She moved to pharma.be where she is a member of the Commission for Reimbursement of Medicines. As Policy Advisor she is leading the pharma.be’s Market Access Task Force. She is actively working as EFPIA member on market access pathways for combination therapies, new antibiotics, personalised medicines and their companion diagnostics, and the implementation of the EU HTA Regulation.

Hanne Wouters graduated in 2006 as an industrial pharmacist. After a first experience in quality assurance at Pfizer Animal Health, she joined Boehringer Ingelheim in Belgium. She has over 10 years experience in pricing and reimbursement dossiers in cardiology, respiratory, oncology and diabetology and also gained experience in hospital tendering. In 2019, she joined pharma.be, the association for the innovative pharmaceutical industry in Belgium, in her current role as Market Access Advisor. She supports pharma.be’s members in their price and reimbursement procedures, with a specific focus on conventions, and is member of the Reimbursement Commission for Drugs (CTG/CRM). Besides this, she also coordinates pharma.be’s working group on ATMPs (cell, gene and tissue therapies), focusing on topics such as the regulatory and access environment for these innovative therapies in Belgium.