2013 Highlights of ASH® in Asia Speaker Bios

Martin S. Tallman, MD: "Acute Myeloid Leukemia"

Martin S. Tallman is Chief of the Leukemia Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York. Dr. Tallman received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his MD degree at The Chicago Medical School, completed his internship, residency and chief residency at the Evanston Hospital of Northwestern University, and his fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. He is Chair of the Leukemia Committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. During his career he has contributed a large body of work to the literature addressing the biology and treatment of acute leukemias and other hematologic malignancies. Dr. Tallman is a member of numerous committees of national, regional, and international societies involved in the study and treatment of cancer. He serves on the AML, and MDS Panels of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). Dr. Tallman serves as an Associate Editor of the journal Blood and is also on the editorial boards of a variety of different scientific journals.

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Richard J. Jones, MD: "Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation"

Richard J. Jones, M.D., is Professor of Oncology and Medicine, Associated Director of the Cancer Center, Director of the Bone Marrow Transplantation Program, and co-Director of Hematologic Malignancies Program at Johns Hopkins University. He earned his medical degree at Temple University and did post-graduate training at both Temple and Johns Hopkins. His major area of interest is normal and malignant stem cell biology, especially the translation of promising findings from the laboratory to the clinic to improve the treatment of blood and marrow transplantation (BMT). He has authored over 250 articles and book chapters on hematopoiesis, hematologic malignancies, and transplantation biology. Dr. Jones is a past Stohlman Memorial Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

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Amit K. Verma, MD: "Myelodysplastic Syndromes"

Dr. Verma is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the MDS program, Department of Oncology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY, USA. He earned his medical degree at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India and finished his postgraduate internal medicine training at the University of Illinois. In addition to clinical duties, Dr Verma conducts laboratory research exploring the stem cell alterations, epigenomic changes and signaling abnormalities in the pathogenesis of MDS. He is a scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma society and his research is funded by the NIH, Department of Defense, American Cancer Society and various private foundations.

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Janis L. Abkowitz, MD: "Bone Marrow Failure"

Dr. Abkowitz is the Clement A. Finch Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; Head of the Division of Hematology; and President of the American Society of Hematology. She completed her MD degree and Internal Medicine residency at Harvard University and her Hematology and Oncology fellowship at the University of Washington. Her laboratory research concerns red cell differentiation and hematopoietic stem cell fate decision-making and her clinical and clinical research expertise is marrow failure.

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Sarah H. O'Brien, MD: "Disorders of Hemostasis"

Dr. Sarah O’Brien is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She earned her medical degree and a master’s degree in clinical research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. O’Brien completed her postgraduate training at the University of Pittsburgh, finishing a pediatrics residency and a fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Her clinical and research interests include pediatric thrombosis and thromboprophylaxis, the evaluation and diagnosis of mild bleeding disorders, and the intersections between hematology and women’s health. She leads a multi-disciplinary hematology and adolescent gynecology clinic at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Dr. O’Brien is an incoming co-director of the American Society of Hematology Clinical Research Training Institute, and participates in several other ASH initiatives/committees. 

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Douglas B. Cines, MD: "Novel Treatments for Relapsed/Refractory Chronic Immune Thrombocytopenia" and "Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP)/Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) and Atypical HUS

 Dr. Cines is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is medical director of the Special Coagulation laboratory of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his medical degree at New York University, and completed his postgraduate training in internal medicine and hematology at the University of North Carolina and a fellowship in hematology-oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on immunohematology and thrombosis. He participated in the development of US and international guidelines for the diagnosis and management of ITP and has written extensively on ITP and TTP.

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Ronald Hoffman, MD: "Myeloproliferative Neoplasms including Chronic Myeloid Leukemia"

Dr. Ronald Hoffman, Albert A. and Vera G. List Professor of Medicine, is the Director of the Myeloproliferative Disorders Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. His main research interests are in the areas of stem cell biology and myeloproliferative neoplasms. Dr. Hoffman is the Principal Investigator of a National Cancer Institute funded multi-institutional international research consortium which coordinates and facilitates basic and clinical research dealing with the cellular and genetic basis of the Philadelphia chromosome negative myeloproliferative disorders. The Consortium utilizes the data generated from basic research projects as a platform and rationale for the creation and execution of investigator initiated phase I/II clinical trials which are pursued at multiple institutions belonging to the Consortium. Dr. Hoffman is the author of over 430 publications and has held administrative roles as the President of the International Society of Experimental Hematology and the American Society of Hematology.

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Jennifer R. Brown, MD, PhD: "Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia"

 Dr. Brown is Director of the CLL Center of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She has an active clinical-translational research program in CLL, with particular focus on novel therapeutics and genomics of CLL, including in particular the inherited predisposition to CLL and the implementation of genomic technology in the clinic. She completed her B.S. and M.S. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale, and her MD and PhD in molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School in 1998. She served as an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and then completed her fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center. She joined the faculty of DFCI and Harvard Medical School in 2004. She is an active member of the CLL Research Consortium and serves on the Alliance Leukemia and Leukemia Correlative Science Committees.

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Agnes Y. Lee, MD, MSc, FRCPC: "Thrombosis and Anticoagulation"

Dr. Lee is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Thrombosis Program, Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She earned her medical degree and finished her postgraduate internal medicine training at the University of British Columbia. She then completed her hematology fellowship at McMaster University, where she did a research fellowship in Thromboembolism and earned a Master’s degree in Health Research Methodology. She is a co-chair of the standardization and scientific subcommittee on Hemostasis and Malignancy of the International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, and is a panel member on the American Society of Clinical Oncology Guidelines on Prevention and Treatment of Venous Thromboembolism in cancer patients. 

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Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD: "Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma"

Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD is the Vice Chair, Medical Informatics in the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He is also Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Dr Zelenetz’s research focuses primarily on improving clinical outcomes in lymphoma and on the molecular mechanisms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Throughout his career, his research has been published in such journals as BLOOD, the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research. Dr. Zelenetz received his BA from Harvard College, his PhD from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Division of Medical Sciences and his MD from Harvard Medical School. Both his internship and residency in medicine were completed at Stanford University Medical Center as well as a clinical fellowship and research fellowship in oncology. Dr. Zelenetz is a member of the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American College of Physicians. He participates in various committees: he is Vice Chairperson of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B Lymphoma Core Committee, Chair of the NCCN Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Panel, Board Member of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and member of the Lymphoma Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. He has been the recipient of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Fellowship Teaching Excellence Award multiple times and has received the Rodger Winn Award from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network in 2012.

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Morie A. Gertz, MD, PhD: "Plasma Cell Disorders (Myeloma)"

Dr. Gertz is the Roland Seidler, Jr. Professor of the Art of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians. Undergraduate degree was awarded with highest distinction from Northwestern University graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Gertz received his medical degree cum laude from Loyola Medical School in Maywood, Illinois and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha the medical honor society. He received the Robert Kyle award from the International Waldenström’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation. He has served as President of the Mayo Rochester Officers & Councilors and was awarded the Mayo Distinguished Clinician Award for his contributions to patient care. Dr Gertz previously served on the Mayo Clinic Rochester Executive Board and was Chair of The Personnel Committee. . He was appointed as the first Co-chair of the National Cancer Institute Myeloma Steering Committee. He was the first treasurer of the International Society of Amyloidosis and currently is treasurer of the International Myeloma.

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