Invited speakers

Anders Eriksson

Anders Eriksson, PhD, is a broadly trained evolutionary geneticist working with computational modeling and quantitative analysis at the intersection of medical genetics, health data, and population genomics. He graduated 1999 from Chalmers University of Science and Technology with MSc(Eng) in Theoretical physics and Applied Mathematics. He received his Lic(Eng) and PhD from University of Gothenburg in 2002 and 2005, respectively, and has worked as research fellow and lecturer at University of Cambridge and King's College London, UK, respectively. He has a strong track record in developing novel quantitative analysis that brings together information from a wide range of fields, including bioinformatics, palaeoclimate, geography and ancient and modern DNA, to investigate human evolution and reconstructing the demographic history of past and present populations. His current academic research as Associated Professor at Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, is focused on combining environmental, genomic, and health data to study gene-environment interactions in human metabolic processes and their impact on the risk of obesity and related diseases.

Andrius Žučenk​a

Andrius Zucenka, MD, PhD, is a hematologist and a bone marrow transplantation physician at Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos. He finished the hematology residency in 2019. He obtained a PhD and became an assistant professor in 2024 at Vilnius University. His main scientific interests are acute myeloid leukemia, bone marrow transplantation, and novel therapies.

Anita. W. Rijneveld

Anita Rijneveld is a medical professional who earned her medical degree in 1997 from the University of Amsterdam and completed her training in Internal Medicine and Hematology at the Amsterdam Medical Center (now Amsterdam UMC) in 2005.

That same year, she also received her PhD with a thesis on Pneumococcal pneumonia at the AMC's Department of Infectious Diseases.Dr. Rijneveld's work is focused on two main areas:

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL): Her clinical research is pioneering new concepts in first-line treatment for adults with ALL. She is deeply involved in translational research, working on prognostication and deciphering genetic subsets in adult ALL, in close collaboration with bioinformatics. Currently, she's setting up a database for lymphoblastic lymphoma, a rare subtype of extramedullary ALL, especially for response evaluation with PET scans. She is also an active member of the European Working Group of ALL (EWALL) and chairs of the DUTCH HOVON-ALL working group.

Hemoglobinopathies (HBP): Dr. Rijneveld heads the center of expertise for hemoglobinopathies and is the local principal investigator for numerous clinical trials. She is a member of the Sickle Cell Outcome Research (SCORE) consortium and the Landelijke Werkgroep HBP Behandelaren (LWHB), and she participates in the European Reference Network on Red Blood Cell Disorders (ERN).

Clemens Wendtner

Prof. Clemens Wendtner is Professor of Medicine and Senior Consultant for Hematology/Oncology and Infectious Diseases at the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) of Munich. His clinical and research focus lies in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

He completed his MD at the University of Münster and PhD training at the Max Planck Institute and NIH. He previously held leadership roles at the University of Cologne and Munich Clinic Schwabing, and currently serves as Medical Director of the Interdisciplinary Oncology Center at LMU.

Prof. Wendtner advised national authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic and treated Germany’s first confirmed cases, earning the Bavarian Order of Merit in 2022. He is a founding member of the German CLL Study Group and has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles. He also holds key roles in scientific and ethical advisory boards and is an expert for oncology drug assessments at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA).

Fredrik Schjesvold

Fredrik Schjesvold is the founder and Head of Oslo Myeloma Center, in Oslo, Norway. He is head of the Norwegian myeloma association, President of the Nordic Myeloma Study Group and a board member of the European Myeloma Network. He is principal investigator for 5 academic studies and national investigator of 62 clinical trials in multiple myeloma, in addition to being site investigator in 11 more.

He is a co-author of European (ESMO) and global (IMWG) guidelines, as well as lead author of the Norwegian myeloma guidelines. He is peer reviewer of several international journals, and co-editor of the journal Hemato, and Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia. He is an international expert on myeloma and has given talks in Europe, America, and Asia.

Frederik Damm

Prof. Dr. med. Frederik Damm is a distinguished hematologist and oncologist affiliated with Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. He leads a research group within the Department of Hematology, Oncology, and Tumor Immunology at Campus Virchow-Klinikum. Through his clinical and research endeavors, Prof. Damm continues to advance the understanding and treatment of hematologic malignancies.

Heinz Gisslinger

Prof. Dr. Heinz Gisslinger is a specialist in internal medicine and hemato-oncology, affiliated with the Medical University of Vienna since 1981. He became an associate professor in 1998 and has led the outpatient department for hematology since 2004. He is also a member of the university's ethical committee since 2008.

His research focuses primarily on chronic myeloproliferative disorders, with significant contributions in both translational and clinical research. He has been a principal investigator in over 90 clinical studies and was involved in major international trials such as ECLAP, ANAHYDRET, and CONTINUATION-PV.

Prof. Gisslinger co-authored key WHO classifications and contributed to the discovery of the CALR gene mutation in essential thrombocythemia and primary myelofibrosis. He has published over 239 peer-reviewed articles and is a founding member of the Central European Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Organization (CEMPO)

Jecko Thachil

Jecko Thachil is a Consultant in Haemostasis and Thrombosis at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and MAHSC Professor at the University of Manchester. In the last 10 years, Jecko Thachil has been the first author or a key contributor to several national and international guidelines and guidance documents.

Jecko Thachil has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers and edited the popular books Haematology in Critical Care and Handbook of Venous Thromboembolism.

Peter Borchmann

Peter Borchmann is Assistant Medical Director in the Department of Hematology and Oncology at the University Hospital of Cologne and head of the lymphoma program including the CAR T-cell therapy phase I/II unit. He is head of the certified center for hematological malignancies of the University Hospital of Cologne. As Chairman of the
German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG) he is responsible for development of investigator initiated clinical studies. He is an active member of the German Society for Hematology and Oncology (DGHO), the European Hematology Association (EHA), and the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

Sigrun Thorsteinsdottir

Sigrún Thorsteinsdóttir, originally from Reykjavik, Iceland, earned her medical degree from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Her research interests center around multiple myeloma and its precursor conditions. She completed her PhD in 2019 and has since been a postdoctoral researcher in the iStopMM study at the University of Iceland, with a primary focus on investigating smoldering multiple myeloma.

She is a member on the board of the Nordic Myeloma Study Group (NMSG) and leads the NMSG Real World Evidence Group. Simultaneously, she practices clinically as a medical doctor in the Department of Hematology at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Tomasz Sacha

Professor Tomasz Sacha MD, PhD graduated from the Medical Academy in Kraków in 1992. He received his Ph.D. and habilitation for the work on molecular diagnostics of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). As the President of the Molecular Hematology Section of the Polish Society of Human Genetics he was responsible for establishing a network of 18 cooperating Molecular Laboratories in Poland, all certified according to European Leukemia Net regulations. He is the president of CML Section of the Polish Adult Leukemia Group, and is the head of The Chair and Department of Hematology in Jagiellonian University Hospital in Kraków. He has extensive clinical experience in treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms. He is interested in the clinical research of endothelium disturbances in myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Thomas Hofmarcher

Dr. Thomas Hofmarcher is a health economist and research director at the Swedish Institute for Health Economics (IHE). He is an expert in the health economics of cancer, cancer care performance measurement, and cancer policy. His main research areas are the economic burden of cancer, the value of patient access to new cancer medicines, and analysis of interventions to improve patient access to high-quality and cost-effective cancer care. His primary focus lies in the comparative analysis of cancer care systems around the world. He has advised the European Commission and the OECD in their work with Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, and he co-authored the OECD Country Cancer Profile 2025 for Sweden. He created the basic structure and collected the data for the initial version of the European Cancer Pulse of the European Cancer Organisation.