Keynote Speaker

I trained in Heidelberg, Germany where I received my MD and PhD degrees, and first faculty appointment, then moved to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY, where I established the Leukemia Cell Biology Laboratory and joined the Leukemia and Hematopathology Departments. Subsequently I moved to UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in 1990 as Chief of Leukemia and now hold appointments as Professor of Medicine in the Leukemia and Stem Cell Transplantation Departments, Chief of the Section of Molecular Hematology and Therapy, Director of the NCI-CCSG Flow Cytometry/Cellular Imaging Core Facility and the endowed Haas Chair in Genetics. My research focuses on leukemia therapy, the leukemia microenvironment, stem cells and apoptosis. I have developed numerous agents that target regulators of apoptosis and signaling in leukemias, in particular the Bcl-2, IAP, MDM/p53, MAPK, FLT3-ITD families of proteins and most recently the mitochondrial protease CLpP. My research encompasses basic mechanistic studies of drug actions, preclinical studies in vitro and in vivo using PXD models, and Phase I/II clinical trials in leukemia patients. Over the last 20 years my group analyzed the interactions between leukemia stem cells and their microenvironment. This work informs the development of novel clinical trials targeting leukemia/stroma interactions.

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