Dr. Gheorghe’s primary clinical responsibilities include pediatric hematopathology and general pediatric pathology. She is involved with pathology residents and hematopathology fellow teaching. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND-MD, “Victor Babeş” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timişoara, Romania,Anatomic and Clinical Pathology residency, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO Hematopathology fellowship, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN Pediatric Pathology fellowship, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND-Diplome Inter-Universitaire de Spécialités, Internal Medicine, Saint Antoine University Paris, France Assistant Professor of Pathology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

Pathologic characterization of hematopoietic entities in pediatric patients

Knox Van Dyke completed his PhD in Biochemistry in the Edward A Doisy–Nobel Prize Department at Saint Louis University in 1966. He did Postdoctoral studies in the Department of Pharmacology at West Virginia University. During this time he developed the first effective drug screening system for antimalarial drugs while screening over 10,000 drugs. Mefloquine and halofantrine were recognized by this screening system and were further developed by Walter Reed and various companies as patented drugs. He has over 300 publications and 150 patents.

Hematology

Mark Roschewski received his BA from the University of Notre Dame in 1997 and MD from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 2001. He completed his hematology-oncology fellowship in 2009 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) in Washington DC, where he served as the Director of Hematologic Diseases at WRAMC for 3 years. He joined the Center for Cancer Research at the NCIin 2013 where his current role is as an associate clinical investigator in the Lymphoid Malignancies Branch with research focused on aggressive lymphomas and multiple myeloma.

Hematology

Dr. Liakopoulou is a specialist in Hematology with particular interests in Hematological Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation. She holds MD and PhD degrees and has studied and worked in Greece, the UK and the US. She has served in many medical, scientific and managerial capacities, and recently completed nearly seven years as Director of Stem Cell Transplantation at the Christie NHS Trust in the UK. During her tenure, Dr. Liakopoulou oversaw a period of dramatic growth, creating one of the largest transplant programs in the country. In addition, Dr. Liakopoulou devised and implemented Quality Plans and international standards excellence for Continuous Improvement, and directed the Stem Cell Processing Laboratory and Collection Facilities. Since 2006 she has served as inspector for the Joint Accreditation Committee - International Society for Cellular Therapy & European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. She is a member of several professional organizations, and in 2009 she was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, UK, in recognition of her contributions to the field of Hematology.

Hematology

Dr. Enzi (Eun Ji) Jiang (Gang) received her M.D. from Norman Bethune College of Medicine, Jilin University, formerly Norman Bethune University of Medical Science, Changchun, China in 1987. She has completed her Ph.D. from Harbin Medical University in 1999 and postdoctoral studies from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 2007. Dr. Jiang is working as a senior scientist at Division of Hematology and Oncology, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, USA. She has published more than 15 papers in reputed journals related to mesenchymal stem cells and leukemia and contributed to a book chapter (Chapter 4: Molecular Pathogenesis of ALL, Contemporary Management of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, In Press 2013). Dr. Jiang is serving as an editorial board member for the Journal of Blood Disorders and Transfusion. Her research interests include: mouse models of pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia and its application in preclinical evaluation of novel anticancer therapy, stem cell niches, integrins, survivin, drug resistance, minimal residual disease, small molecule inhibitors of Wnt signaling pathway, mesenchymal stem cells isolation and application in regenerative medicine such as muscular dystrophy

Dr. Enzi Jiang research is on Mouse models of pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia and its application in preclinical evaluation of novel anticancer therapy, stem cell niches, integrins, survivin, drug resistance, minimal residual disease, small molecule inhibitors of Wnt signaling pathway, mesenchymal stem cells isolation and application in regenerative medicine such as muscular dystrophy.

Shimon Slavin, MD, Professor of Medicine is currently serving as the Medical & Scientific Director of the International Center for Cell Therapy & Cancer Immunotherapy (CTCI), Tel Aviv, Israel. He pioneered the use of immunotherapy mediated by donor lymphocytes and innovative methods for stem cell transplantation for malignant and non-malignant disorders including treatment of autoimmune diseases and more recently, using multi-potent stem cells for regenerative medicine. He authored 4 books, 660 scientific publications and serves on many editorial boards and many national and international advisory boards. He received many international awards in recognition of his contributions for treatment of malignant and non-malignant disorders.

Hematology

Britt Gustafsson has completed her PhD 15 years ago from Karolinska Institutet and has continued her studies in the field of pediatric hematology. She has published more than 60 papers in the field of pediatric hematology. She is a senior pediatric consultant at Center for Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation at Karolinska University Hospital. She has also worked as a pediatrician at a smaller mission hospital in Zambia for the last 4 years.

Stem cell Transplantation

Dr. DTY Chiu completed his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of California-Davis in 1976 and postdoctoral studies from the Department of Hematology at Oakland Children\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Hospital from 1976-1980. He is currently a professor as well as Dean of Research and Development of Chang Gung University in Taiwan. He has published over 130 scientific papers in reputable Journals such as Blood, JCI, Seminars in Hematology, British J of Hematology and Experimental Hematology. He is currently serving as an editorial board member of Free Radical Research and an associate editor of Biomedical Journal.

Global Metabolic Changes and Cellular Dysfunction in Diamide Challenged G6PD-Deficient Red Blood Cells Daniel Tsun-Yee Chiu Chang Gung University, College of Medicine, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) is essential to maintain proper nicotinamide dinucleotide hydrogen phosphate(NADPH)levels and redox homeostasis. G6PD deficiency is associated with impaired glutathione (GSH) regeneration, and predisposes red blood cells (RBCs) to oxidative damage. The specific metabolomic pathways altered by G6PD deficiency, and the relation of these changes to the dysfunction of RBCs upon oxidant challenge are incompletely understood. In this study, we investigated the changes in global metabolism of RBCs in response to the oxidative challenge by diamide. Only minor differences were observed between the metabolome of untreated RBCs from that of normal and G6PD-deficient individuals. In contrast, significant changes in several biochemical pathways were found in G6PD-deficient RBCs, including changes in GSH metabolism, purine metabolism, and glycolysis. GSH depletion was accompanied by an exhaustive consumption in cellular energy due to a futile attempt to synthesize GSH by -glutamyl cysteine synthetase. Accumulation of AMP and ADP led to AMPK activation and increased entry of glucose into glycolysis. However, oxidative modification of pyruvate kinase inhibited its activity leading to ineffective energy production. In addition, the diamide induced changes led to a loss in the ability of RBCs to deform under shear stress. This loss in RBC functionality was temporary and reversible in normal RBCs, but more severe and irreversible in G6PD-deficient RBCs. Taken together, these findings clearly demonstrate that metabolic anomalies account for diamide-induced dysfunctions of G6PD-deficient RBCs, and link the inability to counter oxidant insult by metabolism to the irreversible loss of functions of these cells .

Dr Erhabor Osaro is a chartered scientist and fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science of London. He holds a doctor of philosophy degree in immunohaematology. He completed the University of Greenwich specialist courses in blood transfusion and laboratory quality management system. His teaching experience spans both Nigeria and the United Kingdom. His work experience includes working as a Specialist Biomedical Scientist at the Royal Bolton Hospital-a continuous improvement conscious and a centre of excellence in the implementation of lean principles in the health sector in Europe. He is the recipient of several awards, including the famous British Blood Transfusion Society Young Scientist Award and the Margaret Kenwright Young Scientist Award. He is a registration portfolio verifier/examiner for the Institute of Biomedical Science of London. He is a member of the editorial board as well as an article reviewer for several scientific journals. A well-published contributor in the field of infectious diseases, immunohaematology, and transfusion medicine, he is chairman of the board of directors of Nelson Biomedical Limited, UK and Nigeria.

Hematology

Dr Philippou completed her Ph.D in 1997, from the University of London (Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School), UK and immediately obtained a tenured post at Imperial College (London), UK followed by the University of Leeds, UK, where she is an Associate Professor. She is Academic Theme Lead of Translational Cardiovascular Research, at the University of Leeds. She is also the current Chairman of the FXIII and Fibrinogen Subcommittee of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

My research since 1992 has focused on understanding mechanisms of thrombosis, in particular to the coagulation pathway. Currently my group is looking into the discovery of novel therapeutics against thrombosis that will be taken orally and will have safer bleeding profiles than other antithrombotics currently available or in development. I am also interested in understanding novel mechanisms that regulate the activity of coagulation factors. In addition, we are investigating hyperhomocysteinemia with respect to understanding its role in clot formation and its stability. Overall, we have established many methodologies that enable us to investigate clot formation and its stability in vitro and in vivo. These methodologies are being used to understand the nature of protein-protein interactions and other mechanisms involved in the coagulation pathway with respect to blood clot formation and its ability to be lysed by the fibrinolyitc pathway.