Dr. Benjamin Ebert is the Chair of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the George P. Canellos, MD and Jean S. Canellos Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute.

The Ebert laboratory focuses on the molecular basis and treatment of hematologic malignancies and its non-malignant precursor conditions, with a particular focus on myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and clonal hematopoiesis. The Ebert laboratory demonstrated that lenalidomide, a derivative of thalidomide, binds the CRL4-CRBN E3 ubiquitin ligase and induces degradation of specific substrates. Subsequent research from the Ebert laboratory has examined the potential of thalidomide analogs to induce degradation of a broad array of zinc finger transcription factors and other proteins, and to identify novel mechanisms of drug-induced protein degradation.

Dr. Ebert is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He served as President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2017. He received the William Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology in 2017, the Meyenburg Prize for Cancer Research in 2019, the Sjöberg Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2021, and the Korsmeyer Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2021.

David Scadden is the Gerald and Darlene Jordan Professor of Medicine at Harvard University. He is Professor and Chair emeritus of the Harvard University Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. He co-founded and co-directs the Harvard Stem Cell Institute with Prof. Douglas Melton. He is a hematologist/oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital where he founded and directs the Center for Regenerative Medicine and previously led the Hematologic Malignancies Program of the MGH Cancer Center. He is a member or fellow of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American College of Physicians, and a former member of the Board of External Experts for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Counselors. He is an Affiliate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and a Visiting Scholar of Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, England. He co-founded the public companies, Fate Therapeutics and Magenta Therapeutics and is a Director of Agios Pharmaceuticals and Editas Medicines. His work emphasizes using multidisciplinary approaches to define novel therapies for blood diseases. He is credited with having first experimentally defined a mammalian stem cell niche and its role in malignancy. His work on blood stem cells has led to new approaches to bone marrow transplantation now in clinical trial. He received the E. Donnall Thomas Award from the American Society of Hematology for his ‘pioneering work on the bone marrow microenvironment.’

Dr. Emmanuelle Passegué, Ph.D. is the endowed Alumni Professor of Genetics & Development and the Director of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative (CSCI) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) in New York City. Dr. Passegué received her Ph.D. from the University Paris XI (France), and trained with Dr. Erwin Wagner (Institute for Molecular pathology, Vienna, Austria) and Dr. Irv Weissman (Stanford University, USA) before joining the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in 2005. Dr. Passegué was a Professor of Medicine in the Hematology/Oncology Division and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF until 2016 before joining Columbia University in January 2017. Her research investigates the biology of blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells in normal and deregulated contexts such as hematological malignancies and physiological aging. Dr. Passegué has received a number of awards and prizes including a Scholar Award from the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society, an Outstanding Investigator Award from the NHLBI, and the 2019 William Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology.

Margaret (“Peggy”) Goodell is Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Director of the Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Center, at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas. Goodell’s research is focused on the mechanisms that regulate hematopoietic stem cells, and their dysregulation in malignancies, particularly DNA Methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A). Goodell was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019. She is a recipient of the Tobias Award from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (2020), the Damashek Prize from the American Society of Hematology (2012), the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine from TAMEST (2011). Goodell is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Keystone Symposia and is a member of their Board of Directors. Goodell is a former president of the International Society for Experimental Hematology (2013). She currently serves on the editorial boards of Cell Stem Cell and Cancer Cell has served on the editorial board of PLoS Biology, and as an Associated Editor of Blood. Goodell directs a laboratory of about 15 trainees.

Canada Gairdner International Award 2022; Senior Scientist and Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, UHN; University Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto

Ana Cvejic is a Professor at the University of Copenhagen and a Group leader at the Biotechnology Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC), Denmark. In 2008 Ana received her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Bristol. She then moved to the University of Cambridge/Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute to start a Postdoctoral Fellowship, with Professor Willem Ouwehand. In 2012 Ana was awarded the CRUK Career Development Fellowship to start her independent group at the University of Cambridge. In 2015 Ana was awarded ERC Starting Grant and in 2016 EMBO Young Investigator award. In 2022 Ana was a recipient of the ERC Consolidator Grant and she moved her group to the University of Copenhagen. With the principal expertise and research interest in the molecular regulation of blood stem cell fate choices her research sits at the intersection of molecular biology, genetics and systems biology and it closely couples experimental approaches and “big” biological data analysis.

Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet and at the University of Oxford. His research is focused at understanding how normal blood cell formation from stem cells in the bone marrow is organized and regulated to ensure replenishment of millions of blood cells per second, and how normal stem cells upon acquisition of oncogenic mutations are transformed into malignant stem cells. The aim is to unravel the dynamics of stem and progenitor cells in unperturbed hematopoiesis, and to identify and therapeutically target key cellular and molecular events in the transformation from normal to malignant hematopoiesis. Through these research directions the goal is to identify novel therapeutic strategies towards regenerative hematopoiesis and targeting of leukemic stem cells.

Tsvee Lapidot Ph.D is a Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Weizmann Institute, Dept. of Immunology and Regenerative Biology, Rehovot Israel. His research is focused at understanding how the daily replenishment of the blood with new mature blood and immune cells with a finite lifespan by the reservoir of bone marrow retained hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells is metabolically regulated and controlled. In addition, his research is focused on how the bone marrow reservoir of immature and maturing blood and immune cells is daily replenished, including hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal. Since only the most primitive hematopoietic stem cells which are bone marrow retained and functionally express the endothelial receptor EPCR are chemotherapy resistant, the mechanism and players involved are also investigated. These studies include the role of daily circadian light and darkness onset, the darkness hormone melatonin and PGE2 as well as the role of transient elevations in bone marrow norepinephrine, TNF and ROS levels. The blood bone marrow endothelial barrier and its dynamic permeability, osteoclast/osteoblast mediated bone turnover and the dynamic bone marrow stem cell niches. The essential roles of the universal stem cell chemokine SDF-1 (also termed CXCL12) which is highly expressed by bone marrow osteoblasts, capillaries and arterioles in the stem cell niches and its major receptor CXCR4 functionally expressed by hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Finally, the essential roles of CXCL12/CXCR4 interactions and coagulation related aPC/EPCR/PAR1 interactions in both human and mouse hematopoietic stem cell chemotherapy resistance with clinical relevance including in human EPCR positive and chemotherapy resistant Leukemic stem cells obtained from AML patients, which are also studied.

Dr. Benjamin Ebert is the Chair of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the George P. Canellos, MD and Jean S. Canellos Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute.

The Ebert laboratory focuses on the molecular basis and treatment of hematologic malignancies and its non-malignant precursor conditions, with a particular focus on myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and clonal hematopoiesis. The Ebert laboratory demonstrated that lenalidomide, a derivative of thalidomide, binds the CRL4-CRBN E3 ubiquitin ligase and induces degradation of specific substrates. Subsequent research from the Ebert laboratory has examined the potential of thalidomide analogs to induce degradation of a broad array of zinc finger transcription factors and other proteins, and to identify novel mechanisms of drug-induced protein degradation.

Dr. Ebert is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He served as President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2017. He received the William Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology in 2017, the Meyenburg Prize for Cancer Research in 2019, the Sjöberg Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2021, and the Korsmeyer Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2021.

David Scadden is the Gerald and Darlene Jordan Professor of Medicine at Harvard University. He is Professor and Chair emeritus of the Harvard University Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. He co-founded and co-directs the Harvard Stem Cell Institute with Prof. Douglas Melton. He is a hematologist/oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital where he founded and directs the Center for Regenerative Medicine and previously led the Hematologic Malignancies Program of the MGH Cancer Center. He is a member or fellow of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American College of Physicians, and a former member of the Board of External Experts for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Counselors. He is an Affiliate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and a Visiting Scholar of Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, England. He co-founded the public companies, Fate Therapeutics and Magenta Therapeutics and is a Director of Agios Pharmaceuticals and Editas Medicines. His work emphasizes using multidisciplinary approaches to define novel therapies for blood diseases. He is credited with having first experimentally defined a mammalian stem cell niche and its role in malignancy. His work on blood stem cells has led to new approaches to bone marrow transplantation now in clinical trial. He received the E. Donnall Thomas Award from the American Society of Hematology for his ‘pioneering work on the bone marrow microenvironment.’

Dr. Emmanuelle Passegué, Ph.D. is the endowed Alumni Professor of Genetics & Development and the Director of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative (CSCI) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) in New York City. Dr. Passegué received her Ph.D. from the University Paris XI (France), and trained with Dr. Erwin Wagner (Institute for Molecular pathology, Vienna, Austria) and Dr. Irv Weissman (Stanford University, USA) before joining the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in 2005. Dr. Passegué was a Professor of Medicine in the Hematology/Oncology Division and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF until 2016 before joining Columbia University in January 2017. Her research investigates the biology of blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells in normal and deregulated contexts such as hematological malignancies and physiological aging. Dr. Passegué has received a number of awards and prizes including a Scholar Award from the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society, an Outstanding Investigator Award from the NHLBI, and the 2019 William Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology.

Margaret (“Peggy”) Goodell is Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Director of the Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Center, at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas. Goodell’s research is focused on the mechanisms that regulate hematopoietic stem cells, and their dysregulation in malignancies, particularly DNA Methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A). Goodell was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019. She is a recipient of the Tobias Award from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (2020), the Damashek Prize from the American Society of Hematology (2012), the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine from TAMEST (2011). Goodell is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Keystone Symposia and is a member of their Board of Directors. Goodell is a former president of the International Society for Experimental Hematology (2013). She currently serves on the editorial boards of Cell Stem Cell and Cancer Cell has served on the editorial board of PLoS Biology, and as an Associated Editor of Blood. Goodell directs a laboratory of about 15 trainees.

Canada Gairdner International Award 2022; Senior Scientist and Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, UHN; University Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto

Ana Cvejic is a Professor at the University of Copenhagen and a Group leader at the Biotechnology Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC), Denmark. In 2008 Ana received her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Bristol. She then moved to the University of Cambridge/Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute to start a Postdoctoral Fellowship, with Professor Willem Ouwehand. In 2012 Ana was awarded the CRUK Career Development Fellowship to start her independent group at the University of Cambridge. In 2015 Ana was awarded ERC Starting Grant and in 2016 EMBO Young Investigator award. In 2022 Ana was a recipient of the ERC Consolidator Grant and she moved her group to the University of Copenhagen. With the principal expertise and research interest in the molecular regulation of blood stem cell fate choices her research sits at the intersection of molecular biology, genetics and systems biology and it closely couples experimental approaches and “big” biological data analysis.

Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet and at the University of Oxford. His research is focused at understanding how normal blood cell formation from stem cells in the bone marrow is organized and regulated to ensure replenishment of millions of blood cells per second, and how normal stem cells upon acquisition of oncogenic mutations are transformed into malignant stem cells. The aim is to unravel the dynamics of stem and progenitor cells in unperturbed hematopoiesis, and to identify and therapeutically target key cellular and molecular events in the transformation from normal to malignant hematopoiesis. Through these research directions the goal is to identify novel therapeutic strategies towards regenerative hematopoiesis and targeting of leukemic stem cells.

Tsvee Lapidot Ph.D is a Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Weizmann Institute, Dept. of Immunology and Regenerative Biology, Rehovot Israel. His research is focused at understanding how the daily replenishment of the blood with new mature blood and immune cells with a finite lifespan by the reservoir of bone marrow retained hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells is metabolically regulated and controlled. In addition, his research is focused on how the bone marrow reservoir of immature and maturing blood and immune cells is daily replenished, including hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal. Since only the most primitive hematopoietic stem cells which are bone marrow retained and functionally express the endothelial receptor EPCR are chemotherapy resistant, the mechanism and players involved are also investigated. These studies include the role of daily circadian light and darkness onset, the darkness hormone melatonin and PGE2 as well as the role of transient elevations in bone marrow norepinephrine, TNF and ROS levels. The blood bone marrow endothelial barrier and its dynamic permeability, osteoclast/osteoblast mediated bone turnover and the dynamic bone marrow stem cell niches. The essential roles of the universal stem cell chemokine SDF-1 (also termed CXCL12) which is highly expressed by bone marrow osteoblasts, capillaries and arterioles in the stem cell niches and its major receptor CXCR4 functionally expressed by hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Finally, the essential roles of CXCL12/CXCR4 interactions and coagulation related aPC/EPCR/PAR1 interactions in both human and mouse hematopoietic stem cell chemotherapy resistance with clinical relevance including in human EPCR positive and chemotherapy resistant Leukemic stem cells obtained from AML patients, which are also studied.