Introducing our Guest Speakers

Thursday & Friday Plenary Sessions

Andrew is a Professor in the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases, within the School of Translational Medicine.

Dr Perkins trained at RPA Hospital in Sydney in clinical and laboratory haematology, undertook his PhD in genetics at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, then post-doctoral studies at Harvard University before returning to Australia in 1997.

Professor Perkins is a clinician-scientist who seeks to understand transcriptional control networks which underpin normal blood stem cell production and blood cancers, to harness this knowledge to cure inherited or acquired human blood diseases.

Dr Hannon is a graduate of University College Cork in Ireland. She completed subspecialty training in palliative medicine through the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland before moving to Toronto to complete a clinical research fellowship at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PMCC). She has been the site lead for palliative care at PMCC since 2019 and is the research lead for the Divisions of Palliative Medicine in the Department of Medicine and Palliative Care in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Her research interests include early integrated palliative care for patients with advanced cancer, symptom screening and caregiver interventions.

Dr Camilla Zimmermann is Head of the Department of Supportive Care at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada, which includes divisions of Palliative Care, Psychosocial Oncology, and Cancer Rehabilitation and Survivorship. She holds the Harold and Shirley Lederman Chair in Palliative Care and Psychosocial Oncology and is a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Research Institute. She is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Head of the Division of Palliative Care at the University Health Network.

Dr Zimmermann developed a Division of Palliative Medicine at the University of Toronto and was its inaugural director. She has built a large, internationally recognized clinical and research program focused on early integration of palliative care for patients with advanced cancer at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She serves on numerous international committees including as Board Member for the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, International Advisory Board Member for Lancet Oncology, and Faculty Member of the European Society for Medical Oncology. She is Associate Editor for Journal of Clinical Oncology and specifically handles papers related to supportive care.

Dr Khan has clinical and research interests in acute myeloid leukaemia and myeloid malignancies, with an overlapping focus on allogeneic stem cell transplantation and immunotherapeutic approaches to treat blood cancers. He has a particular focus on development of novel lower toxicity treatments accessible to older and frail people, and tailoring care through individualised assessment.

His research focusses upon identifying and applying novel targeted therapies in adverse risk and relapsed or refractory settings. He is a member of the UK AML Research Network and IMPACT national stem cell transplant network, with an interest in extending the curative potential of allogeneic transplantation and cellular therapy to a wider group of patients by reducing toxicity.

Associate Professor Piers Blombery is a Clinical and Laboratory Haematologist and Lead of the Molecular Haematology Service in the Department of Pathology at Peter Mac. He completed dual fellowship training in clinical and laboratory haematology and completed his training at University College Hospital London (UCLH). A/Prof Blombery runs the genetic haematology service at Peter Mac including an expanding clinical research program in inherited blood diseases that has included the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance Bone Marrow Failure Flagship and more recently the MRV-funded EMBRACE and MRFF-funded IBMDx study for whole genome sequencing in these diseases.

He also runs the Wilson Centre for Blood Cancer Genomics, a translational diagnostics research program supported by the Wilson Family Trust and Snowdome Foundation. Associate Professor Blombery has completed a PhD from the University of Melbourne and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and authored four book chapters. He is regularly invited to speak at national and international forums on genomics and molecular medicine as being chief/associate investigator on over $15 million of research funding over the past 5 years.

Dr Matthew Rees is a haematologist with an interest in myeloma and amyloidosis. He was the top-graduating student from the University of Melbourne, MD class of 2014. He completed his haematology training at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Austin and Royal Melbourne hospitals, in addition to an advanced dysproteinemias fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.

His research is focused on immunotherapy in multiple myeloma and organ recovery in light chain (AL) amyloidosis. He has presented research on these topics at multiple international meetings, including an oral presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is a member of the myeloma working group of the Australasian Leukaemia Lymphoma Group (ALLG), Australian amyloidosis network, and disease lead for light chain (AL) amyloidosis at St Vincent's Hospital.

Professor Bryone Kuss is the academic head of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (Haematology and Molecular Genetics) for Flinders University and the past clinical head of Molecular Genetics at SA Pathology at Flinders Medical Centre. She is a senior consultant haematologist qualifying in 1993. She obtained a PhD in molecular genetics from Adelaide University in 1997 and has been a recipient of Fellowships from the NHMRC, Royal Society of London and RACP for the study of molecular mechanisms in leukaemia.

Bryone teaches into Knowledge of Health and Illness for the year 1 MD Programme as well as clinical skills, years 2 and 3 MD programmes. Bryone tutors in a variety of haematology and molecular genetics courses for Flinders University.

Dr Sherif S. Farag earned his MB BS and PhD in medicine from the University of Melbourne. He completed his residency training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in internal medicine. He completed subsequent training in clinical hematology at St. Vincent's Hospital and the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne and additional training in bone marrow transplantation at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. He has served on faculty at the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, and subsequently at Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, where he served as Professor of Medicine and the Associate Director for Clinical Research at the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center and directed the bone marrow and stem cell transplant program. He is currently the inaugural director of the Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy Institute at Community Health Network MD Anderson Cancer Center in Indianapolis.

Dr Farag focuses his research on the development of novel approaches to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, including prevention of graft-versus-host disease. He has an established history of peer-reviewed research funding from the National Institutes of Health of the United States and the V Foundation and has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.

Dr Farag is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, and the American College of Physicians. He is also an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Hematology, the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the International Society for Cellular Therapy, among others. He also served as a panel member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network for Multiple Myeloma and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Prof Andrew Roberts AM is Cancer Theme co-Leader at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, a clinical haematologist at Royal Melbourne Hospital/Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Metcalf Chair of Leukaemia Research at University of Melbourne. He is a past President of HSANZ, past Chair of the board of Cancer Council Victoria, and currently a Director of ALLG and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. He chairs the Life Saving Drug Program Expert Panel for the Australian government, served on the PBAC from 2007-18 and is Clinical/Scientific Representative on the Health Technology Assessment Reference Committee. His laboratory and clinical research pioneered the way for venetoclax, the first in a new class of targeted anti-cancer drug, to become a routine treatment for selected leukaemias. For this work, he and colleagues have received multiple awards, including the 2019 Prime Ministers Prize for Innovation in 2019.