2024 AIM Physician and Investigator Conference
May 18 – 19, 2024 – Boston, Massachusetts
Schedule
All times shown in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Time Zone Converter
The Conference Program is available for virtual guests
FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2024
| 17:00 | Guided walking tour of Boston area |
| 19:00 | Welcome Reception |
SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2024
| 7:15 | Registration & Breakfast |
| 8:00 | Mariana Castells – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Mariana Castells, M.D., Ph.D. is a clinician-scientist with over 30 years of experience in allergy and immunology. Additionally, she is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School with over 200 publications. She is the Director of the Brigham and Women’s Mastocytosis Center one of the few nationally and internationally recognized centers of excellence which provides diagnosis, management, and treatment options for patients with mastocytosis and mast cell activation disorders, which are rare and potentially deadly disorders currently addressed with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors. Additionally, she is the Director of the Drug Hypersensitivity and Desensitization Center at Brigham and Women’s and Dana Farber Cancer Institute which provides over 900 high risk desensitization’s per year for over 20 years to patients with cancer, severe infections and inflammatory diseases who are allergic to their first line therapy, increasing their life expectancy and quality of life. Jason Gotlib – Stanford University Dr. Gotlib is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology at the Stanford University School of Medicine / Stanford Cancer Institute. His research focus is clinical and translational evaluation of novel therapies for myeloproliferative neoplasms, with a focus on KIT inhibitors for systemic mastocytosis (SM). Dr. Gotlib has authored more than 250 research articles, chapters, and reviews that have been published in journals such as Blood, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Medicine, and The New England Journal of Medicine. He is Vice-Chair of the NCCN Guidelines Committee on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms, and chaired the NCCN guideline development for SM. He led the clinical development of midostaurin and avapritinib for patients with advanced SM, as well as response criteria for these diseases which are used by regulatory agencies for drug approval. Dr. Gotlib was awarded the European Competence Network on Mastocytosis (ECNM) Medal as Researcher of the Year in 2019 for the development of KIT-targeting therapies in advanced SM. He currently serves as President of the American Initiative in Mast Cell Diseases (AIM). Dr. Gotlib enjoys landscape photography in his spare time. Welcome |
| 8:05 | Melody Carter – National Institutes of Health Melody C. Carter is a senior research clinician in the Laboratory of Allergic Diseases at the NIH. She is board-certified in Allergy/Immunology and Pediatrics. Dr. Carter’s research focus is anaphylaxis and pediatric mastocytosis. Her responsibilities include patient care, teaching rounds and lectures, A&I training program attending, collaborative partnerships with universities, peer-reviewed publications, and scientific meeting lectures. She is a consistently invited lecturer for professional academic societies such as the AAAAI, NMA and ECNM. She is considered an international expert on pediatric mastocytosis. She has served on the Board of Directors, Chair and Vice Chair of the Mast Cell Disorders Committee and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the AAAAI. She is a member of the Editorial Board for the J Allergy Clin Immunol: Pract. the NMA Allergy Division and the American Initiative in Mast Cell Diseases. She is a mentor for the NIAID post-baccalaureate training program with a targeted program for underrepresented minorities. K. Frank Austen Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Dean Metcalfe |
| 8:15 | Dean Metcalfe – National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Metcalfe received an M.D. from the University of Tennessee, was a resident in Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan, a Fellow in A&I at NIH and a Fellow in Rheumatology/Immunology at the Robert Brigham. In 1979, he returned to NIH as a Senior Scientist. In 1995, Dr. Metcalfe was appointed the first Chief of the Laboratory of Allergic Diseases within NIAID, a position he held until stepping down in 2017. He remained Chief of the Mast Cell Biology Section until 2022 and is now an NIH Scientist Emeritus. Dr. Metcalfe’s career has focused of mast cell biology and clonal mast cell disorders, resulting in over 680 scientific publications. He is a past President of the AAAAI and is the recipient of honors including the AAAAI Distinguished Scientist Award and the ECNM Researcher of the Year. Dr. Metcalfe has mentored well over 200 fellows, visiting scientists and students. K. Frank Austen Lifetime Achievement Award lecture |
| 8:35 | Peter Valent – Medical University of Vienna Professor Peter Valent is head of a research group and director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Hematology and Oncology at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He coordinates the European Competence Network on Mastocytosis (ECNM) and runs a center of excellence for myeloid neoplasms and mast cell disorders. He organized a number of working conferences on diagnostic criteria and standards in mast cell neoplasms in Vienna in the past 25 years, resulting in consensus criteria and the WHO classification in mastocytosis. Special focus in his research are the identification of novel markers and targets in neoplastic mast cells and the development of diagnostic criteria and of targeted drug therapies in systemic mastocytosis and other myeloid neoplasms. Professor Valent is member in diverse medical societies, including the American Society of Hematology and serves in various editorial boards and as a reviewer in most top hematology journals. He published more than 900 peer-reviewed articles including numerous review articles and text book chapters in his areas of expertise, lectured widely in Europe and North America and received numerous scientific awards. Diagnosis and classification of mast cell diseases: 2024 status update |
| SESSION 1: Research Updates in Mast Cell Biology | |
| 8:55 | Gregor Hoermann – Munich Leukemia Laboratory Gregor Hoermann works as a specialist in laboratory medicine & clinical pathology at the MLL Munich Leukemia Laboratory, Germany. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. degree in Vienna and worked as Associate Professor at the Department of Laboratory Medicine of the Medical University of Vienna and at the University Hospital Innsbruck, Austria. He has both basic science and translational research interests in the field of myeloid neoplasms and published 160 papers in peer reviewed journals. Main topics in the field of mastocytosis are molecular diagnostics, hereditary alpha tryptasemia and the role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of the disease. He is a member of several national and international scientific and medical associations and served in the scientific committee on hematopathology & clinical laboratory hematology of the American Society of Hematology. Michael Deininger – Versiti Blood Research Institute Session Chairs |
| 9:00 | Karin Hartmann – University of Basel Soluble biomarkers in indolent and advanced systemic mastocytosis and its implications for novel therapeutic strategies |
| 9:25 | Dan Dwyer – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University I received my PhD from the Harvard University Immunology program under the mentorship of Dr. K. Frank Austen, where I studied the initiation of allergic inflammation. I continued focusing on Th2 inflammation during my post-doctoral research with Dr. Nora Barrett at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where I focused on defining the transcriptional landscape of murine connective tissue mast cells and using single-cell RNA sequencing to define key cellular players and map mast cell heterogeneity within human nasal polyposis. I started my independent laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Fall 2019, where my research has focused on determining the signals that recruit mast cell progenitors from the circulation to inflamed tissues, understanding how these progenitors integrate tissue- and inflammation-associated signals to take on a range of discrete phenotypes, and discovering how heterogeneous mast cell phenotypes influence both tissue homeostasis and disease progression. Progenitor proliferation and mast cell hyperplasia |
| 9:45 | Michael Deininger – Versiti Blood Research Institue Single cell and RNA sequencing in advanced systemic mastocytosis |
| 10:05 | Joshua Boyce – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Joshua A. Boyce, MD, FAAAAI, is the Albert L. Sheffer Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He is Chief of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, overseeing one of the largest and most successful research and training programs in the specialty. Dr. Boyce has trained more than 30 fellows in his lab, almost all of whom have full time research positions in academia or industry. His research on the mechanisms of aspirin sensitivity and lipid mediator control of type 2 inflammation and mast cell function have been funded by National Institute of Health (NIH) since 1995, with over 150 peer reviewed studies. Dr. Boyce received the AAAAI Mentoring Award in 2020. In addition, he chaired the expert panels that generated both the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases-sponsored food allergy guidelines and the addendum for the prevention of peanut allergy. Mast cell lipid mediators associated to Th2 inflammation |
| 10:25 | Gregor Hoermann – Munich Leukemia Laboratory Gregor Hoermann works as a specialist in laboratory medicine & clinical pathology at the MLL Munich Leukemia Laboratory, Germany. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. degree in Vienna and worked as Associate Professor at the Department of Laboratory Medicine of the Medical University of Vienna and at the University Hospital Innsbruck, Austria. He has both basic science and translational research interests in the field of myeloid neoplasms and published 160 papers in peer reviewed journals. Main topics in the field of mastocytosis are molecular diagnostics, hereditary alpha tryptasemia and the role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of the disease. He is a member of several national and international scientific and medical associations and served in the scientific committee on hematopathology & clinical laboratory hematology of the American Society of Hematology. TNFa as major mast cell soluble cytokine |
| 10:45 | Session Chairs Discussion panel w/ Q&A |
| 10:55 | BREAK |
| SESSION 2: Pathology and Molecular Biology | |
| 11:10 | Olga Pozdnyakova – University of Pennsylvania Dr. Olga Pozdnyakova is the Director of the Hematopathology Division at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She also serves as the Medical Director of the Hematology and Flow Cytometry laboratories. Originally from Moscow, Russia, Dr. Pozdnyakova studied medicine at the Russian State Medical University. Dr. Pozdnyakova was trained in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center and Hematopathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Pozdnyakova is an author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications and reviews. She has authored chapters on the topic of myeloid neoplasm in several fundamental pathology textbooks, such as Diagnostic Histopathology of Tumors, Wintrobe’s Atlas of Clinical Hematology, Diagnosis of Blood and Bone Marrow Disorders and Diagnostic Bone Marrow Hematopathology. She is the Chair of the College of American Pathologists Hematology and Clinical Microscopy Committee. Dr. Pozdnyakova has presented at numerous national and international pathology meetings and courses. Andreas Reiter – University Hospital Mannheim, Heidelberg University Mannheim, Germany Dr Andreas Reiter is an Associate Professor and Consultant of Hematology and Oncology at the Department of Hematology and Oncology, University Hospital Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Germany. Dr Reiter’s main research focus lies on pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). Since 1992, he has been involved in translational research and numerous clinical trials, most recently particularly focusing on treatment of classic MPN and translational research for a better understanding of pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of eosinophilia-associated disorders and systemic mastocytosis. Dr Reiter has established a “German Registry for Disorders of Eosinophils and Mast Cells (GREM)”. Session Chairs |
| 11:15 | Peng Li – ARUP Laboratories / University of Utah Dr. Li received her MD and master of science degree in microbiology from Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing, China. She went on to complete a PhD in molecular pharmacology and structural biology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. She joined the University of Utah School of Medicine as a resident in anatomic and clinical pathology, then pursued a hematopathology fellowship at Stanford University and a molecular genetic pathology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Li is board certified by the American Board of Pathology in anatomic and clinical pathology, hematopathology, and molecular genetic pathology. She is an associate professor at the department of pathology, in the University of Utah, and associated chief medical director of the ARUP Institute for Research and Development. Her research interests include genetic aspects of malignancy and myeloid neoplasms with germline predisposition. Clonal hierarchy of myeloid gene mutations in advanced systemic mastocytosis |
| 11:35 | Alberto Orfao – University of Salamanca Prof. Alberto Órfão, MD PhD, is Full Professor of Immunology (Department of Medicine), vicedirector of the Cancer Research Center of the University of Salamanca (Salamanca, Spain) and founder member of the Spanish Network on Mastocytosis He has co-authored 850 scientific publications (including >120 focused on mastocytosis and mast cell diseases) and over 70 patents. He has been awarded with the Gold Medal of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal) and a Honoris Causa Doctorate from the University of Katowice (Poland), among other >40 recognitions and prizes (e.g., Berend Howen award of the International Society of Laboratory Hematology, Wallace Coulter award of the International Clinical Cytometry Society). Altered immune profiles in blood of systemic mastocytosis patients |
| 11:55 | Irina Maric – National Institutes of Health Dr. Irina Maric is a Senior Research Physician and Attending Hematopathologist within the Hematology Service, Department of Laboratory Medicine at the NIH Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD. She is a Director of the Myeloid Core Laboratory, specializing in molecular and flow cytometric assays for detection of rare myeloproliferative diseases. Dr. Maric has a special research interest in rare chronic myeloproliferative diseases, particularly systemic mastocytosis and chronic eosinophilic leukemia. She has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers and four book chapters. Targeted next-generation sequencing reveals increased incidence of somatic myeloid mutations in pediatric systemic mastocytotis |
| 12:15 | Tracy George – ARUP Laboratories / University of Utah Dr. George is the Chief Scientific Officer and President of the Innovation Business Unit at ARUP Laboratories and a Professor of Pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She completed her medical degree and pathology residency at the University of California San Francisco with hematopathology and surgical pathology fellowships at Stanford University. She is an expert in the pathology of systemic mastocytosis and has authored more than 200 publications. Dr. George is a cofounder of the American Initiative in Mast Cell Diseases (AIM) and currently serves as Secretary/ Treasurer of AIM. Histopathology of progression in patients with advanced systemic mastocytosis on avapritinib |
| 12:35 | Session Chairs Discussion panel w/ Q&A |
| 12:45 | LUNCH |
| Special Session: The Role of Transplant in Advanced Systemic Mastocytosis | |
| 13:30 | Deepti Radia – Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals Deepti has been in her consultant post at Guys and St Thomas Hospitals since 2003. Deepti is the lead clinician for the systemic mastocytosis and chronic myeloid leukaemia services. The ECNM UK Mastocytosis Centre of excellence at Guys and St Thomas Hospitals was jointly established by Deepti and Dr Clive Grattan in 2005. This nationally recognised service accepts referrals from across the UK, Ireland and further afield. She is CI for landmark trials for patients with advanced/indolent systemic mastocytosis – PKC412, EXPLORER, PATHFINDER and PIONEER. She is a member of the study steering committee for the EXPLORER/PATHFINDER trials (Avapritinib in advanced SM) and APEX trial (Bezuclastinib) for patients with advanced SM. Deepti is actively involved in the education of clinicians and patients improve understanding of mast cell disorders by delivering regular teaching in regional, national, international meetings in addition to the UKMasto.org and TMS patient support groups. Session Chairs |
| 13:35 | Andreas Reiter – University Hospital Mannheim, Heidelberg University Mannheim, Germany Dr Andreas Reiter is an Associate Professor and Consultant of Hematology and Oncology at the Department of Hematology and Oncology, University Hospital Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Germany. Dr Reiter’s main research focus lies on pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). Since 1992, he has been involved in translational research and numerous clinical trials, most recently particularly focusing on treatment of classic MPN and translational research for a better understanding of pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of eosinophilia-associated disorders and systemic mastocytosis. Dr Reiter has established a “German Registry for Disorders of Eosinophils and Mast Cells (GREM)”. Celalettin Ustun – Rush University Clinical case discussion |
| SESSION 3: Mast Cell Activation and hereditary alpha tryptasemia | |
| 13:50 | Pedro Giavina Binachi – University of Sao Paolo Larry Schwartz – Virginia Commonwealth University Lawrence (Larry) Schwartz, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, at Virginia Commonwealth University, is a translational research investigator who, with colleagues, has made fundamental discoveries about human mast cells. These include identifying different types of mast cells; and discovering human α-, β-, and α/β-tryptases, characterizing their proteolytic activities, producing an anti-tryptase inhibitor of potential therapeutic utility, and inventing clinically useful tryptase immunoassays that facilitate the diagnosis of systemic mastocytosis (FDA and WHO approved) and of anaphylaxis, the discovery and diagnosis of mast cell activation syndromes and of hereditary alpha-tryptasemia, and the monitoring of mast cell cytoreductive therapies. By caring for patients with such disorders and being involved in related basic, translational, and clinical research, he has a unique perspective to share. Session Chairs |
| 13:55 | Jenny Huang – Scripps College Jenny Huang, MD is an allergy and immunology fellow at Scripps Clinic in San Diego. She received her medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and completed her residency in internal medicine at Scripps Clinic. Tryptase and hereditary alpha tryptasemia in postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome |
| 14:15 | Matthew Giannetti – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Matthew Giannetti is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a faculty member of the division of allergy and clinical immunology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a member of the Brigham and Women’s Mastocytosis center of excellence, with a clinical & translational interest in mastocytosis, hereditary alpha-tryptasemia, and mast-cell activation disorders. Secondary mast cell activation |
| 14:35 | Jonathan Lyons – University of California San Diego Dr. Lyons received his undergraduate education at Pomona College and Jesus College, Cambridge, UK, where he spent two terms. He graduated with a B.A. in Chemistry from Pomona College in 2003 and earned a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Southern California in 2007. Dr. Lyons completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, in 2010, and served as a Chief Medical Resident in Internal Medicine in 2011. He concluded his formal medical training in 2014 at NIAID as a Clinical Fellow in Allergy and Immunology. Following completion of fellowship, Jonathan was selected for the NIAID Transition Program in Clinical Research, and he served as an Assistant Clinical Investigator in the Laboratory of Allergic Diseases (LAD) until 2018 when he was selected as a tenure-track PI. Beginning in 2018 Dr. Lyons served as the Chief of the Translational Allergic Immunopathology Unit in the LAD. where his lab uses a variety of genetic approaches in order to identify mechanisms and pathways critical to allergic inflammation and hypersensitivity that can be targeted to conduct first in human clinical trials. In 2023, Dr. Lyons moved his lab to UCSD where he is Professor of Medicine and continues his studies into the genetic underpinnings of severe allergic inflammation and reactions. In 2015 Dr. Lyons received the AAAAI Foundation / The Mastocytosis Society Research Award in Mastocytosis and/or Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and Dr. Lyons has received NIAID Merit Awards in 2016, 2017, and 2020 for his work related to the identification and characterization of hereditary alpha-tryptasemia as a common genetic trait and modifier of mast cell-associated diseases and reactions. Dr. Lyons was named a Lasker Scholar in 2018, in 2020 he received the Young Physician-Scientist Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and in 2021 was awarded the Innovation in Research Award by The Mast Cell Disease Society. Promoter of alpha tryptase and clinical impact |
| 14:55 | Mariana Castells – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Mariana Castells, M.D., Ph.D. is a clinician-scientist with over 30 years of experience in allergy and immunology. Additionally, she is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School with over 200 publications. She is the Director of the Brigham and Women’s Mastocytosis Center one of the few nationally and internationally recognized centers of excellence which provides diagnosis, management, and treatment options for patients with mastocytosis and mast cell activation disorders, which are rare and potentially deadly disorders currently addressed with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors. Additionally, she is the Director of the Drug Hypersensitivity and Desensitization Center at Brigham and Women’s and Dana Farber Cancer Institute which provides over 900 high risk desensitization’s per year for over 20 years to patients with cancer, severe infections and inflammatory diseases who are allergic to their first line therapy, increasing their life expectancy and quality of life. Impact of tyrosine kinase inhibition on urinary mast cell mediators in indolent systemic mastocytosis |
| 15:15 | Session Chairs Discussion panel w/ Q&A |
| 15:25 | Poster Walk & Coffee Break |
| Oral Abstract Presentations | |
| 15:55 | Thanai Pongdee – Mayo Clinic, Rochester Dr. Pongdee is an allergist/immunologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He graduated from Duke University and received his medical degree from the University of Kentucky. He then completed an internal medicine/pediatrics residency at the University of Tennessee and allergy/immunology fellowship at Mayo Clinic. He serves as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Allergic Diseases with joint appointments in the Division of Hematology and Division of Epidemiology. He also serves as the research chair for the Division of Allergic Diseases and as co-director for the Population Health Research Program for the Mayo Clinic Health System. Dr. Pongdee’s research interests include systemic mastocytosis and hypereosinophilic syndromes, and he has served as the principal investigator for several clinical trials. Beyond Mayo Clinic, Dr. Pongdee has held several national leadership positions including his current role on the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Cecilia Arana Yi, Phoenix – Mayo Clinic Cecilia Arana Yi, MD is a board-certified Hematologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona. She is a Director of Leukemia Program specializing in the diagnosis and management of Systemic Mastocytosis. She received her medical degree from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru. She completed Hematology/oncology Fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University, and Leukemia Fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She joined Mayo Clinic in 2020. During her tenure she developed a thriving clinical practice, expanded clinical trial portfolio in Leukemia and Mastocytosis, and introduced a multidisciplinary approach to the diagnosis and management of Mast Cell disorders. Dr. Arana Yi is a member of Mayo Clinic Arizona Myeloid Malignancy Disease Group and Education Committee. She is active in the education shield and is engaged in teaching of residents and students. She is a member of Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Arana Yi is a recognized educator and advocate in Systemic Mastocytosis in the Southwest Region. Session Chairs |
| 16:00 | Clayton H. Rische – University of Chicago Selective depletion of mast cells in mice via Siglec-6 targeted nanotherapy |
| 16:15 | Mariana Castells – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Mariana Castells, M.D., Ph.D. is a clinician-scientist with over 30 years of experience in allergy and immunology. Additionally, she is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School with over 200 publications. She is the Director of the Brigham and Women’s Mastocytosis Center one of the few nationally and internationally recognized centers of excellence which provides diagnosis, management, and treatment options for patients with mastocytosis and mast cell activation disorders, which are rare and potentially deadly disorders currently addressed with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors. Additionally, she is the Director of the Drug Hypersensitivity and Desensitization Center at Brigham and Women’s and Dana Farber Cancer Institute which provides over 900 high risk desensitization’s per year for over 20 years to patients with cancer, severe infections and inflammatory diseases who are allergic to their first line therapy, increasing their life expectancy and quality of life. Analysis of hereditary alpha tryptasemia and association with baseline characteristics in patients with indolent systemic mastocytosis enrolled on the PIONEER Study |
| 16:30 | Nicole Case – Harvard University Nicole received her BA in Biology from Amherst College and a Five College Certificate in Culture, Health, and Science. While at Amherst, she conducted research examining the biochemical mechanisms of polarity maintenance in developing sea anemone embryos. Nicole currently conducts research in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she is building a mastocytosis biobank repository to understand the role of mast cells in human disease progression. She is also involved in projects aiming to understand mast cell maturation trajectories and effector function in murine lung inflammation models. Outside of the lab, she enjoys attending dance classes, reading, and walking her dog on the beach. Nicole plans to matriculate to the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine in July. Transcriptomic and phenotypic characterization of mast cell heterogeneity and KIT D816V inhibition in systemic mastocytosis |
| 16:45 | Mariana Castells – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Mariana Castells, M.D., Ph.D. is a clinician-scientist with over 30 years of experience in allergy and immunology. Additionally, she is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School with over 200 publications. She is the Director of the Brigham and Women’s Mastocytosis Center one of the few nationally and internationally recognized centers of excellence which provides diagnosis, management, and treatment options for patients with mastocytosis and mast cell activation disorders, which are rare and potentially deadly disorders currently addressed with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors. Additionally, she is the Director of the Drug Hypersensitivity and Desensitization Center at Brigham and Women’s and Dana Farber Cancer Institute which provides over 900 high risk desensitization’s per year for over 20 years to patients with cancer, severe infections and inflammatory diseases who are allergic to their first line therapy, increasing their life expectancy and quality of life. Day One Closing Remarks |
| 18:30 | Conference Dinner (Registration Required) |
SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
| 7:45 | Breakfast |
| Special Session: Multidisciplinary Interactive Tumor Board | |
| 8:30 | Matthew Hamilton – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Matthew Hamilton, M.D., is an associate physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is the lead gastroenterologist at the Brigham Mastocytosis Center and has authored numerous original research articles and reviews on the GI manifestations of mast cell disorders. Session Chairs |
| 8:35 | Serine Avagyan – University of California San Francisco I am a physician-scientist studying genetic predisposition to early-onset blood cancers. My research training is in hematopoiesis, focusing on blood stem cell biology in mouse hematopoiesis during my PhD (Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York) and residency (Children’s hospital of New York Presbyterian, Columbia University, New York) training, and zebrafish model of clonal hematopoiesis during my postdoctoral training after clinical fellowship (Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston). My lab focuses on understanding the effects of acquired mutations in the context of germline leukemia predisposition conditions like GATA2 deficiency, with a goal of studying clone-specific biology that could be targeted therapeutically. We use preclinical model of zebrafish and primary human cells to conduct our research through complementary approaches. My clinical focus is in pediatric stem cell transplantation and bone marrow failure syndromes with leukemia predisposition. Case #1 |
| 8:55 | Wesley Roberts – University of Utah Case #2 |
| 9:15 | Tara Ballouz – Mayo Clinic, Arizona Case #3 |
| Session 4: Clinical Heterogeneity in Mast Cell Disease | |
| 9:35 | Celalettin Ustun – Rush University Nives Zimmermann – University of Cincinnati Nives Zimmermann, M.D. is a physician-scientist at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Clinically, she is a pathologist, with focus on hematopathology. Her research focuses on eosinophil- and mast cell-mediated diseases. Session Chairs |
| 9:40 | Ivan Alvarez Twose – Castilla La Mancha University Predictive algorithms of systemic mastocytosis |
| 10:00 | Jennifer Nicoloro-SantaBarbara – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Jennifer earned her PhD in Social and Health Psychology from Stony Brook University. She then completed a NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellowship in Biobehavioral Issues in Mental and Physical Health at UCLA. Currently, she holds the position of Investigator in the Department of Psychiatry and is an affiliated member of the Mastocytosis Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Additionally, she serves as an Instructor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on parsing the heterogeneous and complex nature of depression, especially in the context of chronic illnesses such as mastocytosis so as to reduce illness burden and improve patient’s quality of life. Notably, she is a past recipient of Harvard Medical School’s Kaplen Fellowship in Depression and serves on The Mast Cell Disease Society’s Board of Directors Brain impact in mastocytosis |
| 10:20 | Melody Carter – National Institutes of Health Melody C. Carter is a senior research clinician in the Laboratory of Allergic Diseases at the NIH. She is board-certified in Allergy/Immunology and Pediatrics. Dr. Carter’s research focus is anaphylaxis and pediatric mastocytosis. Her responsibilities include patient care, teaching rounds and lectures, A&I training program attending, collaborative partnerships with universities, peer-reviewed publications, and scientific meeting lectures. She is a consistently invited lecturer for professional academic societies such as the AAAAI, NMA and ECNM. She is considered an international expert on pediatric mastocytosis. She has served on the Board of Directors, Chair and Vice Chair of the Mast Cell Disorders Committee and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the AAAAI. She is a member of the Editorial Board for the J Allergy Clin Immunol: Pract. the NMA Allergy Division and the American Initiative in Mast Cell Diseases. She is a mentor for the NIAID post-baccalaureate training program with a targeted program for underrepresented minorities. Management of unusual cases in pediatric-onset mastocytosis |
| 10:40 | Session Chairs Discussion panel w/ Q&A |
| 10:50 | BRUNCH |
| Session 5: Therapies, Novel Agents, & Survival | |
| 11:35 | Stephanie Lee – University of Toronto Dr. Stephanie Lee received an MD from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and completedInternal Medicine and Hematology residency at the University of Toronto. She then completed a fellowshipin the Acute Leukemia and Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centrein Toronto followed by a MSc degree in Epidemiology and Clinical Research at Stanford University. She iscurrently a hematologist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. Tsewang Tashi – University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Center Dr. Tashi received his medical degree from Chang Gung University, School of Medicine in Taiwan, completed his residency from Creighton University, Nebraska and heme/onc fellowship from Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah. His current clinical and research interest focuses on myeloid malignancies, primarily in Systemic Mastocytosis and Myeloproliferative neoplasms. He established and currently leads the Mastocytosis Center of Excellence at Huntsman Cancer Institute and has been PI on multiple clinical trials. He is also the lead hematologist at the George E. Whalen VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City, UT. Session Chairs |
| 11:40 | Tsewang Tashi – University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Center Dr. Tashi received his medical degree from Chang Gung University, School of Medicine in Taiwan, completed his residency from Creighton University, Nebraska and heme/onc fellowship from Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah. His current clinical and research interest focuses on myeloid malignancies, primarily in Systemic Mastocytosis and Myeloproliferative neoplasms. He established and currently leads the Mastocytosis Center of Excellence at Huntsman Cancer Institute and has been PI on multiple clinical trials. He is also the lead hematologist at the George E. Whalen VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City, UT. Advanced systemic mastocytosis |
| 12:00 | Sudipto Mukherjee – Cleveland Clinic Dr. Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and Director of Rare Cancers and Blood Diseases at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute. His clinical interests are in rare blood conditions and hematologic malignancies including acute leukemias, chronic myeloid leukemias, histiocytic disorders, Castleman’s disease and systemic mastocytosis. His research interests include epidemiologic studies using national cancer registries and health claims datasets focusing on natural history of these diseases, second cancer risk assessments in cancer survivors, health care disparities and survival trends. He is also involved in collaborative translational work spanning whole exome sequencing, single cell RNA sequencing and proteomic analysis on the above diseases. He is the lead investigator in several clinical trials including investigator-initiated clinical trials. He is a member of several professional organizations such as the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Jean H Khoury Cure CML consortium, Castleman Disease Collaborative Network and North American Consortium of Histiocytosis, among others. Decreased survival among patients with indolent systemic mastocytosis |
| 12:20 | Thanai Pongdee – Mayo Clinic, Rochester Dr. Pongdee is an allergist/immunologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He graduated from Duke University and received his medical degree from the University of Kentucky. He then completed an internal medicine/pediatrics residency at the University of Tennessee and allergy/immunology fellowship at Mayo Clinic. He serves as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Allergic Diseases with joint appointments in the Division of Hematology and Division of Epidemiology. He also serves as the research chair for the Division of Allergic Diseases and as co-director for the Population Health Research Program for the Mayo Clinic Health System. Dr. Pongdee’s research interests include systemic mastocytosis and hypereosinophilic syndromes, and he has served as the principal investigator for several clinical trials. Beyond Mayo Clinic, Dr. Pongdee has held several national leadership positions including his current role on the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Indolent systemic mastocytosis: Targeted versus symptomatic treatment approach |
| 12:40 | Session Chairs Discussion panel w/ Q&A |
| 12:50 | BREAK |
| Session 6: Mast Cell Biology and Pre-Clinical Development | |
| 13:05 | Nathan Boggs – Uniformed Services University Dr. Nathan Boggs developed an international clinical registry for Tricare beneficiaries known, or suspected to have, the myeloid neoplasm systemic mastocytosis. The registry is designed to reduce the time to diagnosis and improve the care of those who are diagnosed. Dr. Boggs has developed clinical and research collaborations with ARUP labs and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center and helped Walter Reed obtain a Center of Excellence designation by the American Initiative in Mast Cell Diseases (AIM). Dr. Boggs is principal investigator (PI) of multiple funded research studies. One study, in collaboration with Drs. Clifton Dalgard and Andrew Snow at USU, aims to improve genetic diagnosis rates compared to standard of care genetic testing for patients with inborn errors of immunity and mastocytosis. The study utilizes a whole genome and RNA sequencing approach. A second study is assessing the genetic underpinning of urticaria. Dr. Boggs it also the Walter Reed site PI for the SUMMIT clinical trial investigating bezuclastinib for non-advanced systemic mastocytosis. Session Chairs |
| 13:10 | Mark C. Siracusa – Rutgers University Dr. Siracusa received his doctorate in 2008 from Johns Hopkins University where his work focused on understanding how type 2 inflammation initiated by helminth parasites is regulated. Following his time at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Siracusa continued his training at the University of Pennsylvania where he made seminal discoveries defining the host protective functions of basophils and mast cells. In 2014 Dr. Siracusa was recruited to the Center for Immunity and Inflammation at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School as the Universities first Chancellor Scholar. Dr. Siracusa has established a successful NIH-funded research program that has made fundamental discoveries defining the diverse roles that granulocytes and neuroimmune interactions play in regulating type 2 inflammation. Dr. Siracusa also serves on the Innate Immunity and Inflammation Study Section and is the President and Founder of NemaGen Discoveries, a biotech start-up company that develops novel therapeutics based on pathways discovered in his laboratory. CAR1 and proliferation in mast cells |
| 13:30 | Marianna Kulka – University of Alberta Dr. Marianna Kulka is currently the Team Lead of the Biomedical Nanotechnologies Team at the Quantum and Nanotechnologies Research Center, a division of the National Research Council Canada and an adjunct professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Alberta. Over the past two decades, Dr. Marianna Kulka’s research has examined the activation of human mast cells specifically, a particularly potent but understudied immune cell that is responsible for orchestrating underlying inflammation in many human diseases, including atopic dermatitis, asthma, allergy, and adverse drug reactions. Her background in immunology and cell biology has supported several multidisciplinary teams in the development of nutraceutical, nanomedicine and pharmaceutical strategies to combat human disease. In collaboration with their international partners, her team has shown that G protein coupled receptors are an important part of mast cell activation and her team continues to develop nanomaterials that can both activate and inhibit mast cell functions. Email: Marianna.kulka@nrc-cnrc.gc or mkulka@ualberta.ca Mast cells activiation through MRGPRX2 |
| 13:50 | Adrian M. Piliponsky – Seattle Children’s Research Institute “I am a principal investigator at the Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Professor of Pediatrics, Laboratory Medicine, and Pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. My independent laboratory was established over twelve years ago and aims to dissect mast cell biology to understand mast cell contribution to health and disease and explore new approaches for its immunomodulation”. Elucidating and targeting Siglec-9 function on mast cells |
| 14:10 | Glenn Cruse – North Carolina State University Dr. Glenn Cruse, PhD, is an Associate Professor and University Faculty Scholar at North Carolina State University within the College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Cruse completed his Ph.D. at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom under the mentorship of Prof. Peter Bradding. During his Ph.D., he focused on human lung mast cell biology in asthma. He then moved to Bethesda, Maryland, as a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Allergic Diseases, NIAID at NIH where his research interest expanded to include mastocytosis and mast cell neoplasms under the guidance of Dr. Dean Metcalfe. In 2016, Dr. Cruse started his independent research program at NC State University. The goal of his NIH and industry-supported research program is to understand the role that mast cells play in allergic and inflammatory diseases, establish novel regulators of mast cell function, and develop targeted therapeutics for mast cell-mediated inflammatory and proliferative diseases. Targeting KIT by frameshifting mRNA transcripts as a therapeutic strategy for mast cell disease |
| 14:30 | Session Chairs Discussion panel w/ Q&A |
| 14:40 | Mariana Castells – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Mariana Castells, M.D., Ph.D. is a clinician-scientist with over 30 years of experience in allergy and immunology. Additionally, she is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School with over 200 publications. She is the Director of the Brigham and Women’s Mastocytosis Center one of the few nationally and internationally recognized centers of excellence which provides diagnosis, management, and treatment options for patients with mastocytosis and mast cell activation disorders, which are rare and potentially deadly disorders currently addressed with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors. Additionally, she is the Director of the Drug Hypersensitivity and Desensitization Center at Brigham and Women’s and Dana Farber Cancer Institute which provides over 900 high risk desensitization’s per year for over 20 years to patients with cancer, severe infections and inflammatory diseases who are allergic to their first line therapy, increasing their life expectancy and quality of life. Jason Gotlib – Stanford University Dr. Gotlib is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology at the Stanford University School of Medicine / Stanford Cancer Institute. His research focus is clinical and translational evaluation of novel therapies for myeloproliferative neoplasms, with a focus on KIT inhibitors for systemic mastocytosis (SM). Dr. Gotlib has authored more than 250 research articles, chapters, and reviews that have been published in journals such as Blood, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Medicine, and The New England Journal of Medicine. He is Vice-Chair of the NCCN Guidelines Committee on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms, and chaired the NCCN guideline development for SM. He led the clinical development of midostaurin and avapritinib for patients with advanced SM, as well as response criteria for these diseases which are used by regulatory agencies for drug approval. Dr. Gotlib was awarded the European Competence Network on Mastocytosis (ECNM) Medal as Researcher of the Year in 2019 for the development of KIT-targeting therapies in advanced SM. He currently serves as President of the American Initiative in Mast Cell Diseases (AIM). Dr. Gotlib enjoys landscape photography in his spare time. Closing Remarks |
Accreditation: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of University of Utah and American Initiative in Mast Cell Diseases. The University of Utah is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
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