IHE Rising Stars

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY)

• Chief of Lymphoma Service

• Steven A. Greenberg Chair

Dr. GIles Salles previously served as a Professor of Medicine (haematology) at Université Lyon-1, (1996) and is currently the chief of the Lymphoma Service, within the Division of Hematologic Malignancies, Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is also associate editor at the journal Haematologica.

Salles is also a member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the European Heamatology Association and the French Society of Hematology.

He was designated as "Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite" in 2016 and received the Jose Carreras Award from the European Hematology Association in 2020.

University of Chicago in the Department of Medicine (Chicago, IL)

• Elwood V. Jensen Professor of Medicine

• Section Chief of Hematology/Oncology

• Co-Leader of the Cancer Service Line

• Co-Director of the Lymphoma Program

Dr. Sonali M. Smith is the Elwood V. Jensen Professor of Medicine, Section Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Co-Leader of the Cancer Service Line, and Co-Director of the Lymphoma Program at the University of Chicago in the Department of Medicine. She is a clinical investigator in lymphoma and a clinical expert in Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

As faculty member at the University of Chicago since 2001, she has over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has written over 25 review articles on lymphoid malignancies. She is particularly interested in targeted agents and pathway inhibitors and has first and senior author publications through cooperative group trials and investigator-initiated trials.

She has had many active leadership roles including Vice-Chair of the SWOG Lymphoma Committee, Chair of the Lymphoma Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Board, and past chair of the ASCO Annual Meeting Scientific Committee in 2021-2022. She has won numerous teaching awards and considers mentorship a key aspect of her career.

Harvard School of Medicine (Boston, MA)

• Kraft Family Professor of Medicine

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA)

• Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center

Dr. Ken Anderson is the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, as well as Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He trained in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and then completed hematology, medical oncology, and tumor immunology training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Research Scientist and American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor.

Over the last four decades, he has developed laboratory and animal models of multiple myeloma in its microenvironment which have allowed for both identification of novel targets and validation of novel targeted and immune therapies. He has then led efforts to rapidly translate these studies to clinical trials culminating in FDA approval of multiple novel targeted therapies, which have transformed the treatment paradigm and markedly improved patient outcome.

He has also trained generations of researchers and caregivers who are now leading myeloma centers internationally. He has received the American Society of Hematology William Dameshek Prize, the American Association for Cancer Research Joseph H. Burchenal Award, the American Society of Clinical Oncology David A. Karnofsky Award, and the Harvard Medical School Warren Alpert Prize. He is also the recipient of the Robert A. Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Myeloma Foundation and the Waldenstrom Award at the International Myeloma Workshop. He is a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a member of the National Academy of Medicine as well as Royal College of Physicians and Pathologists, and past President of the International Myeloma Society and American Society of Hematology.

Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa, FL)

• Vice Chair of the Malignant Hematology Department

• Head of the Leukemia and MDS Section

Dr. Rami Komrokji is a senior Member of the Malignant Hematology and Experimental Therapeutics Program at the Moffitt Cancer Center, and Professor in Medicine & Oncologic Sciences at the College of Medicine, at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.

After earning a medical degree in 1996 from the Jordan University School of Medicine, Dr. Komrokji completed an internship and residency at Case Western University, St. Vincent Program. He then completed a fellowship at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, in Hematology/Oncology and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Dr. Komrokji is an expert in myeloid neoplasms where he led several clinical trials and lectured worldwide. His work paved the FDA approval for luspatercept in myelodysplastic syndromes and for Pacritinib in myelofibrosis.

He has authored or co-authored more than 325 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 20 book chapters, and more than 700 abstracts in Hematologic Malignancies. He served as member on the MDS Panel of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and is currently a member of the NIH MDS natural history study steering committee and aplastic anemia and MDS foundation board of directors. He was member of the editorial board for Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). He is peer reviewer for several medical journals including Blood Journal, JCO and Leukemia Journal.

Dr. Komrokji’s research interests are in Phase I and II Clinical Trials, and in the outcome research in hematologic malignancies with focus on myeloid neoplasms. His clinical interests are Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), Acute Myeloid Leukemias, and Myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)

• Professor of Medicine

Naseema Gangat, M.B.B.S., is a professor of medicine and a consultant in hematology at Mayo Clinic. She completed her residency and fellowship in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology at Mayo Clinic and is board certified in medical oncology, internal medicine, and hematology.

She has received several awards for her research and teaching excellence, and has been involved in various committees and editorial boards related to hematology and oncology. She has developed curricula and courses for internal medicine residency and hematology/oncology fellowship programs, and has mentored many students and trainees. Her clinical research is primarily in myeloid malignancies, especially myelodysplastic syndromes and myeloproliferative neoplasms, and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, and book chapters.

MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX)

• Professor of Medicine in the Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine

Dr. Jabbour joined the MD Anderson Cancer Center faculty in 2007 and is currently a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Leukemia. He is actively involved in developmental therapeutics research in leukemia. Over the past 5 years he has assisted in developing chemotherapeutic and biologic agents in leukemias and contributed to the development of others. These include: 1) the Hyper CVAD-ofatumumab regimen in ALL; 2) clofarabine in myeloid malignancies; 3) hypomethylating agents in AML and MDS; 4) Tyrosine kinase therapy in CML; and 5) triple therapy in AML. This research has also provided insight into the biology of leukemias. He has extensively addressed the question of resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors and to analyze the outcome of these patients. We have identified different mechanisms of resistance and described the clinical significance of them. This has clinical significance in establishing new milestones and leading to personalized therapy. This has tremendous consequences at the scientific and financial levels. He was also actively associated with frontline studies of nilotinib and dasatinib which resulted in FDA approval of these agents for frontline CML therapy in 2010. In addition we have recently addressed the question of genomic instabilities in patients with low-risk MDS who may need earlier therapeutic intervention. This served as a rationale for the first study in the world randomizing such patients to either 5-azacitidine or decitabine. Identifying patients at risk and applying earlier intervention may significantly improve their prognosis. He is leading our efforts to test triple therapy in AML (nucleoside analogs + anthracyclines + cytarabine). The interim results from this randomized trial show a significant improvement in outcome in patients who receive the nucleoside analog clofarabine. This may change the standard of care for the management of patients with AML. Furthermore, I am currently investigating the benefit of adding humanized monoclonal antibody for the treatment of patients with ALL (ofatumumab and HCVAD) and collaborating in the development of monoclonal antibody studies in adult ALL. Finally, he has authored or co-authored hundreds of peer reviewed medical publications and have served on editorial boards of several scientific journals.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital

• Neurologist-in-Chief

• Chair of the Department of Neurology

Harvard Medical School

• Martin A. Samuels Professor of Neurology

Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center

• Co- Leader of the Neuro-Oncology Program

Tracy Batchelor, M.D., M.P.H., is the Chair of the Department of Neurology at Mass General Brigham and the Martin A. Samuels Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Co- Leader of the Neuro-Oncology Program at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC). From 2018 to 2025, he served as the Neurologist-In-Chief and Chair of the Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was previously the Executive Director of the Stephen E. and Catherine Pappas Center for Neuro-Oncology, Associate Clinical Director of the Cancer Center, and Chief of the Division of Neuro-Oncology in the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was the Count Giovanni Armenise Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School from 2012-2019.

Dr. Batchelor’s research focuses on experimental therapeutics for gliomas and primary central nervous system lymphoma, and he has over 300 peer-reviewed publications in these areas. He is the principal investigator on three active National Cancer Institute grants, including the DF/HCC P50/SPORE award, the DF/HCC U19 Glioblastoma Therapeutics Network award, and a T32 training grant in Cancer Neuroscience. He is the immediate past chair of the National Cancer Institute Brain Malignancies Steering Committee and the immediate Past President of the Society for Neuro- Oncology. He has also served in multiple elected leadership positions within the American Academy of Neurology and the Society for Neuro-Oncology.

Dr. Batchelor received his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine and a master’s in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He completed his medicine internship, neurology residency and neuro-oncology fellowship at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, respectively.

He has received multiple accolades for his excellence and leadership in the field, including awards from the American Academy of Neurology and the Society for Neuro-Oncology. He was awarded the Raymond D. Adams Award for excellence in mentoring by the MGH in 2018.