Dr. Geddes is a hematologist and clinical associate professor at the University of Calgary and Tom Baker Cancer Centre in the departments of Medicine and Oncology.  She trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Alberta and in Hematology and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation at the University of Calgary.  She has an interest in acute leukemias, myelodysplasia, myeloproliferative disorders and aplastic anemia and has a practice in general hematology and hematopoietic cell transplantation.  She is active in clinical trial enrolment and teaching at the medical school and resident level.

Rena Buckstein is a clinician investigator at the Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences who specializes in malignant hematology.  She is an associate professor in the department of medicine at University of Toronto.

She completed her medical school training at Boston University and Internal Medicine/Hematology specialty and subspecialty training in Toronto, followed by a fellowship in lymphoma and high dose therapy at Sunnybrook Hospital. She also completed a diploma in clinical epidemiology.

She chaired the hematology site group for 15 years and currently leads the hematology clinical trials program at the Odette Cancer Center. Rena founded and chairs a national registry for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS-CAN) of more than 1400 patients and is an affiliate scientist of Sunnybrook Research Institute. She is a member of the International MDS Foundation scientific advisory board, the Canadian Cancer Society hematology clinical trials sub-committee, a co-chair of an international MDS Guidelines panel for MDS-RIGHT and has chaired national clinical trials in lymphoma and MDS.  She has authored and co-authored 144 publications and holds peer reviewed grants from Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (CCSRI), Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and the Leukemia Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC) that fund investigator-initiated research in MDS and lymphoma.  She is a recipient of the LLSC/UFCW award for leukemia research in Canada. As an associate professor in the department of Medicine at University of Toronto, she enjoys teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students.

Her interventional research focuses on novel targeted biologic and immunologic therapies for hematologic malignancies focusing on myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myelogenous leukemia and improving the transfusion experience for MDS patients.   Her non-interventional research focuses on documenting QOL longitudinally and its predictors and  the impact of patient-related factors like frailty and disability on quality of life and clinical outcomes independent of disease-related prognostic factors.  She collaborates on health services research pertaining to ‘real-life’ experience of approved therapies in MDS and the cost/predictors of health care resource utilization. Currently,  she is evaluating the impact of  age-related clonal hematopoiesis (ARCH) on chemotherapy outcomes in older adults with lymphoid cancers, the association of specific mutations with occult coronary artery disease in MDS patients.

Dr. Lynn Savoie is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Oncology at the University of Calgary as well as a member of the Department of Hematologic Malignancies and Bone Marrow Transplantation at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary.  She received her medical degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax where she also completed her internal medicine residency.  Her hematology fellowship was completed at the University of Manitoba followed by a clinical Leukemia/Bone marrow transplantation fellowship with the Leukemia/BMT program of British Columbia.

Her interests lie in myeloid malignancies and medical education. She is the local primary investigator for a number of clinical trials including in CML, AML. MDS and ALL. She is the current secretary of the recently formed Canadian Leukemia Study Group and the co-chair of the leukemia subcommittee at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group. She is the previous chair of the hematology component of medical education at the University of Calgary as well as chair of the Hematology exam committee at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.

As a clinician-scientist at Vancouver General Hospital, I specialize in treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients, with a research focus on enhancing treatment outcomes. My work includes extensive preclinical studies aimed at understanding molecular mutations in AML subtypes and using animal models to investigate oncogene functions, all with the aim of translating these findings into improved patient care. Additionally, I advocate for translational interfaces, such as clinical trials, to bridge the gap between research and practice.

Dr. Heuser is a professor of medicine and holds a Chair for Molecular Therapies in Hematology at Hannover Medical School, Germany. He is the chair of the European LeukemiaNet MRD working party ELN-DAVID. His research focuses on developing improved treatments for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), on the pathogenesis of AML, and on measurable residual disease in AML patients. Dr. Heuser has been a clinical investigator in 70 clinical trials and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications.