Dr. Sigurdur Yngvi Kristinsson is a professor of Hematology at the University of Iceland. He serves as the principal investigator for the Iceland Screens, Treats, or Prevents Multiple Myeloma (iStopMM®) study, a population-based MGUS and multiple myeloma screening study. The iStopMM study is the largest myeloma study in the world in which over 80,000 individuals provided their written informed consent to participate.

In 2009, Dr. Kristinsson PhD thesis on risk factors and prognosis in patients with monoclonal gammopathies (Karolinska Institute) was named the best thesis in hematology in Sweden. He has written more than 120 research papers on hematological diseases. He has led several large population-based myeloma studies in collaboration with major research centers in Sweden, US and Iceland and is a frequent speaker at international hematology conferences, including the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and the European Hematology Association Congress. His prior research has shed light on several risk factors (such as family history and prior autoimmune disease), complications and outcomes of patients with MM and its precursor (such as thrombosis, fractures, bone disease, infections, and secondary malignancies).

Dr. Kristinsson has obtained a number of grants for research on plasma cell disease, for example from Marie-Curie reintegration grant (EU), ERC starting grant, ERC consolidator grant, Black Swan Research Initiative, the Swedish Cancer Society, the Karolinska Institutet Foundations, Swedish Hematology Association, and the Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNIS). He is also the first recipient of the Brian Durie Outstanding Achievement Award, issued by the IMWG (International Myeloma Working Group) in 2018.

Dr. Kristinsson current research group includes 4 PhD-students, a lab with 5 biologists, three postdocs, 6 research nurses, two statistician, one data manager, a project manager, a grant writer, and three support staff.

Dr. Sita Bhella completed her medical school training at University of Western Ontario. She completed internal medicine and hematology residency at the University of Toronto, and then went on to do a Leukemia and Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplant Fellowship at Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto.

She completed a Master’s in Education, with a focus in Health Professionals Education, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Dr. Bhella has a strong interest in quality improvement and innovation and has completed several courses in the area such as the Excellence in Quality Improvement Certificate Program (EQUIP), Advancing Safety for Patients in Residency Education (ASPIRE) and the IDEAS Foundations of Quality Improvement Certificate.

From 2015-2019, Dr. Bhella was an assistant professor at Queen’s University, where she was the Autologous Stem Cell Transplant Medical Director. She was engaged and involved in medical education as well as quality improvement in the complex malignant hematology program. During her time there, she developed a Day +100 transfer program for Allogeneic stem cell transplantation and a Day+1 transfer program for autologous stem cell transplantation with Lakeridge Hospital.

Dr. Bhella joined Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in 2019, as an assistant professor and a clinician in quality improvement and innovation. Dr. Bhella has an interest in malignant hematology, particularly lymphoma, myeloma, autologous stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy. She is Quality Lead of the Autologous Stem Cell Transplant Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and is engaged and involved in the development of CAR T-cell therapy program, particularly the long term survivorship program.

Dr. Christine Chen is the Medical Director of the Autologous Stem Cell Transplant Program and the Clinical Cell Therapy Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network (UHN), in Toronto, Canada. She is appointed as an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto (U of T) and is a member of the clinical research group for multiple myeloma and related mature B-cell disorders, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (WM). Princess Margaret Cancer Centre is the largest tertiary care center for cancer in Canada, performing over 300 autologous stem cell transplants and seeing over 400 new referrals for myeloma, CLL and WM per year. As Medical Director for the Clinical Cell Therapy Program, Dr. Chen has led the implementation of standard of care CAR T-cell therapy at PM, one of only a handful of centres in Canada certified to perform this complex, innovative therapy. As a clinical investigator, Dr. Chen’s research interests are in the development of novel approaches for myeloma and CLL, focusing on cell-based therapy. Dr. Chen also holds the role of Quality Director for the Princess Margaret BMT-IEC (Immune Effector Cell) Quality Program providing oversight for both standard of care and research cell therapy processes and maintaining FACT (Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy) accreditation.

Dr. Chen underwent her internal medicine training at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and hematology residency training at McMaster University in Hamilton. Upon completing a transplant clinical research fellowship at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, she subsequently joined the faculty of the Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology and obtained her Masters in Education from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (U of T). She therefore takes an active role in medical education and acted as the U of T Hematology Training Program Director from 2003-2008.

Christopher completed Hematology and Internal Medicine Residency training in Ottawa. He then completed a clinical fellowship in plasma cell disorders at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. He is a hematologist at The Ottawa Hospital in the Plasma Cell Disorders Program.

Dr. Anca Prica did her initial medical training in Toronto, and her clinical training in Internal Medicine and Hematology in the University of Toronto Program. She then did a 2 year fellowship in Malignant Hematology at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and a Masters in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University, with interest in quality of life and economic evaluations. Her clinical work focuses in both plasma cell disorders and lymphoproliferative disorders at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Mount Sinai Hospital, having joined the group in January 2014.

Dr Reece is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Director of the Program for Multiple Myeloma and Related Diseases in the Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology at Princess Margaret Hospital/University of Toronto. She holds the Molly and David Bloom Chair in Multiple Myeloma Research and is past Chair of the Multiple Myeloma Clinical Trials Group of the National Cancer Institute of Canada, Co-Chair of the Myeloma Working Committee at the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research and member of the Board of Directors of the International Myeloma Society. Dr. Reece also serves on the Canadian Myeloma Research Group (CMRG).

Dr. Stewart is Vice President, Cancer at University Health Network and Director of the Princess Margaret Cancer Program. He is Regional Vice-President, Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario) and holds the Richard H. Clark Chair in Cancer Medicine.

Dr. Stewart received his medical degree at Aberdeen University Medical School and trained in internal medicine and hematology in Glasgow, Kingston, Toronto and Boston. In 2002, he completed a Master of Business Administration at the Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario. Dr. Stewart has served in several healthcare leadership roles across both research and clinical practice in Toronto and at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Stewart returned to Toronto from the Mayo Clinic where he most recently was Director of the Center for Individualized Medicine.

Dr. Stewart’s own research and clinical practice is focused on the biology, genomics and treatment of Multiple Myeloma. He has published over 350 research papers and led numerous clinical trials of novel therapeutics for this disease from first in man to large practice changing studies. Dr. Stewart has served on the advisory and medical or scientific boards of many private and public institutions including currently as a non executive board member of Genomics England.

Dr. Tiedemann is a Clinician-Scientist at The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP) and of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (FRCPA). He was a prize winner in the Australian Mathematics Competition in 1988 and a representative to the 29th International Mathematics Olympiad. He completed Medicine and Surgery degrees and a Ph.D. examining immune cell activation by superantigens at the University of Auckland. Following Internal Medicine and Hematology Fellowships he completed Post-Doctoral Fellowship training in Multiple Myeloma at Mayo Clinic. He won a Hematology Society of Australia and New Zealand (HSANZ) Young Investigator Award in 2006 and a Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) fellowship in 2007. He was appointed Staff Hematologist at Mayo Clinic in 2008 and Assistant Professor at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in 2009. After moving to Canada his laboratory research program has been funded by the CIHR, CCS and TFRI. For translational research in multiple myeloma he won an American Society of Hematology (ASH) Scholar Award in 2009, The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre’s Till and McCulloch Translational Paper of the Year in 2013 and the Canadian Cancer Society’s William E. Rawls Prize in 2018.

Dr. Trudel received her MD degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and subsequently completed subspecialty training in Hematology at the University of Toronto affiliated hospitals. This was followed by a research fellowship at Weill Medical College of Cornell in New York City. Dr. Trudel returned to Toronto as a consultant in the department of Medical Oncology and Hematology at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and is currently appointed as Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Trudel is also a Faculty Member of the Department of Medical Biophysics and Scientist at Ontario Cancer Institute.

Dr. Trudel is an active member of several professional organizations. For the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC), Dr. Trudel has previously served as a member of the Steering Committee. She is a member of the Myeloma Canada advisory board and the Subcommittee on Corrlative Sciences for National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group. For the American Society of Hematology, Dr Trudel has formerly served as a member of the Ad Hoc Scientific Committee on Plasma Cell Biology and has previously been the receiptant of an ASH Scolar Award.

An active researcher, Dr. Trudel has been a principal investigator on several industry sponsored and investigator initiated clinical trials for relapsed multiple myeloma. Her research focus has been in the areas of drug development and precision medicine for multiple myeloma.

Dr. Yang is a staff hematologist at PMCC in the role of Clinician Teacher. She completed medical school and internal medicine training at University of Toronto, and subsequent hematology training at Queen’s University. Prior to joining on staff, Dr. Yang completed a fellowship with the lymphoma and myeloma group, and is now currently the fellowship director for the program.