Each year in the run-up to the EBMT Annual Meeting, the EBMT selects a small group of Young Ambassadors from a pool of excellent applicants.
These talented, active professionals are granted free registration to the Annual Meeting, and they have the great opportunity to network with EBMT leadership during the congress. They report on new research and development in BMT, including new studies, cutting-edge topics, their experience of being a young professional in the field, and highlights from the Annual Meeting.
Charlotte Brierley
Academic clinical fellow in Clinical Haematology, Oxford University Hospitals, UK - @charlottekb1
Charlotte Brierley studied medicine at Queens' College, Cambridge and Christ Church College, Oxford, before undertaking junior medical training in Edinburgh and Oxford. She is now a specialist registrar and academic clinical fellow in Haematology at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a junior research fellow at New college, Oxford.
Her research interests lie in haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and myeloid disease. She has completed studies examining the impact of ABO blood group on outcomes after HSCT, the role of auto-HSCT in the management of Crohn’s disease, and the graft-versus- lymphoma effect in patients receiving allo-HSCT and donor lymphocyte infusions for mature lymphoid malignancies.
Charlotte is delighted to have been selected as Young Ambassador for EBMT 2019, and looks forward to using this opportunity to help spread enthusiasm for HSCT science and education in the haematology trainee community.
Alessandro Di Gangi
Paediatrics resident, University of Pisa, Italy - @digangiale92
Alessandro obtained his medical degree in 2017 from the University of Pisa and he concluded his honour student programme in medical sciences at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in December 2018. He started a volunteer internship in 2016 at the paediatric haematology-oncology service in Pisa where he discovered the fascinating world of bone marrow transplantation and found his mentors. Besides his residency, he is completing an institutional training programme for the FACT-JACIE accreditation. His scientific interest is oriented on haematopoietic stem cell transplantation with a particular focus on conditioning regimens, infections, donor selection, early complications, long-term follow up of BMT patients and innovative cellular therapies. He was pleased to attend EBMT 2018 in Lisbon with a poster on donor selection in paediatric BMT, and he is the author or the co-author of other works presented at ASCO 2018 and EHA 2018. He is currently working to obtain new research opportunities at his institution.
Alessandro is very excited to be an EBMT Young Ambassador. He thinks that EBMT YAs are holders of an important message: collaborations between young researchers may lead to unexpected and cutting-edge projects, therefore, we must take advantage of the existing cultural, background and economic differences in order to create a solid research network under the experienced guidance of senior EBMT members.
Kateryna Filonenko
Haematologist, Oncohaematology department, National Cancer Institute in Kiev, Ukraine - @KaterynaFilone1
Kateryna received her Medical Degree from the National Medical University. Her residency in oncology and haematology passed in the department of Oncohaematology in National Cancer Institute (NCI, Ukraine). At that moment the idea to start BMT program in NCI arose and was realised in 2016 with her active participation. The scientific and practical interests include treatment of aggressive and highly aggressive Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas, as well as Multiple Myeloma.
Sagar S Patel
Department of Haematology & Oncology and Department of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, USA - @sagarpatel
Sagar received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota. He then completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota, where he became interested in bone marrow transplantation. Sagar subsequently did his Haematology and Medical Oncology fellowship training at the Cleveland Clinic, where he developed a clinical and translational research background in allogeneic transplantation for acute leukemia as well as graft-versus-host-disease. To further build upon his clinical exposure and research endeavors, he is currently an advanced fellow in the Cleveland Clinic’s Blood and Marrow Transplant/Experimental Haematology program.
Dimitrios Protogiros
Oncology nurse, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece - @buyurdelli
Dimitrios is a specialised oncology nurse with both a clinical and research background who has experience in supportive and palliative cancer care of adult patients (with solid tumours and haematological malignancies) and their families. He currently works as a nurse researcher at the Development and Improvement of Nursing Care Delivery Systems Laboratory, at the Nursing Department of the School of Health Sciences of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Dimitrios holds an MSc in Oncology Nursing and Palliative Care and is actively involved in the education of undergraduate nursing students. He is a Board Member of the Greek Nursing Studies Association and has been accepted in the European Cancer Leagues Youth Ambassador programme, as the Youth Ambassador representing Greece to promote the European Code Against Cancer. Moreover, Dimitrios is member of the Advocacy Working Group and the Young Cancer Nurses Group of the European Oncology Nursing Society.
Dimitrios has a great in problems and needs experienced by the haematology patients and their caregivers, and wants to expand his knowledge and to improve his skills on how clinicians could improve the quality of life and to empower the patients to achieve better health care outcomes. Thus, he strongly believes that his participation to the EBMT Annual Meeting 2019 would enable him to learn the recent gold standards in care of transplant haematological patients, to build network with distinguished professionals and leaders in the field and to collaborate more with them across Europe.
Zhemal Rakhmanova
2nd year resident, R.M. Gorbacheva Memorial Institute of Children Hematology and Transplantation, St. Petersburg, Russia - @ZhemalR
Zhemal had plunged into the exciting world of haematology in scientific student’s society when she was only a 3rd-year medical student. As a student, Zhemal was mainly focused on solid oncology, and her first research was dedicated to high-risk neuroblastoma and Ewing sarcoma. In medical residency, she was assigned to the bone marrow transplantation unit for children with hematological malignancies, and since then Zhemal has realised she wanted to develop her knowledge and skills in this field in order to help people and possibly contribute to future research.
Sylvia (Shuk-Yin) Tsang
Registered Nurse, Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia - @tsyx
Sylvia obtained her Master of Nursing Science with The University of Melbourne in 2014 and completed her graduate year with a rotation in the Medical Oncology/Haematology Unit at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. She has developed a strong interest in the biology of cancer through her studies and has continued her passion to pursue a nursing career in the field of haematology and bone marrow transplantation. She is currently undertaking a postgraduate study in cancer nursing and is involved in the CAR-T cell therapy working group within the hospital’s Integrated Haematology Service. She is interested in the nursing management of allogeneic and haploidentical stem cell transplantation, graft-versus-host disease, and CAR-T cell therapy and associated toxicities. Outside her nursing profession, Sylvia is a pianist and is enthusiastic about gourmet and photography. She is very excited to be part of the Young Ambassador Program and is looking forward to meeting everyone and sharing her experience at the #EBMT19 Annual Meeting in Frankfurt.
Sabine Valenta
3rd year PhD Student and Research Assistant at the Institute of Nursing Science (INS), Department of Public Health, University Basel, Switzerland & Professional Nurse at the Department of Haematology, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland - @SabineValenta
Sabine has worked in the field of haematology since her graduation as a professional nurse from the Hanover Medical School (Germany) in 2009. Working in different inpatient and outpatient haematological settings at the University Hospital Freiburg (Germany) and Basel (Switzerland), she deepened her knowledge regarding therapy and care for stem cell transplanted patients. Additionally, within a development volunteer service in Pretoria (South Africa) from 2010-2011, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), she gained experience in the care of HIV/Aids patients. Immediately after returning back from this stay abroad, Sabine studied nursing sciences, received her Master of Science in Nursing (MScN) in 2015, and subsequently started with her doctoral studies at the Institute of Nursing Science, Department of Public Health, University of Basel. Driven by a strong belief that innovations in the field of stem cell transplantation are only possible through a synergistic interplay between the clinical frontline, research, education and training, Sabine is currently combining her clinical profession and academic life as a young researcher in the field of nursing science/public health and as a professional nurse at the Department of Haematology, University Hospital Basel. Currently, her research focuses on first, testing a pain self-management intervention for cancer outpatients and their family caregivers and second, the development, implementation and testing of a new model of care, facilitated by eHealth in the continuum of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, the SMILe project.
Sabine is looking forward to this great opportunity to attend the EBMT Annual Meeting and to be one of the EBMT Young Ambassadors 2019, as well as sharing interdisciplinary knowledge and novelties in the field of haematology and BMT.