Scientific Spotlight Sessions
Register by October 23, 2024, for the advance registration discount!
The Scientific Spotlight sessions are intended for a smaller audience and feature presentations focused on a specialized topic that is not currently being covered in the general ASH annual meeting program.
Unless otherwise noted, all sessions will take place in person and stream simultaneously on the virtual platform. Session recordings will be available on demand on the virtual platform.
Fulfilling the Promise: Pluripotent Stem Cells as Models for Human Blood Development and Disease
Monday, December 9, 2024, 2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
San Diego Convention Center, Room 31
(hPSCs) for transplantation and disease modeling has been a long-standing goal in the field. In recent years there has been tremendous progress in the field, and investigators have been able to define the developmental cues to direct mesodermal differentiation to definitive HSC fate rather than to embryonic yolk sac-type progenitors. These studies have been largely enabled by the advances in single-cell transcriptomic technologies, permitting comparison of in vitro HSC derivation to human HSCs developing in situ in the embryo. The ability to translate our better appreciation of HSC development in the human embryo into the development of in vitro differentiation protocols has resulted in the generation of multilineage engrafting HSCs (iHSCs) from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), a recent and significant advance in the field. In parallel, in recent years, a variety of hPSC models, mainly based on iPSC, have been developed for a variety of non-malignant and malignant blood diseases. These have been shown to recapitulate key disease features both in vitro and in vivo in xenograft assays and have empowered unprecedented interrogation into the pathogenesis and therapeutic targeting of hematologic diseases. Advances in these areas of research will be highlighted in this session.
Co-Chairs:
Elizabeth S. Ng, PhD
Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Eirini Papapetrou, MD,PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, NY
Speakers:
Elizabeth W. Ng, MD
Kansas City Cancer Center
Overland Park, KS
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Development from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
Eirini Papapetrou, MD,PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, NY
Modeling Blood Disorders Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
Biology Underlying Disparities in Lymphoid Malignancies
Sunday, December 8, 2024, 4:30 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.
Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, Pacific Ballroom Salons 18-19
Significant disparities in outcomes have been described for several lymphoma subtypes, most notably related to race and HIV status. Although socioeconomic factors often play a role, new approaches are needed to determine whether distinct pathogenic mechanisms underlie such disparities. The modern era has been marked by major advances in understanding lymphoma pathobiology, but populations affected by disparities are woefully under-represented in most of these pivotal studies. This session will highlight recent, innovative work dedicated to closing this knowledge gap and identifying molecular targets for improving outcomes in vulnerable populations.
Co-Chairs:
Christopher R. Flowers, MD, MS
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Wendy Cozen, DO, MPH
UCI, School of Medicine
Orange, CA
Speakers:
Christopher R. Flowers, MD, MS
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Tumor Sequencing to Investigate Disparities in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Wendy Cozen, DO, MPH
UCI, School of Medicine
Orange, CA
Tumor Microenvironment Profiling to Investigate Disparities in Hodgkin Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma
Inflammation as a Regulator of Hematopoietic Homeostasis in Disease and Clonal Selection
Sunday, December 8, 2024, 4:30 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.
San Diego Convention Center, Room 7
Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) are responsible for integrating inflammatory cues into cellular responses and establishing a demand-adapted axis between peripheral stresses and hematopoietic responses in the bone marrow. This session will describe how the pro-inflammatory environment/response and systemic inflammation act on and subsequently shape HSPC and hematopoietic homeostasis.
Co-Chairs:
Hitoshi Takizawa, PhD
Kumamoto University
Kumamoto City, Japan
Serine Avagyan, MD,PhD
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
Speakers:
Hitoshi Takizawa, PhD
Kumamoto University
Kumamoto, Japan
Inflammation As a Regulator of Hematopoietic Homeostasis in Disease
Serine Avagyan, MD,PhD
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
Inflammation As a Regulator of Hematopoietic Homeostasis in Clonal Selection
Iron at the Crossroads Between Erythropoiesis and Megakaryopoiesis
Monday, December 9, 2024, 2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
San Diego Convention Center, Room 30
Iron balance is critical for healthy and effective erythropoiesis and thrombopoiesis. All mammalian cells rely on iron and the erythropoietic compartment consumes especially high quantities of iron for hemoglobin synthesis. Effective crosstalk is essential for optimal red cell and platelet production. This session will discuss how heme and iron deficiency, excess, trafficking, and processing contribute to ineffective erythropoiesis and anemia and contribute to red cell and platelet production in JAK2 mutant myeloproliferative neoplasms.
Dr. Jan Abkowitz will present single cell transcriptomic and CITE-seq analyses of effective (normal) erythropoiesis and of the ineffective erythropoiesis seen in Diamond Blackfan anemia and MDS-5q. Most erythropoiesis takes place within erythroblastic islands (EBIs) comprised of a central macrophage (“nurse cell”) and 10-50 adjacent erythroid precursors. Dr. Abkowitz’s lab has recently isolated EBIs from human marrow and characterized their central macrophages at single cell resolution. She will describe how this cell normally functions as a safe and ecologically-efficient heme-iron recycler and how its dysfunction may contribute to MDS-5q anemia.
Dr. Radek Skoda will discuss the effects of iron availability on the phenotype of mouse models of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) driven by either JAK2-V617V or a N542-E543del mutation in JAK2 exon 12 (E12). While JAK2-V617F can manifest as polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET), or primary myelofibrosis, expression of E12 results in PV, often with pure erythrocytosis phenotype. At baseline, PV patients with JAK2-V617V and JAK2-V617V mouse models with PV phenotype display iron deficiency, while ET patients and mice with an ET-like phenotype have normal iron stores. Dr. Skoda will describe the effects of iron deficiency and iron overload on the iron-responsive progenitor stages that decide between erythroid and megakaryocytic lineage choices and compare the effects of orally administered ferroportin inhibitor vamifeport and the minihepcidin PR73 on hemoglobin and iron parameters in JAK2-V617F and E12 mutant mouse models.
Co-Chairs:
Janis L. Abkowitz, MD
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
Radek C. Skoda, MD
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX
Speakers:
Janis L. Abkowitz, MD
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
Role of Heme and Iron in Effective and Ineffective Erythropoiesis
Radek C. Skoda, MD
University Hospital Basel
Basel, Switzerland
Impact of Iron Availability on Megakaryopoiesis
Phylogenetic Reconstruction of Hematopoiesis
Monday, December 9, 2024, 10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
San Diego Convention Center, Room 7
Hematopoiesis is a complex and highly regulated process that has been increasingly understood through advances in genetics, epigenetics, and single-cell genomics technologies. Recent work has focused on increasingly nuanced and detailed phylogenies of hematopoietic cells in normal and aged individuals, and multidimensional understanding of phylogenetic trees of stem cells, progenitors, and mature progeny. Genomics, epigenetics, advanced computational analyses, large scale datasets, and single-cell approaches are all integral in this effort. This session will present some of the latest advances in the field and serve to educate the audience of how these may inform our understanding of physiological and pathological mechanisms in hematopoiesis.
Co-Chairs:
Jyoti Nangalia, MBBChir
Wellcome Sanger Institute
Hinxton, United Kingdom
Charles Gawad, MD
Stanford University
Memphis, TN
Speakers:
Jyoti Nangalia, MBBChir
Wellcome Sanger Institute
Hinxton, United Kingdom
Incorporating Genetic and Epigenetic Marks in Phylogenetic Reconstruction of Blood Cells
Charles Gawad, MD
Stanford University
Memphis, TN
Novel Single-Cell Genomics Technologies to Reconstruct Phylogenetics of Human Blood Cells
66th ASH Annual Meeting and exposition
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