Biographies of the editorial board of Hématologie

Ali Bazarbachi

Ali Bazarbachi, MD, PhD is a Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Oncology), Professor of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences, and Founding Director of the bone marrow transplantation program at the American University of Beirut-Medical Center. He received his MD and PhD degrees, residency and fellowship training at the University of Paris in France. Dr. Ali Bazarbachi’s basic and translational research focuses on targeted therapies for hematological malignancies as well as post-transplant pharmacological interventions. He has co-authored more than 360 articles in leading scientific journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Journal of Experimental Medicine, The Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blood, Nature Communication, and Cancer Research. He is a cofounder of the International Academy for Clinical Hematology, the Chairman of the EMBMT Leukemia Working Party, Chairman of the NCCN Lymphoma Group for Middle East and North Africa, past President of the Lebanese Society of Hematology, past President of the International Association for Comparative Research on Leukemia and Related Disorders, and Associate Editor of “Bone Marrow Transplantation” and of “Clinical Hematology International”. He garnered multiple prestigious national and international awards including the 2008 award of the French National Academy of Medicine, the 2022 King Hussein Lifetime Achievement Award for Cancer Research, and the Lebanese National Medal of Merit.

Olivier Bernard

Olivier Bernard heads the Inserm/Paris Saclay/Institut Gustave Roussy research unit “Molecular Dynamics of Hematological Transformation”. He is an Inserm research director, and has directed four research units between 2002 and today: “Genetics of human malignant tumours” (Inserm E0210, 2002-2009), “Tumour genetics” (Inserm/Paris Saclay/IGR U985, 2010-2014) and “Normal and malignant haematopoiesis” (Inserm/Paris Saclay/IGR U1170).
Olivier Bernard has spent his entire career in the field of translational research, between clinical and fundamental haematology. His professional activity started in a cytogenetic laboratory working on haematological malignancies. His group was involved in the characterisation of several chromosomal translocations in various malignant subtypes, including t(12;21)(p12;q21) which is observed in a large proportion of patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. He also described and analysed the genes encoding the JAK2 and TET2 proteins in haematological malignancies and the consequences of their mutations on haematopoiesis. This collaborative work was pioneering and showed that TET2 is inactivated by somatic mutations in a wide range of human haematological malignancies, resulting in a pre-tumour phase now described as 'clonal haematopoiesis'. Understanding and modelling the contribution of TET2 mutations in the multi-step processes of hematopoietic transformation in humans has generated new biological and medical concepts that can be extended to other human tumour diseases. These results have led Olivier Bernard to work on many aspects of cell biology, from signalling to transcriptional regulation and epigenetics. The recent work of Olivier Bernard's group focuses on lymphoproliferative diseases and lymphomas. Starting with simple cloning and gene identification, he has developed functional analyses and disease modelling in mice. Throughout these years, Olivier Bernard has conducted cutting-edge research: he is co-author of more than 150 publications on PubMed (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0463-9747).

Françoise Bernaudin

Françoise Bernaudin, MD, is board-certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology and is the former Head of the Sickle Cell Reference Center at CHIC Hospital, Creteil, France. Dr Bernaudin research expertise include the epidemiology and treatment of cerebral vasculopathy in SCD and the role of hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) in the management of this disease. She has presented the French results of HSCT for SCD in plenary session at ASH meeting in 2002 and participated in the ASH Guideline Panel for the guidelines on stem cell transplantation for SCD (2016-2020). She is the principal investigator on a prospective French national study comparing early matched-sibling stem cell transplantation to standard-care in patients with abnormal velocities on Transcranial Doppler (“DrepaGreffe” ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT 01340404 and NCT 05053932). The results of this trial at 1 and 3 years have been presented in presidential session at 2018 EBMT meeting and published in JAMA 2019. A new assessment is still ongoing. Dr Bernaudin is a member of several international societies (ASH, SFH, SFGM-TC, EBMT). She is the President of the association “DrepaGreffe” created in 2016 in order to promote hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with sickle cell disease. Dr Bernaudin as authored or co-authored 129 articles in international peer-reviewed journals with 13,071 citations and an H-index of 52.

Thomas Cluzeau

Thomas Cluzeau, M.D., Ph.D. is head of hematology department in Nice University Hospital, member of Cote d’Azur University. His topics are clinical research and translational research on acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). He is member of scientific committee of French Group of Myelodysplasia (GFM), Acute Leukemia French Association (ALFA) and Research Group in Adult ALL (GRAALL). He is member of research team INSERM U1065 in Mediterranean Center of Molecular Medecine. He is coordinating several clinical trials with GFM and ALFA. He is reviewer for several reviews, like Journal of clinical Oncology et Leukemia. Professor Thomas Cluzeau wrote or co wrote more than 104 articles in international reviews, with 4714 citations and H index at 34 (Web of science)

Yesim Dargaud

Yesim Dargaud, MD, PhD is a professor of medicine at the University of Lyon. She is the head of the Clinical Haemostasis Unit in Lyon University Hospitals and the coordinator of the French reference centre for haemophilia.

Dr Dargaud worked for several years with Professor Claude Negrier and received further training with Professor Hemker at the University of Maastricht and with Professors Monroe and Hoffman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on thrombin generation. She is currently an active member of the French Society of Haematology, European Association of Haemophilia and Associated Disorders, American Society of Hematology, International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Dr Dargaud’s research interests include hemophilia, other inherited bleeding disorders and in particular hemophilia with inhibitors. She is author of more than 100 publications in the field of haemostasis and she serves as a reviewer for several haematology journals. Dr Dargaud is a frequent lecturer at haematology congresses around the globe.

Hervé Dombret

Hervé Dombret, M.D., is the former Head of the Clinical Leukemia Unit at the Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France. He is now the Director of the Saint-Louis University Research Institute, Université Paris Cité. Professor Dombret’s areas of scientific interest include clinical and translational research into acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). He is Past-President of the Group for Research on Adult ALL (GRAALL), President of the Acute Leukemia French Association (ALFA), and the Cooperative Intergroup for Advances in Leukemia (CIGAL) at the French National Cancer Institute, as well as being a member of many international haematology societies. He also the Chair the European School of Haematology (ESH), Chair of the National Center for Precision Medicine in Leukemia (IHU-B THEMA), and Chair of the Institut Carnot OPALE (the Organization for Partnerships in Leukemia), all these three being headquartered at Saint-Louis Research Institute. He serves as reviewer for many journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet and is Associate Editor for Blood since 2020. Professor Dombret has authored or co-authored more than 420 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, with 35,542 citations and an H-index of 94 (Web of Science).

Thierry Facon

Lille University Hospital, Lille, France and French Academy of Medicine, Paris, France

Thierry Facon, MD, is Professor of Haematology in the Department of Haematology, Lille University Hospital, Lille, France, a position he has held since 2000. He currently serves as President of the French Society of Hematology (2021-2025) and is a Member of the French Academy of Medicine (Académie Nationale de Médecine).

Professor Facon was President of the Intergroupe Francophone du Myélome (IFM) between 2003 and 2006 and has presented at several international congresses, including the Plenary session at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 2006, the Plenary sessions at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in 2013 and 2018, the Educational Session of European Haematology Association (EHA) in 2008 and 2014, and the Educational session of ASH in 2015 and 2018. He co-organized the XIIIth International Myeloma Workshop (IMW) in Paris in 2011, and is a member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the European Haematology Association (EHA), the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG), and the International Myeloma Society (IMS). He serves currently as Associate Editor of Leukemia, and is a founder member and administrator of the Fondation Française pour la Recherche contre le Myélome et les Gammapathies (FFRMG) under the aegis of the Fondation de France whose main objective is to enable scientists and students to carry out research programs in host laboratories in France or abroad. He is a co-organizer of the myeloma international COMY meeting and a member of the ESH board.

He has presented the “Pierre Stryckmans Memorial Lecture” of the Belgian Hematological Society in 2015 and received the Joseph Michaeli Award from Weill Cornell Medicine, New York USA for his contributions to the treatment of Myeloma Research in 2017. He is an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Hematology & Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, China since 2015 and received the Saint Antoine EBMT achievement Award in 2017. He received the Robert Kyle career achievement Award in 2020.

Professor Facon is author and co-author of a number of articles and has published his work in various prestigious international journals including, as first or senior author, The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine.

Mathilde Hunault

Mathilde Hunault is a professor of haematology and head of the blood diseases department at Angers Hospital.

She is in charge of the research axis “Malignant haemopathies and dysimmunities”, presented to the Haut Conseil de l'évaluation de la recherche et de l'enseignement supérieur 2023 by the University Hospital.

She is also responsible for the Grand Ouest Against Leukemia (GOAL) university hospital federation, which brings together the clinical and biological haematology departments of the university hospitals of Angers, Brest, Nantes, Poitiers, Rennes and Tours.

At the national level, she is vice-president of the French Society of Haematology and a member of the boards of directors and scientific councils of the cooperative groups Groupe for Research in Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (GRAAL) and French Innovative Leukemia Organization leucémies aiguës myéloïdes (FILO LAM).

His publications focus on acute myeloblastic and lymphoblastic leukaemia, in particular on the use of asparaginase.

Dominique Jaulmes

Dominique Jaulmes is a retired haemobiologist from the AP-HP. She was responsible for the transfusion clinic and other supportive care activities as well as palliative care (Saint-Antoine Hospital); and for a non-malignant haematology consultation (1984-2012 Pitié Salpêtrière, Louis Mourier and Saint Antoine Hospitals)

She has co-authored 60 articles and three books, and was editor-in-chief of the Gazette de la Transfusion.

Dominique Jaulmes has been a member of the SFH ethics commission since its creation in 2004 and has contributed to the various publications produced by the commission. She is a member of the Association pour la qualité de vie des soignants (A.Qua. Vie.S) and, since 1994, of the Association francophone pour les soins oncologiques de support (Afsos) and has participated in the drafting of guidelines.

She has been a member of the Association for the Development of Blood Transfusion (ADTS), of which she was president from 2005 to 2012, of the French Society of Blood Transfusion (SFTS) (1992-2018), of the French Society of Haematology (SFH), of the French Group of Myelodysplasias (GFM), as well as of the Red Blood Cell and Iron Club until now 2004- She is currently involved in the treatment and support of patients with complications of Sars-Cov-2 or "vaccine" injections.

Kamel Laribi

Dr Kamel Laribi, Hospital physician, is the head of the department of Hematology at Le Mans Hospital, France. He was trained at the University of Medicine of Algiers (Algeria), and graduated as a specialist in hematology from the Faculty of Medicine Paris V, France. He was Chairman of teaching Committee of Le Mans hospital between 2009 and 2013.

He is member of the scientific committee of “FILO “(French Innovative Leukemia Group) involved in acute leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia, including more than 100 centers in France and Belgium.

He is a member of the board of directors of the French society of Hematology and member of the LYSA, IFM, FIM, and GFM groups.He is also the coordinator of the national TPLL register.

He was the principal investigator of biological and clinical trials in more than three hundred hematology malignancies and the national coordinatorfor seven phases II/III trials in CLL and NHL.

Kamel Laribi is connected to several very active patient associations and charities: Laurette Fugain, SiLLC, France leucémie espoir, France leucémie famille, AF3M, France lymphoma espoir, ligue contre le cancer, Waldenström France.

He is an author of over 150 research articles, books and book chapters, and first author of twenty-one publications referenced in Pubmed. He is also reviewer for several journals (Lancet Oncology, BJH, annals of oncology, Blood advances, Cancers…)

Xavier Leleu

Xavier Leleu is Professor, Head of the Myeloma Clinic and Head of the Department of Hematology at Hôpital La Mileterie. He collaborates closely with the Immunology fundamental lab U Inserm 1313, and heads the Thor axis early phase clinical research team at CIC U Inserm 1082. part of the academic hospital of Poitiers (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire), Poitiers, France.

Professor Leleu received his medical degree at the University of Bordeaux, France. He completed his specialisation in public healthcare and statistics at the University of Medicine of Paris, France and in haematology at the University of Medicine of Lille. Professor Leleu was the head of the Myeloma Clinic in Lille under Professor T Facon’s mentorship for almost 15 years. He received a Master’s degree in cellular biology at the University of Medicine of Lille in 2001 and completed his PhD in 2007, having studied at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. His main topic of research was the preclinical development of novel agents and understanding mechanisms of resistance and of dormancy in Waldenström macroglobulinaemia and the clinical development of novel agents in multiple myeloma in the context of the most recent discoveries in the biology of myeloma. He was trained with his mentors Dr IM Ghobrial and Dr SP Treon in Prof. Kenneth Anderson’s laboratory.

Pr Leleu is a member of the board of director of the IFM (Intergroupe Francophone of Multiple Myeloma). Professor Leleu’s current research is focused on treatment methods in multiple myeloma, incorporating emerging immunology and immunotherapy approaches to shift the future treatment paradigm to improve patient outcomes. Professor Leleu maintains a special interest in research relating to cure within the multiple myeloma field.

Mohamad Mohty

Pr Mohamad Mohty is a full Professor of Hematology and head of the Hematology and Cellular Therapy Department at the Saint-Antoine Hospital and Sorbonne University in Paris, France. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Montpellier, France, and PhD from the University of Marseille, France. He is also head of a translational research team (Inserm) at the Saint-Antoine Research Centre in Paris.

Pr Mohty is the past president of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), and the current chairman of the Acute Leukemia Working Party of the EBMT. He is also the founder and chairman of the International Academy for Clinical Hematology (IACH) and board member of the EBMT and the Intergroupe Francophone du Myelome (IFM).

In addition to publishing more than 900 peer-reviewed articles in the field of stem cell transplantation, leukemia, and myeloma, Pr Mohty also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journals Bone Marrow Transplantation and Clinical Hematology International. He also serves as an editor, board member, and/or reviewer across numerous other reputable journals.

Henri Rochant

Henri Rochant is a doctor of medicine and professor of first class at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. He has held the positions of head of clinic (1965-1970), professor of haematology and head of the haematology department at Henri Mondor Hospital (1980-1998). He was a member of the cancer think tank at the Ministry of Health (1982), the French Bone Marrow Transplant Group and the French Bone Marrow Transplant Society (1983-1989), the Advisory Commission on Blood Transfusion at the Ministry of Social Affairs (1984-1986) and the French Intergroup Myeloproliferative Syndromes (1993). He was president of the French Society of Haematology from 1990 to 1993, and was a member of its ethics committee from 1989 to 1991. He has been a member of the AP-HP's committee for the evaluation of technological innovations since 1987, and of the haematology qualification commission of the National Council of the Order of Physicians since 1992.

Professor Rochant has published numerous articles in leading French and international journals: British Journal of Haematology, Blood, Hematologica, Leukemia, Blood Cells, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Hématologie, Vox Sanguinis, Annales de Biologie Clinique, La Presse Médicale, etc.

Catherine Roche-Lestienne

Catherine Roche-Lestienne is a full professor and head of the Genetic Medical Institute at the Jeanne de Flandre Hospital of the University Hospital in Lille (France). She mainly carries out her hospital activity as biologist in the field of cytogenetics in pediatric and adult onco-hematology for the north region of France. At the same time, the evolution of her academic functions and hospital responsibilities since 2019 has led her to support and strengthen activities in prenatal and postnatal constitutional genetics in the field of intellectual disability and developmental anomalies. The cytogenetic et genetic expertises of the Medical Genetics Institute are national, recognized as a reference laboratory (LBMR) and linked to National Reference Centers and competence networks.

Member of the UMR Canther - UMR 9020 CNRS - UMR 1277, her research activities are mainly focused on genetic alterations in tumor developpement in haematology diseases and therapy resistance, particularly in the chronic myeloid leukemia model. She is a member of the ACLF, the scientific committee of Force Hémato and the national group Fi-LMC of which she was vice-president in charge of biological research from 2019 to 2022. Catherine Roche-Lestienne has authored or co-authored more than 70 scientific international publications including some very prestigious journals, with currently more than 4473 citations and an H-index of 33 (Google Scolar).

François Sigaux

François Sigaux is Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris City University. Since 1989 he has been a research professor in Hematology at the University of Paris-Diderot and a physician at the Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris. He directed an INSERM Mixed Unit from 1997 to 2004 and then the University Institute of Hematology (Paris VII, INSERM, CNRS, CEA until 2013) and was President of the French Society of Hematology from 1994 to 1996. He founded the journal “Hématologie” in 1994 and is its editor in chief. He has dedicated himself to postgraduate teaching in biology and has directed the Biology and Biotechnology Doctoral School from 2005 to 2013. He was head of the hematology department of the Hôpital Saint Louis in Paris until 2019. He has been involved in many scientific and administrative bodies and was notably President of commission at INSERM, President of the Cancéropôle Ile de France and Vice-President of the Curie Institute. In 2014, he became Director of Research and Innovation at the National Cancer Institute and Director of the Cancer Institute of the AVISAN Alliance. He was also Executive Scientific Director of Fundamental Research at the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission until 2019. His research activities are devoted to the understanding of oncogenesis of leukemias through molecular biology, genomics and bioinformatics approaches resulting in nearly 300 publications (Web of Science, h factor 60).

Jean Soulier

Jean Soulier trained as MD with a clinical specialization in malignant hematology in Paris hospitals and PhD in the leukemia oncogenesis field (Universities Paris Descartes and Paris Diderot). He then performed basic research as a post-doc on DNA damage response in yeast at the Crick Institute UK (former ICRF), and a second post-doc in human genomics at Curie Institute. He joined the Hematology medical lab as an assistant professor at Saint-Louis hospital in 2001, where he developed genomic tools for leukemia diagnosis and predisposing disorders. He had developed his own research team at the Institut de Recherche Saint-Louis in the field of leukemia oncogenesis, using integrated genomics on primary samples, functional studies and modelling in mice. He contributed to science through several research achievements such as the demonstration of the role of HHV8 in the lymphoma-like multicentric Castleman’s disease (1995), the role of HOXA or MYB genes in T-cell leukemia (2005), the use of xenograft to select leukemia relapse clone at diagnosis (2011), the genetic landscape of inherited bone marrow failure (2018), and the role p53 modulation in the pathophysiology and clonal evolution of Fanconi anemia (2012, 2023). He is currently studying the emergence of clonal cells and secondary leukemia in the context of a deficient hematopoiesis with inflammation, using several model conditions and settings in human and mice, including inherited bone marrow failure such as Fanconi anemia. He is author of more than 150 scientific papers, with a H factor 65 (WoS). He received many scientific prices and is invited in many scientific meetings and seminars.

He is a past ERC consolidator grant laureate (2013-2019), Editor of Blood (IF 25,47; 2014-2019) and director or the Translational Research Training in Hematology (TRTH) joint program from the American and European society of hematology (ASH). Currently Chair of the Bone marrow failure scientific committee of the American Society of Hematology (2014-), chef de service of the Saint-Louis Hematology Lab (2014-), director of the INSERM/CNRS U944/7212 unit (2019-), director for the GHU Nord of the INCa platform Oncomopath, member of the SeqOIA scientific committee (2019-), scientific director of the current THEMA IHUB program, elected member of the University Paris-Cité Scientific board since the fusion of the University in 2019, and co-chair of the Graduate School Innovative Therapies in Cancerology (ANR program Ecoles universitaires de recherche; https://u-paris.fr/graduate-schools/innovative-therapies-cancerology).

Xavier Troussard

Xavier Troussard is Professor Emeritus in Haematology. His field of expertise is chronic lymphoproliferative syndromes, including chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and Hairy Cell Leukaemia. He has 339 publications indexed on PubMed, and is involved in numerous clinical trials and biological research on these diseases. He is the scientific director of the Basse Normandie haematological malignancy registry, which has been accredited for many years, and is interested in the epidemiology of haematological malignancies. He is the author of numerous general reviews on chronic haematological malignancies and has also been involved in the development of the journal Hématologie for many years.