Dr. Issa is a clinical and translational researcher in the Departments of Leukemia and Genomic Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. His research focuses on the genetic drivers of leukemia to identify therapeutic vulnerabilities, elucidate mechanisms of disease progression and treatment resistance, and develop safe and effective targeted therapies. His clinical research is centered on menin inhibitors, a novel class of targeted therapies for acute leukemia. As Principal Investigator of numerous investigator-initiated studies and multi-institutional clinical trials, he has helped advance the clinical development of menin inhibitors, contributing to the FDA approvals of revumenib and ziftomenib. At MD Anderson, he leads a precision medicine program for acute leukemias susceptible to menin inhibition, with a focus on biomarker discovery, measurable residual disease (MRD) assays, mechanisms of resistance, and rational combination therapies. Dr. Issa has authored publications in leading journals, including Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, Cell, Journal of Clinical Oncology, The Lancet Oncology, and Blood. His work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the ASCO Young Investigator Award, the TRTH Award from ASH and EHA, the Paul Calabresi K12 Award, the MD Anderson Faculty Scholar Award, and the Andrew Sabin Award.

Thierry Peyrard, PharmD, PhD, European Specialist in Laboratory Medicine, has 30 years of experience in the field of transfusion medicine and blood banking. Until 2024, he served as Director of the National Reference Department of Immunohaematology and Rare Blood, at the French Blood Establishment (EFS) in Paris, France. He is currently the Responsible Person of the French Blood Establishment, in charge at a national level for the quality and safety of blood products, and National Director of Medical Affairs and Research. He is a research director in a state-run scientific institution (UMR_S1134 BIGR), involving the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, University of Paris City & University of Antilles, and EFS, in a team whose main focus are the characterisation of new blood group systems/antigens and immunological safety of blood transfusion in patients with sickle cell disease. He authored/co-authored 100 peer-reviewed publications, and actively contributed to the discovery of 10 blood group systems and 15 red cell antigens. He is a member of the French National Academy of Pharmacy, representing the fields of immunohaematology and blood transfusion. He is the Vice-Chair of the ISBT Working Party on Rare Donors, and Past-Chair of the ISBT Working Party on Immunohaematology. Thierry Peyrard is Associate Editor of Transfusion, the official Journal of the AABB, and the 2025 AABB Sally Frank Award recipient.

Dr. Hanny Al-Samkari is the Peggy S. Blitz Endowed Chair in Hematology/Oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is a classical hematologist and NIH-funded clinical investigator and clinical trialist. He also serves as Co-Director the MGH Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) Center of Excellence. His clinical and research interests are in hemostasis, thrombosis and hemolysis, with focuses in HHT, immune thrombocytopenia, and hemolytic anemias. As a clinical investigator, Dr. Al-Samkari is an internationally recognized expert in the clinical development of novel therapeutics for these disorders and serves as the lead principal investigator for multiple ongoing clinical trials. He is the emeritus Executive Editor of Hematology: The ASH Education Program, an American Society of Hematology peer-reviewed publication, and a current Associate Editor of the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, the flagship journal of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed manuscripts. His original research has been featured in The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine and Blood, among other top peer-reviewed journals in hematology and medicine.

Alison is an Operations Support Officer and Senior Scientist with the New Zealand Blood Service. She is also a member of ANZSBT Council.