Helen Moore is a laboratory based haematologist currently working at Waikato District Health Board. Helen studied medicine at the University of Sheffield, UK graduating in 1999 before deciding to see a bit of the world and moving to NZ in 2001 for what was originally a one year stay. Still there nearly 23 years later, Helen commenced her haematology training in 2004 in Christchurch and then moved to Wellington in 2008 to complete her training, gaining fellowship of both RCPA and RACP colleges in 2010. Following an 18-month fellowship based at the Haematological Malignancy Diagnostic Services (HMDS) in Leeds, UK honing her morphological skills, she returned to Hamilton, NZ in January 2013 to take up a position as the laboratory haematologist. Helen has been an examiner for RCPA haematology since 2018 and is a member of various College committees. Helen’s interests are in multicolour flow cytometry and its applications with a keen interest in morphology, haematological malignancies and teaching.

Marisa Westers (full name Theresia Maria Westers) graduated in Clinical Chemistry -specialization Hematology- in Groningen, The Netherlands, in 1989. She started working as a laboratory technician at the Central Laboratory for Blood Transfusion, nowadays Sanquin, Amsterdam) with a focus on flow cytometry and molecular diagnostics in haematological malignancies. Since 1998, she has worked at the department of Hematology of the Amsterdam UMC, location VU University Medical Centre, Cancer Centre Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Next to flow cytometry diagnostics, she was involved in research projects concerning T cell subsets in Multiple Sclerosis and immunotherapy in myeloid leukemia. In 2005, she finished her PhD on the subject of ‘Dendritic cell-based immunotherapy in myeloid leukemia´ under supervision of prof.dr. G.J. Ossenkoppele and prof.dr. A.A. van de Loosdrecht. After finishing her PhD, she continued working at the department of Hematology of the Amsterdam UMC, location VU University Medical Centre, Cancer Centre Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Here, she coordinates flow cytometry diagnostics in haematological neoplasms. Her current research subject is MDS diagnostics, risk stratification and immunopathogenesis. As senior scientist she coaches several PhD students. She is a member of the International/European LeukemiaNet Working Party on MDS Flow Cytometry (iELN-MDSFlow, ≥2008) and the I4MDS working group of EHA (≥2023). She actively participates in education regarding flow cytometry for in-house colleagues, in university curricula and an outreach program. Next to that, she is a speaker on MDS-flow cytometry-related subjects in (inter)national settings such as lectures on scientific findings and MDS-related flow cytometry courses e.g. for the Dutch Society of Cytometry and the ESCCA Prague School of Flow Cytometry.

Paul Mead is a Principal Scientist and Director of the Translational Immunopathology laboratory in the Department of Pathology at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The Translational Immunopathology laboratory is responsible for developing new flow cytometry assays for the Clinical Immunopathology laboratory, where Dr Mead also serves as Technical Director, and to develop and conduct flow assays to support research aims for St Jude-led clinical trials. The Translational Immunopathology laboratory also supports St Jude’s Global Pathology and Laboratory Medicine’s mission to provide training and assay development for pediatric hematopathologists and clinical flow labs in resource-limited settings across the globe. Dr Mead received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biochemistry from Massey University, New Zealand and post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Hematology/Oncology, Children’s Hospital, Boston. As an independent, NIH-funded investigator in the Department of Pathology, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Dr Mead’s research interests focused on the development of the hematopoietic system during early embryonic development. For more than a decade, Dr Mead has been the Director of the Translational Immunopathology laboratory where his research interests have focused on immunophenotyping and minimal residual disease detection of pediatric hematopoietic malignancies. Most recently, these efforts have been directed towards developing high-parameter spectral flow cytometry panels for diagnosis and treatment follow-up of pediatric leukemias in the clinical laboratory setting.