Scientific Program to Present Sessions on Cutting-Edge Topics, Research Advances

The 66th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition will feature a diverse pool of speakers with various interests and expertise in the study and treatment of hematologic disorders.

ASH Clinical News recently interviewed the 2024 annual meeting’s Scientific Program Co-Chairs Jennifer Trowbridge, PhD, research associate professor at Tufts University in Boston, and Sant-Rayn Pasricha, MD, PhD, acting deputy director at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia, for a preview of the meeting.

 
Jennifer Trowbridge, PhD    Sant-Rayn Pasricha, MD, PhD

As co-chairs of the Scientific Program, what were your primary goals in designing the program?

Dr. Trowbridge: The primary goal in designing the program is to feature innovative and impactful science at ASH — basic science and translational science. The content throughout the ASH annual meeting should interest and excite each of our hematology communities, whether PhDs, MDs, MDs/PhDs, or trainees, in our broad scientific disciplines.

Dr. Pasricha: We also wanted to ensure that the program represented the exciting science being done by scientists worldwide and showcased the work of highly established and emerging leaders. We especially sought to ensure that science was cutting edge, using some of the most exciting new techniques. Finally, you will see that our speakers represent the diversity of our hematology community and provide role models for younger scientists and clinicians seeking to find their place in our wonderful specialty.

Can you speak about your planning process and how you collaborated to design the program?

Dr. Trowbridge: The planning process is highly collaborative and is a labor of love that starts with our exceptional ASH scientific committees. These volunteers represent various disciplines and scientific focus areas in hematology. They are selected to serve on these committees to bring their best ideas for delivering innovative and impactful content at the ASH annual meeting.

Dr. Pasricha: Jen and I recognized that the scientific committee chairs and their members include some of the brightest minds in each subfield. As such, they are best positioned to identify the most exciting speakers and develop the most interesting sessions. So, to that extent, we aimed to empower them to build their sessions along the lines of their passion. We noticed that, sometimes, great minds think alike, and we saw some overlap between proposals. In those cases, we tried to curate, combine, or otherwise ensure sessions were distinct.

How does this year’s program differ from that of past annual meetings?

Dr. Trowbridge: While the program differs in its content offerings each year, it continues to foster new collaborations among the ASH scientific committees.

Dr. Pasricha: Like every year, ASH will be a smorgasbord of exciting scientific offerings. In the classical space, I’m excited to learn more about the crosstalk between iron and metabolism, the biology of hemostasis and how it folds into emerging anticoagulation therapies that are reaching the clinic, and new insights into ineffective erythropoiesis. I’m also excited to hear from various sessions that apply cutting-edge techniques — particularly -omic ­platforms, including single-cell and spatial techniques and artificial intelligence.

What can attendees expect to learn?

Dr. Trowbridge: I think the more pertinent question is whether there is anything you cannot learn at ASH. It is our once-a-year opportunity to have current, past, and future leaders in our field reflect on the year’s scientific and clinical successes and, in some cases, failures. New directions and collaborative opportunities can inspire attendees, and the sessions make it possible to go deep into a domain area of focus and hear about advances outside one’s domain area.

Dr. Pasricha: I’m always amazed by the breadth and depth of the offerings at ASH, and this year will be no different. Sometimes I’m between sessions I’d noted down, and I sneak into the back of a ­session I know little about, and I always learn something new that might be useful for my research or clinical practice. So, plan, but also try to attend a session or two you might not have planned to participate in!

What sessions do you want to attend?

Dr. Trowbridge: I look forward to attending the plenary scientific sessions and award lectures. I am thrilled about one session chaired by Dr. Pasricha and myself this year, “Race and Ancestry in Precision Medicine.” Historically, race and ancestry have been poorly considered in basic and translational research design and clinical diagnoses. In this session, three speakers spanning basic research through clinical practice will discuss how race and ancestry can inform how hematology research is conducted, specifically in clinical and genetic population profiling, interpretation of standard hematologic tests, development of diagnostics, and overall precision medicine.

In my scientific domain area, a breakthrough happened this year. Speaker Elizabeth Ng, MD, along with Andrew Elefanty, PhD, and the rest of their colleagues, has developed a methodology to generate transplantable hematopoietic stem cells from human-induced pluripotent stem cells without transcription factor overexpression. This results from more than 20 years of effort from their team and many other collaborators in this scientific community. We will feature their findings in a Scientific Spotlight session entitled “Fulfilling the Promise: Pluripotent Stem Cells as Models for Human Blood Development and Disease.”

Dr. Pasricha: As an iron biologist, I always try to get to the iron and erythropoiesis abstract, scientific, and education sessions. I’m also excited about the session on mechanisms of myeloid expansion in aging — what an important topic! This session will showcase innovative transcriptomic and functional genomic studies of the pathways that govern myeloid differentiation in response to aging, inflammation, and malignancy. I think we see the clinical consequences increasingly in practice.

What else would you like attendees to know about the program?

Dr. Trowbridge: This year’s conference has a lot of exciting content. I hope you’ll attend and bring your trainees and colleagues!

Dr. Pasricha: Each year we see an ever-exciting, ever-​broader ASH program with an ever-deeper set of techniques and methods and an ever-​expanding clinical impact presented by an ever-​more diverse and interesting cadre of scientists and clinicians. The future of hematology is in wonderful hands!