My ASH experience 2017
The American Society of Hematology annual conference (ASH) 2017 took place in Atlanta, Georgia. Thanks to a travel grant from the UKMF I was able to attend this meeting. I had visited ASH for the first time in 2016 in San Diego so I knew what to expect in terms of the huge size of this meeting with over 20,000 people attending, nonetheless I was as excited as I was the previous year. This time ASHallowed me to present my research focusing on mitochondrial transfer from the bone marrow microenvironment to multiple myeloma cells.
I arrived in Atlanta on the Thursday to very wintery conditions, Atlanta was experiencing its first snow fall in over 5 years. This disrupted the journeys of many ASH attendees, luckily my trip from London Heathrow was un-affected. I first attended the conference for the Friday scientific sessions. These were particularly enjoyable as leading scientists in the field, including the fields of stem cells and ageing, presented their research. I attended a vast majority of sessions over the Saturday, Sunday and Monday including oral and poster abstracts. The stand out theme in terms of multiple myeloma research and impact on the clinic was the CD38 monoclonal antibody Daratumumab. This drug in combination with conventional myeloma therapies, for example lenalidomide and bortezomib, has shown favorable prognostic outcomes and reduced immunosuppression. Away from multiple myeloma I attended numerous other sessions, the stand out oral presentation I attended was presented by Dr Yamashita from Columbia University, New York. In his presentation he showed that TNFα produced by inflammation protects hematopoietic stem cells from necrosis. This talk was presented exceptionally well and the data was of very high quality. The plenary scientific session was also a real highlight, in thisI heard about leading scientific discoveries in the field of hematology over the previous year.Research from Dr Alvarado, presenting heterodimerization of TPO and IFN impairs stem cell signaling, was very fascinating.
On the Monday of the conference I presented my research on mitochondrial transfer in multiple myeloma in oral presentation. Although this session was at 7am, it was well attended and I had lots of interest in my work. This experience was invaluable to my career development and ultimately allowed me to obtain a post-doctoral position after the completion of my PhD. I would like to thank the UKMF once again for the funding to allow me to attend this meeting, I look forward to presenting my research at the scientific workshop in March 2018.
Chris Marlein
PhD Student, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia.