Dr. Abhijat Kitchlu completed medical school at Western University and internal medicine and nephrology training at the University of Toronto. He is currently a Staff Nephrologist, Clinician Investigator, and Director of the Onco-nephrology Program at the University Health Network in Toronto. He is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His research and clinical interests include onco-nephrology (co-existing cancer and kidney disease), with a specific focus on toxicities of cancer therapies and cancer treatment options in the setting of chronic kidney disease. He also has an interest and expertise in using population-level healthcare administrative data for clinical research.

Dr. Yi Lin is a professor of medicine with joint appointment in the Division of Hematology and Experimental Pathology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Her practice is in lymphoma and myeloma. She has an NIH-funded laboratory and clinical research program in biomarkers and immunotherapy. She is the PI and co-PI of multiple clinical trials testing novel dendritic cell vaccine combination immunotherapy and CAR-T therapy. She is the medical director for the Immune Effector Cell Program at Mayo Clinic, Rochester. As the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center Enterprise Leader of Cancer Regenerative Biotherapeutics, she also oversees the cancer cell therapy clinical research portfolio and practice across all three Mayo sites in Minnesota, Arizona, and Florida. She also co-chairs the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) Novel Immunotherapy Steering Committee and co-chairs the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Myeloma Cancer Immunotherapy Guideline Subcommittee.

Dr. Sita Bhella completed her medical school training at University of Western Ontario. She completed internal medicine and hematology residency at the University of Toronto, and then went on to do a Leukemia and Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplant Fellowship at Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto.

She completed a Master’s in Education, with a focus in Health Professionals Education, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Dr. Bhella has a strong interest in quality improvement and innovation and has completed several courses in the area such as the Excellence in Quality Improvement Certificate Program (EQUIP), Advancing Safety for Patients in Residency Education (ASPIRE) and the IDEAS Foundations of Quality Improvement Certificate.

From 2015-2019, Dr. Bhella was an assistant professor at Queen’s University, where she was the Autologous Stem Cell Transplant Medical Director. She was engaged and involved in medical education as well as quality improvement in the complex malignant hematology program. During her time there, she developed a Day +100 transfer program for Allogeneic stem cell transplantation and a Day+1 transfer program for autologous stem cell transplantation with Lakeridge Hospital.

Dr. Bhella joined Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in 2019, as an assistant professor and a clinician in quality improvement and innovation. Dr. Bhella has an interest in malignant hematology, particularly lymphoma, myeloma, autologous stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy. She is Quality Lead of the Autologous Stem Cell Transplant Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and is engaged and involved in the development of CAR T-cell therapy program, particularly the long term survivorship program.

Dr. Christine Chen is the Medical Director of the Autologous Stem Cell Transplant Program and the Clinical Cell Therapy Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PM), University Health Network (UHN), in Toronto, Canada. She is appointed Associate Professor at the University of Toronto (U of T) as a member of the clinical research group for Multiple Myeloma and related mature B-cell disorders, including Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (WM). PM is Canada’s largest tertiary care center for cancer, performing over 300 autologous stem cell transplants and seeing over 400 new referrals for Myeloma yearly. Dr. Chen led the implementation of standard-of-care CAR T-cell therapy at PM and oversaw the clinical care of over 50 CAR T patients per year. As a clinical investigator, Dr. Chen’s research interests are in the development of novel approaches for Myeloma, WM and CLL.

Dr. Chen underwent her internal medicine training at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and hematology residency training at McMaster University in Hamilton. After completing a transplant clinical research fellowship at PM, she joined the Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology. She obtained her Master’s in Education from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (U of T). Therefore, she takes an active role in medical education and has previously acted as the U of T Hematology Training Program Director and the Myeloma Fellowship Director.

Dr Victoria Hall (MBBS MPH) is a Transplant Infectious Diseases clinician-investigator co-appointed at UHN and the University of Toronto. Having attended medical school at the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, she completed her Infectious Diseases training in Australia in 2019. Then she joined as a Transplant ID clinical fellow at UHN from 2020-2021. During her fellowship, supervised by Professors Deepali Kumar and Atul Humar, she helped to lead highly impactful clinical and translational COVID-19 vaccine and infection studies in organ transplant recipients. This formative experience inspired further study – from 2022- 2024, she has been working at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne, as a clinician-researcher and pursuing a PhD in the burden, host immune response and prevention strategies of respiratory viral infections in patients with hematological malignancies. She hopes to expand and build on this experience and knowledge in her role, focusing on respiratory virus infection and prevention in the immunocompromised host.

Rina Jeong is a recent graduate of the MN-NP program at Toronto Metropolitan University, having joined as a Nurse Practitioner in the Autologous Stem Cell Transplant and IEC Therapy Program at PMH in October 2023. Previously, Rina worked in Combined Surgical Oncology at Toronto General Hospital.

Dr. Vishal Kukreti is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. He has been a staff physician at Princess Margaret Hospital since 2005 with a clinical focus on both Multiple Myeloma and Lymphoma. His research interests are in Quality of Care and Patient Safety within the fields of Hematology and Oncology with a focus on quality and medication safety.

I am a clinical associate at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Before coming to Toronto, I obtained my M.D. at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and my M.Sc. in Clinical Trials with distinction at University College London in the UK. I completed my Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine and my Fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology at Mount Sinai. I was involved in research throughout my training, receiving the Mount Sinai Summer Research Scholars Award in medical school, the SOHO Young Investigator Travel Award in residency, and obtaining funding for two investigator-initiated studies during my fellowship. My research has focused on optimizing the efficacy and safety of novel therapies in multiple myeloma, with a particular interest in immunotherapies. I am involved in developing multiple myeloma clinical trials through Princess Margaret and the Canadian Myeloma Research Group.

Zubaida Mohamed is a malignant hematology Nurse Practitioner working in the lymphoma, myeloma, autologous stem cell transplant, and immune effector cell therapy programs. She delivers comprehensive care to patients undergoing complex treatments in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She actively participates in program development and quality improvement initiatives. She is a passionate educator, leading the development of virtual educational resources for patients, instructing nursing students in the baccalaureate program, participating in research on nursing education as well as creating educational content for CAN-SIM (Canadian Alliance of Nurse Educators using Simulation). Her philosophy and practice are rooted in an anti-oppressive and trauma-informed framework that seeks to understand and address health inequities.

Dr. Muharib was born and raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She obtained her medical degree at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She later completed her residency in Internal medicine and Hematology at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, where she was also the Chief Hematology fellow. She is currently a clinical fellow in Lymphoma-Myeloma transplant at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Reece is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Director of the Myeloma Clinical Trials Program in the Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre/University of Toronto. She held the inaugural Molly and David Bloom Chair in Multiple Myeloma Research from 2009-2023 and is also past Chair of the Multiple Myeloma Subcommittee of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) and Co-Chair of the Myeloma Working Committee at the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). Her research focus has been on stem cell transplantation and plasma cell disorders and she has published over 275 papers. Previously, she served on the Board of Directors of the International Myeloma Society and Myeloma Canada. She spearheaded the development of the Canadian Myeloma Research Group (CMRG) and is currently the Chief Medical Officer as well as a member of the Board of Directors of this organization. CMRG designs and conducts innovative clinical trials that offer new treatments to individuals with this malignancy across the country. In addition, the CMRG established the CMRG National Myeloma Database that includes disease-specific information on over 9,000 patients with plasma cell disorders. The national database provides information on disease outcomes in Canadian patients to define outcomes and identify gaps for further research.

Karla Alexandra Sánchez Hernández is a multiple myeloma clinical and research fellow at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She initially undertook her medical training at Mexico´s National University. Thereafter she pursued residency training in Internal Medicine, and subspecialty training in Hematology at Mexico´s City General Hospital. She also has a fellowship at hematologic stem cell transplantation at Mexico´s National Cancer Institute.

Rintu Sharma is a Clinical Research Fellow focusing on myeloma, lymphoma, and autologous stem cell transplantation. She has completed her internal medicine and hematology training in India and is now a Chief Fellow for the Malignant Hematology Program. Her areas of interest span multiple myeloma, amyloidosis, lymphoproliferative disorders, and cellular therapies. She is particularly intrigued by the potential of immunotherapies in myeloma and is eager to contribute to this exciting field.

Dr Steven Shih is a myeloma fellow at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. He has keen interests in immunotherapy and clinical trials. Prior to joining the department, Dr Shih was a research fellow at the largest haematology research unit in New Zealand where they conducted bispecific antibody trials for both myeloma and lymphoma.

Dr. Stewart is Vice President, Cancer at University Health Network and Director of the Princess Margaret Cancer Program. He is Regional Vice-President, Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario) and holds the Richard H. Clark Chair in Cancer Medicine.

Dr. Stewart received his medical degree at Aberdeen University Medical School and trained in internal medicine and hematology in Glasgow, Kingston, Toronto and Boston. In 2002, he completed a Master of Business Administration at the Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario. Dr. Stewart has served in several healthcare leadership roles across both research and clinical practice in Toronto and at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Stewart returned to Toronto from the Mayo Clinic where he most recently was Director of the Center for Individualized Medicine.

Dr. Stewart’s own research and clinical practice is focused on the biology, genomics and treatment of Multiple Myeloma. He has published over 350 research papers and led numerous clinical trials of novel therapeutics for this disease from first in man to large practice changing studies. Dr. Stewart has served on the advisory and medical or scientific boards of many private and public institutions including currently as a non executive board member of Genomics England.

Dr. Trudel received her MD degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and subsequently completed subspecialty training in Hematology at the University of Toronto affiliated hospitals. This was followed by a research fellowship at Weill Medical College of Cornell in New York City. Dr. Trudel returned to Toronto as a consultant in the department of Medical Oncology and Hematology at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and is currently appointed as Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Trudel is also a Faculty Member of the Department of Medical Biophysics and Scientist at Ontario Cancer Institute.

Dr. Trudel is an active member of several professional organizations. For the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC), Dr. Trudel has previously served as a member of the Steering Committee. She is a member of the Myeloma Canada advisory board and the Subcommittee on Corrlative Sciences for National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group. For the American Society of Hematology, Dr Trudel has formerly served as a member of the Ad Hoc Scientific Committee on Plasma Cell Biology and has previously been the receiptant of an ASH Scolar Award.

An active researcher, Dr. Trudel has been a principal investigator on several industry sponsored and investigator initiated clinical trials for relapsed multiple myeloma. Her research focus has been in the areas of drug development and precision medicine for multiple myeloma.