Eric Low, OBE
Eric has worked in the fields of medical research, market access and patient organisations for over 25 years. He set up Myeloma UK in 1996, leading the organisation as Chief Executive until 2017.
He currently runs a consultancy business specialising primarily in strategic market access, life sciences and healthcare policy, patient and patient group engagement.
Eric is committed and focused on improving patient outcomes and puts patients at the centre of everything he does. His goal is to have made a significant and material impact on the quality of life of patients and the prevention and curability of cancer and rare diseases. He has a strong track record of delivery and success for example in building multi-stakeholder research collaborations, patient coalitions, market access strategies, changing policy, and generally in delivering innovative solutions to complex issues, challenges and barriers standing in the way of progress.
Eric also holds several Board, honorary, advisory and voluntary positions. He also advises numerous medical and health-focused charities on a pro bono basis. He was awarded an OBE for services to charity in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2012.
John Hickman, DSc
Prof Hickman is an internationally known scientist who trained in pharmacy and organic chemistry in Birmingham UK. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Cancer Research London, he held University posts in molecular pharmacology in Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester and as a visiting scientist at Yale University. As a Director of the Cancer Research Campaign’s (now CRUK) Experimental Chemotherapy group in Birmingham he was lead pharmacologist for the discovery of the drug Temozolomide used to treat brain tumours. He worked on the role of apoptosis in determining anticancer drug sensitivity and resistance, particularly the role of the BCL-2 family of proteins. He talked about his work on apoptosis in 1998 at the invitation of the Nobel Forum in Stockholm and was invited again to speak at a Nobel Symposium in 2018, this time on personalised cancer medicine. Professor Hickman moved to Paris in 2000 to direct cancer drug discovery at Servier. He retired in 2010 and then coordinated the European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) consortium PREDECT. In March 2018, he co-organised an international meeting at the Francis Crick Institute entitled “The Challenges Preventing Cancer Cure”.
Sir Andrew Dillon
Andrew Dillon graduated from the University of Manchester in 1975. He held several senior management positions in the UK National Health Service, including General Manager of the Royal Free Hospital and Chief Executive of St George’s Hospital, both academic health centres in London. He was the founding Chief Executive of NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in England from 1999 to 2020. He is now a visiting professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College, London and works as an independent consultant.
Dr Martin Kaiser
Martin is a Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant Haematologist at The Institute of Cancer Research, London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. In 2018, he became Team Leader of the Myeloma Molecular Therapy Group at the ICR.
He graduated with a degree in medicine from the University of Aachen (RWTH), Germany, in 2004 where he also obtained an MD in Pathology for research on multiple myeloma microenvironment interactions.
Martin specialised in Haemato-Oncology at Charité University Medicine Berlin, Germany where he also pursued research in multiple myeloma and leukaemia. He was awarded a research fellowship by DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) in 2011 and joined the ICR for a postdoctoral research project in myeloma epigenetics. He was appointed Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant Haematologist in 2014 at the ICR and RMH and was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathology in 2018.
He is active member of the UK NCRI group, the UK Myeloma Research Alliance (UKMRA) network and the UK Myeloma Forum and serves as principal or co-investigator for several national and international myeloma trials. In July 2018, Martin became the first Jacquelin Forbes-Nixon Research Fellow.
His main research interest is the molecular characterisation of multiple myeloma, with the aim of designing gentler therapies tailored to patients’ needs. A particular focus of his work is high-risk myeloma.
Kevin Knopf, MD, MPH
Kevin Knopf is a practicing Hematologist/Oncologist and the Division Chief of Hematology and Oncology Alameda Health System, a safety net hospital in Oakland, California. He is Associate Professor of Pharmacoeconomics at the University of South Carolina School of Pharmacy and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco where he is a member of a the Institute for Health Policy. His research focuses on cost-effectiveness, patterns and quality of care in oncology, data analytics and reducing health disparities in cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment. He began is research career at the Health Economics and Outcomes Research branch at the National Cancer Institute. Dr Knopf holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UC San Francisco, and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He completed his clinical training at Northwestern Medical School, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Michael Kolodziej
Michael is Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, ADVI Health. Dr. Kolodziej completed internal medicine and hematology-oncology training at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He then joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine where he was an associate professor. Dr. Kolodziej joined New York Oncology in 1998, and was a partner in the practice until 2012. He served as Medical Director for Oncology Services for US Oncology from 2007-2011. In this role, he helped direct the implementation of the USON clinical pathways initiative, the integration of the USON EMR into this program, and the development of the USON disease management and advanced care planning programs, now known as Innovent Oncology. In 2013 Dr. Kolodziej joined Aetna as National Medical Director, Oncology Solutions. He directed Aetna’s oncology delivery reform pilots and was the architect of the Aetna Oncology Medical Home program. Dr. Kolodziej joined Flatiron Health in July, 2016 as National Medical Director, Managed Care Strategy where he applied the core tech and data capabilities of Flatiron to facilitate practice transformation and success in alternative payment models. He joined ADVI in October, 2017. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Kolodziej has published and spoken extensively on payment reform, personalized medicine, and practice care delivery transformation in oncology.
Dr. Francois Maignen
François works at NICE scientific advice team as Principal Technical Adviser. Before working at NICE, François was the Head of Operational Research and Data Analytics at the Office of Health Economics (OHE). He was the main contributor of a aimed at assessing the public health impact of Brexit for the UK and the European Union. François holds a doctorate in pharmacy, an MSc in molecular pharmacochemistry and a post-graduation diploma in hospital pharmacy and public health (Université René Descartes, Paris). Francois also holds an MSc in applied statistics (University of London).
Dr. Lydie Meheus
Lydie is the Managing Director of the Anticancer Fund (ACF), a Belgian Research Foundation of Public Utility dedicated to the development of cancer treatments regardless of their commercial value. Lydie co-founded the Anticancer Fund in 2013 with entrepreneur and major funder Luc Verelst. She is also the Executive Director of Reliable Cancer Therapies, a Swiss non-profit organisation. Lydie is member of the Steering Committee of the 'Cancer Research for More Patient Value', a fund managed by the King Baudouin Foundation and of the Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board of OvaCure, a Danish non-profit organisation focusing on ovarian cancer. Lydie has published many international peer review manuscripts, lately on drug repurposing in cancer therapies. She is a breast cancer patient, diagnosed in 2018 and successfully treated since then.Lydie obtained a PhD in Sciences at the University of Ghent (1986). She worked at Innogenetics (1987-2004) and as VP R&D at GENimmune (2005-2008), both Belgian biopharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Jack Scannell
Jack studies biomedical R&D from both economic and scientific perspectives. He works as an independent consultant to investors, drug and biotech companies, and the public sector. He is an honorary fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at Edinburgh University. Jack worked in drug and biotech investment at UBS and at Sanford Bernstein. He was head of Discovery Research at e-Therapeutics PLC, an Oxford-based biotechnology firm. He started his career as an academic neuroscientist. He has a Ph.D. in physiology from Oxford University and a degree in medical sciences from Cambridge University.
Professor Ian Tannock
Dr. Tannock is Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Medical Biophysics at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and University of Toronto. He obtained his PhD from the Institute of Cancer Research, London University, England and his MD at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. His clinical expertise is in GU and breast cancer. His research investigated methods related to cancer clinical trials, and he chaired trials for men with metastatic prostate cancer that led to licensing of drugs that are used worldwide for this disease. Dr. Tannock is an editor of the Basic Science of Oncology textbook, now in its 6th edition, that is used by trainees in all branches of oncology.
Dr. Tannock was a member of the Board of Directors of ASCO from 2001-2004. He chaired (2018-2020) the ASCO working group that organizes International Clinical Trials Workshops and has taught extensively in low and middle-income countries. He received the alumnus award from M.D. Anderson Hospital, Houston, USA (1989), the Warwick Prize from the National Cancer Institute of Canada (2003), the ESMO award (2012) and the ASCO Allen Lichter award for leadership and innovation (2019). He chaired the EORTC scientific audit committee between 2009 and 2016 and was then a member of the EORTC Board. He holds honorary degrees (DSc) from London University, UK (2009) and the Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay (2020). Dr. Tannock was appointed to the Order of Canada in December 2013.