The Medical Council – our medical advisory board

The committee nominates the annual winner of the DKMS Mechtild Harf Science Award. It also recommends and approves candidates for the John Hansen Research Grant. The committee is made up of experienced individuals from the fields of medicine, science and healthcare.

Prof. Dr. Marcel R.M. van den Brink
(Chair of the Medical Advisory Board)

Medical oncologist with extensive experience in clinical research, particularly in strategies to improve allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). He is Chairman and Chief Medical Officer of the City of Hope National Medical Center in Los Angeles, one of the largest cancer research and treatment centers in the United States.

Laurence David Atlas

Laurence David Atlas is a senior executive and attorney, special counsel to the Office of General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, an independent U.S. government agency that regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable.

Dr. Marcelo Fernández-Viña, PhD

Dr. Marcelo Fernández-Viña is a professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University Medical School. He is also the director of the Histocompatibility, Immunogenetics and Disease Profiling Laboratory. Dr. Fernández-Viña has been working in the fields of histocompatibility and immunogenetics since 1982. He has published more than 220 publications, many of which focus on HLA variation in different world populations. The main focus is on identifying susceptibility and resistance factors for diseases, as well as the effects of HLA mismatches in allogeneic transplants.

Prof. Dr. Katharina Fleischhauer

Prof. Dr. Katharina Fleischhauer studied medicine in Bonn and was a research associate at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York for four years. From 1992 to 2013, she worked at the Istituto Scientifico San Raffaele in Milan, most recently as head of the Institute for Immunogenetic Diagnostics and Research. Since October 2013, Prof. Fleischhauer has headed the Institute for Cell Therapy Research at the University Hospital Essen. There she mainly researches T-cell alloreactivity in allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Dr. Katharina Fleischhauer is the winner of the DKMS Mechtild Harf Science Award 2016.

Dr. Stephen J. Forman

Dr. Stephen J. Forman is the Dr. Francis & Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Chief, Division of Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Los Angeles. He received the DKMS Mechtild Harf Science Award 2019 for his outstanding achievements in the fields of cancer immunology, hematology, stem cell transplantation and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Dieter Hoelzer

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Dieter Hoelzer was the director of the Department of Hematology/Oncology, Rheumatology and Infectiology at the University Hospital Frankfurt for over 20 years and has extensive clinical experience in the inpatient and outpatient treatment of all hematological/oncological and internal diseases. Prof. Hoelzer is one of the most renowned hematologists and specialists in the field of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In 2017, he was awarded the DKMS Mechtild Harf Science Award.

Dr. Carl H. June

Dr. Carl H. June is a pioneer in the field of immunotherapy and is best known for developing T-cell therapy for cancer. His work led to the development and introduction of Tisagenlecleucel, the first FDA-approved cell therapy. He is currently the Richard W. Vague Professor of Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2020, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In 2023, the DKMS awarded him the Mechtild Harf Science Prize for his outstanding achievements in the field of cancer immunology.

Prof. Emma Morris, PhD

Emma Morris is Professor of Clinical Cell and Gene Therapy at University College London (UCL) and Director of the NIHR UCLH/UCL Biomedical Research Centre Inflammation, Immunity and Immunotherapeutics Research Programme, as well as Co-Chair of the UCL Cell, Gene and Regenerative Medicine Therapeutic Innovation Network. She has been an advisor since 2002 and has led her own research program since 2005. Her research group focuses on new aspects of immunotherapy of hematologic malignancies and inherited immunodeficiencies, particularly on cell and gene therapy and more recently on genome editing (gene editing).

Prof. Dr. Thomas Klingebiel (guest)

Prof. Dr. Thomas Klingebiel was Director of the Clinic for Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the University Hospital Frankfurt of Goethe University from 2000 to 2021. The Clinic for Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine also includes the main areas of paediatric oncology, haematology and haemostaseology and the Paediatric Stem Cell Transplant Centre Frankfurt; it is considered one of the best in Germany. Since July 1, 2021, he has been managing director of the Frankfurt association Hilfe für krebskranke Kinder Frankfurt e.V.

For the DKMS (permanent guests):

Dr. Peter Harf (founder), Katharina Harf (Chairwoman DKMS Foundation Board), Dr. Elke Neujahr (Global CEO), Prof. Dr. Johannes Schetelig (Director Clinical Research of CTU)