Emirates Haematology Conference 2026

Dr. Ahmad Alabdulkarim is a Specialist Haematologist at Jaber Alahmad Hospital, Kuwait. He earned his MD from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and is board-certified by the Kuwait Board of Haematology. Dr. Alabdulkarim completed a Clinical Fellowship in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes at University College London Hospital and serves as a Clinical Tutor at the Kuwait Institute of Medical Specialisations, contributing to patient care and medical education.

Alfadel Alshaibani, Consultant Hematologist, Stem cell and Cellular Therapy at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center. Did residency in University of virginia and completed fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. He is a lymphoma specialist. He is also the head of Virtual Care department at KFSHRC.

Ali T. Taher, MD, PhD, FRCP is Professor of Medicine at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Director of the Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute, and Associate Vice President for Academic Centers and External Affairs. He is an internationally recognized leader in thalassemia and iron metabolism, with major contributions to prevention and clinical care in Lebanon and beyond. Dr. Taher has authored more than 540 peer-reviewed publications (h-index 84; over 32,000 citations) and has led landmark international clinical trials, including a Phase 3 study of oral mitapivat published in The Lancet. His achievements have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the National Cedar Medal of Lebanon, the Sultan Bin Khalifa International Thalassemia Award, and the EHA Education and Mentoring Award. He currently chairs the EHA Scientific Working Group on Red Cells and Iron and serves on scientific committees of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

Dr. Ashraf Warsi is a Consultant in Adult Hematology at Princess Noura Oncology Center, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, Ministry of National Guard–Health Affairs, Western Region, Saudi Arabia. He is American Board–certified in Internal Medicine and Adult Hematology and certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He completed a Clinical Thrombosis Fellowship at McGill University, Montreal. His special interests include thrombosis, bleeding disorders, and myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Dr. Asma Al Olama is the President of the Emirates Society of Haematology and a Consultant Hematologist at Dubai Hospital. She has been actively involved in the field of hematology, particularly in the UAE, and has contributed to various initiatives and best practices in the area. Additionally, she serves as the Program Director of the Adult Hematology Fellowship program at Dubai Health.

Hanny Al-Samkari, M.D. is a classical hematologist and leading international clinical investigator in hemostasis, platelet disorders, and hemolytic anemias. His focus is on the development of novel therapeutics in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, immune thrombocytopenia, chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia and hemolytic anemia. He serves as global principal investigator for many ongoing studies in these areas.

Jesús San-Miguel, MD, Ph.D., is a professor of medicine-hematology and Director of Clinical and Translational Medicine at the University of Navarra in Spain. Previously, he was director of the Hematology Department of the University Hospital of Salamanca, Spain, for more than 2 decades; also was President of the International Myeloma Society from 2012 until 2019. Prof. San-Miguel has published over 900 original papers (873 in international journals) and has an H index of 119. He has made important contributions to myeloma cell biology in areas such as immunophenotyping, risk of progression from monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance or smouldering MM into active MM, and minimal residual disease, as well as, making important contributions in the area of therapeutics, including studies for new antimyeloma drugs at the preclinical and clinical levels, including proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory drugs, and histone deacetylases. He is member of the Academy of Pharmacy of Castilla Leon and Honorary member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Salamanca, as well as member of the Advisory Board of the International Myeloma Foundation, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, Carreras Foundation, and board member of the Spanish Hematology and Genome Foundations. He has been Associate Editor of Blood and Haematologica and is member of the editorial board of several scientific journals. He has served as Director of the Biomedical Research Institute of Salamanca (Spain) and Vice Director of the Cancer Research Center (Salamanca). Also was Chairman of the Spanish Myeloma Group (GEM), Board Councillor for the European Association, Chairman of the Scientific Committee for the IXth Congress (2004), President of the 15th European Hematology Association (EHA) Congress, and organizer of the IXth International Myeloma Workshop held in Salamanca (2003). He has received numerous honors, including the Gregorio Marañón National Research Award in Medicine 2021 (Spain), the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences Bob Pinedo Cancer Care Award 2020, the Michaeli Award, the Waldenström Award, the Robert A. Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award, EHA José Carreras Award, Ham-Wasserman Lecture Award; the Celgene Life Achievement Career Award, the Rey Jaime I on Medical Research Award among others.

Dr. Litzow is a Professor of Hematology at Mayo Clinic. He has served as Director of the BMT Program and the Acute Leukemia Group at Mayo Clinic. He served as chair of the Leukemia Committee of the ECOG-ACRIN Group from 2013 to 2022. He was a co-chair of the Acute Leukemia Working Committee of the CIBMTR. He served on the Board of Directors for the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy for 9 years. He is the author of over 700 manuscripts.

Dr Marwan Shaheen is the Head of Chronic Leukemia and Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Section in the Department of Hematology, SCT and Cellular Therapy at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre- Riyadh. He is also the Director of Long Term Follow-up program in Cancer Centre of Excellence. Dr Shaheen is certified Saudi Board of Internal Medicine and Adult Hematology then completed a fellowship in Adult Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada. He was also the first certified Stem Cell Transplant Fellow from KFSH&RC.

Dr. Mozah Obaid Almarshoodi is a Consultant in Benign Hematology and the Acting Head of Medical Department at Sheikh Khalifa Hospital Fujairah, specializing in blood disorders, including thrombosis, bleeding disorders, and hemoglobinopathies. She completed her Consultative Hematology Fellowship at the University of Toronto and is skilled in patient care, education, and clinical research. Fluent in Arabic and English, Dr. Almarshoodi is dedicated to improving hematology care and mentoring future medical professionals in the UAE.

Dr. Muna Altarshi is a Senior Consultant at the Royal Hospital, Muscat. She earned her MD from Sultan Qaboos University and completed Internal Medicine and Hematology training at McGill University, obtaining FRCPC and American Board certifications. She completed a Bone Marrow Transplant fellowship at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto. Her practice focuses on lymphoma, plasma cell myeloma, and autologous stem cell transplantation. She is Associate Program Director at the Oman Medical Specialty Board and Treasurer of the Omani Society of Hematology.

Naseema Gangat, M.B.B.S., is a professor of medicine and a consultant in hematology at Mayo Clinic. She completed her residency and fellowship in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology at Mayo Clinic and is board certified in medical oncology, internal medicine, and hematology. She has received several awards for her research and teaching excellence, and has been involved in various committees and editorial boards related to hematology and oncology. She has developed curricula and courses for internal medicine residency and hematology/oncology fellowship programs, and has mentored many students and trainees. Her clinical research is primarily in myeloid malignancies, especially myelodysplastic syndromes and myeloproliferative neoplasms, and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, and book chapters.

Dr. Ranjana Advani is a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University specializing in the field of lymphoma. She holds an endowed chair (Saul Rosenberg Professor) and oversees all aspects of treatment of the vast majority of adult lymphoma patients. Her primary research interests include improving care for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients by optimizing front line regimens, developing novel agents and targeted therapy for refractory and recurrent disease, advancing correlative studies involving biomarkers, and addressing long-term outcomes. She leads multi-institutional efforts as a national study Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI on several targeted therapies, translational and imaging studies and has published extensively in the peer reviewed literature. She is a member of the NCCN guidelines committee for Hodgkin Lymphoma (Chair) and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and on the lymphoma core committee for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. She has also served as a voting member of the ODAC (Oncology Drug Advisory Committee) to the FDA, and has completed a term as the co-chair of the National Cancer Institute Lymphoma Steering Committee.

Prof. Salam Salim Alkindi is a Professor and Consultant Hematologist, at the Department of Haematology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. Prior to that, Dr. Alkindi served as the head of Hematology Department, Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Oman. In 2002, he was a visiting physician, at the Transplant Unit, University of Washington, Medical Centre, Seattle - WA, USA. He has over 80 publications in several international peer-reviewed journals. His research interests include; hemoglobinopathies, leukemia, sickle cell disease, stem cell transplant, regulatory B cells in hemophilia patients, inherited von Willebrand disease, pulmonary hypertension in sickle cell disease patients, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Valeria Santini is an Associate Professor of Hematology at the University of Florence Medical School in Florence Italy, where she received her degree in Medicine and Postgraduate diploma in hematology (cum laude). She worked as an EORTC fellow in experimental hematology from 1988 to 1991 at the Dr. den Hoed Kliniek, Erasmus University, Rotterdam. In 1999 she worked in the Department of Leukemia at MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, Houston. Her scientific interests and publications are focused on maturation induction and therapeutic targeting of epigenetics modifications, myeloid leukemias and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). At present Dr. Santini is responsible for the MDS and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) program of the Hematology Unit at the University of Florence. She is a member of European Hematology Association (EHA), MDS Foundation, Italian Society of Experimental Hematology. Dr. Santini is a member of the Executive Board of the Italian Society of Hematology and the Medical Advisory Board of the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation.