The American Society of Hematology (ASH), the world's largest professional association of blood specialists, expects more than 20,000 attendees at the 51st ASH Annual Meeting from December 5-8, 2009, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA. The meeting will showcase the latest research and treatments for blood disorders.
"It is my pleasure to host ASH's 51st annual meeting, where we will celebrate the start of the 'next 50 years' of ASH with an update on continuing advances in hematology," said Nancy Berliner, MD, 2009 ASH President, and Chief of Hematology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The meeting will feature emerging research trends in the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of many blood disorders and cancers, and will also highlight other issues affecting physicians and their patients, such as the skyrocketing cost of health care and changes to U.S. health-care policies."
Highlights of the meeting include special symposia, education programs, special-interest seminars, and scientific sessions.
This year's 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, On the Origin of Species, will be reflected upon in the Ham-Wasserman Lecture. The speaker, Melvyn F. Greaves, PhD, will focus on the development of leukemia from a Darwinian perspective and the relevance of evolutionary biology to medicine. The lecture will take place on Saturday, December 5, from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Another hot topic - how increased understanding of cancer stem cells will result in improved prognosis and therapies - will be explored in detail by John E. Dick, PhD, during the E. Donnall Thomas Lecture on Monday, December 7, from 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. On Monday, December 7, ASH's new Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize will be awarded to Thomas Maniatis, PhD, of Harvard University, and Yuet Wai Kan, MD, from the University of California, San Francisco. The lecture will be presented from 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. and will focus on the impact of molecular genetic studies of globin genes on the diagnosis and treatment of thalassaemia.