Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourquin, MD, PhD

Trained as physician-scientist with a PhD in molecular biology in Zurich, he joined the prestigious fellowship program of the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at Dana‐Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School where he developed his focus on very high-risk acute leukemia. He is full professor at the faculty of medicine of the University of Zurich and physician in chief of the Department of Hematology, Oncology, Stem Cell Transplantation and Immunology at the University Children's Hospital Zurich. He built an internationally leading clinical and research program for hematologic malignancies. His research focus is on mechanisms of drug resistance in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, in particular new approaches to target transcriptional dependencies and development of functional phenotypic screening assays for precision hematology / oncology. These have paved the way for individualized molecular therapies for this group of vulnerable patients.

He is one of the pioneers in functional precision hematology. His research has translated in a new technology, Drug Response Profiling (DRP), which has gained enormous momentum in Hematology. His team develops DRP as a Platform and engages in innovative clinical trials at all levels that are relevant for patients with VHR-ALL. This platform is central for new international trials that test new way to provide the best possible option more precisely and more personally to the patients at immediate urgent needs. The DRP provides a centralized platform for international trials such as IntReALL, the precision trial Hem-iSmart from ITCC and IBFM and the international precision genomic medicine project INFORM from DKFZ Heidelberg. His team provides DRP for many centers in Europe and abroad, with immediate impact for patients already.

Professor Bourquin has initiated a Scientific Working Group on functional precision Hematology for the European Hematology Associations that spearheads the new fields with other top experts at leading Institutions. He is chair of the resistant disease committee of the international BFM Study group that develops the treatment protocols for patients with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia and is in the steering committee of the Hematology Group of the Innovative Treatment for Childhood Cancer (ITCC), which includes all relevant early clinical studies for the development of new therapies for leukemia. He is now also a member of the Board of Directors of the European Hematology Association (EHA).