City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, USA

Christiane Querfeld, MD, PhD is a board-certified dermatologist and dermatopathologist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of cutaneous lymphoma. She is a Professor and Director of the Cutaneous Lymphoma Program at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and divides her time between a busy weekly clinic, her dermatopathology practice, and her research laboratory.

Dr. Querfeld’s innovative research targets both the malignancy and the surrounding cells in the tumor’s microenvironment. When activated, the immune cells in the tumor microenvironment have the capacity to kill the lymphoma cells. Her laboratory research aims to identify novel targets and advance novel strategies that both activate the immune system against cutaneous T cell lymphoma as well as direct the killing of the cancer cells to improve outcomes for patients with this challenging disease. She and her team have already developed successful, well-tolerated interventions with meaningful benefits for her patients.

Dr. Querfeld has received prestigious awards including the Clinical Scholar Career Development Award by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and authored over 150 peer-reviewed articles, reviews, and book chapters in the field of cutaneous lymphoma. She has obtained extramural grants from the National Cancer Institute, Leukemia Lymphoma Society, the Israel Cancer Research Fund, and Rising Tide Foundation.

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

Dr. Sima Rozati is an academic dermatologist and translational investigator at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she serves as Director of the Multidisciplinary Cutaneous Lymphoma Clinic, Co-Director of the Cutaneous Translational Research Program (CTReP), and Director of the Inpatient Dermatology Consult Service. With foundational training in both internal medicine and dermatology and advanced research training in cutaneous oncology, she brings a uniquely integrative perspective to the care of patients with complex skin disorders and cutaneous lymphomas.

Dr. Rozati has built innovative clinical, research, and educational multi-disciplinary cutaneous lymphoma program that has strengthened multi-center collaborations, and advanced mechanistic understanding of CTCL pathobiology. Through studies leveraging spatial transcriptomics, single cell RNA sequencing, systemic immune profiling, and real-world clinical cohorts, she aims to identify early biomarkers of treatment response, better understanding of immune remodeling and develop more precise, individualized therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Rozati has served as the PI or co-investigator in clinical trials that have been critical in the discovery, development, and approval of newer therapies in cutaneous T cell lymphomas. A dedicated educator and mentor, she founded the ACGME-equivalent Cutaneous Lymphoma Fellowship at Johns Hopkins and plays an active role in shaping dermatology training and research at Johns Hopkins and within national societies. Through her clinical expertise, scientific leadership, and commitment to innovation, Dr. Rozati strives to advance new therapeutic strategies and improve outcomes for patients affected by cutaneous lymphomas. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the US Cutaneous Lymphoma Consortium (USCLC).

Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

Dr. Francine Foss, Professor of Medicine in the Section of Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center, is an internationally recognized clinician and clinical researcher with expertise in adult lymphomas and in stem cell transplantation. She has developed and tested therapies that have been used to treat thousands of cancer patients, and her research has substantially impacted the field of stem cell research, benefiting patients at Yale and around the world. Dr. Foss has brought a nationally established clinical trials program to Yale Cancer Center. In her previous position at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston, she designed, initiated, and directed multi-center national clinical trials which led to FDA approval of several novel therapies for lymphomas. One of these, Interleukin-2- Diphtheria toxin fusion protein, was the first FDA-approved fusion protein biologic drug and the first drug to be FDA approved for the treatment of T-cell lymphoma. In her laboratory work, she investigated and elucidated the mechanism by which extracorporeal photopheresis modulated antigen presenting cells, leading to a reduction in graft-vs-host disease in patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplant. These findings led to the initiation of two National Cancer Institute-sponsored trials to confirm these results in patients with lymphoma and myelodysplastic syndrome. Dr. Foss is a member of the Stem Cell Therapy clinical program at Smilow Cancer Hospital.

Dr. Foss is a world expert in T cell Lymphomas. She has pioneered several novel therapies for T cell lymphomas and has been a leader in many national studies. She developed and initiated the first national registry for T cell lymphomas in the United States and is a founder and co-chairman of the T CELL Forum, the preeminent international T cell lymphoma research meeting. She is a co-founder of the United States Cutaneous Lymphoma Consortium and currently serves as its President. She has been a Director of the international T-cell Project to research treatment and biology of T-cell lymphomas and serves on the NCCN panel of experts for T-cell lymphomas. As a translational researcher in T cell Lymphomas, she currently is collaborating with a number of laboratories and scientists at Yale to identify molecular targets in T Cell Lymphoma and recently was awarded a grant through the PITCH program for the state of Connecticut to develop a promising small molecule therapeutic for a rare form of lymphoma. Dr. Foss currently leads the multi-disciplinary T-cell Lymphoma clinical team at the Smilow Cancer Center and co-directs the Cutaneous Lymphoma Program at Yale with Dr. Michael Girardi. Her clinical practice at Smilow Cancer Hospital attracts patients from around the world.