Official Master's Degree in Transfusion Medicine and Advanced Cell Therapies
Course coordinator
Joan Garcia López
E-mail adress: Joan.Garcia.Lopez@uab.cat
Lecturers
Joan Garcia López (Coordinator)
Graduate in Medicine and Specialist in Hematology by the University of Barcelona and Doctor in Cryobiology of hemopoietic stem cells. His professional career began at the Oncology Research Institute as Director of the department of cryobiology and cell therapy and later as head of the transfusion center and tissue bank of the Duran y Reynals Hospital. Later, he began his professional career at the Blood and Tissue Bank of Catalonia until he became the Director of Research and Education. He is currently a Board member of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital Foundation.
Module 5 - Management Concepts on Transfusion Medicine
E-mails: Joan.Garcia.Lopez@uab.cat & joangarcia@bst.cat
Graduate in Medicine and Surgery by the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1979 and Specialist in Hematology and Hemotherapy in 1983. Currently Director of Hospital Services at the Blood and Tissue Bank of Catalonia and associated professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and at the University Rovira i Virgili from Tarragona. He has more than 60 scientific publications in external evaluation journals, 10 of them in international journals and has co-authored the book "Practical Manual of Transfusion Medicine (2002)". He has also participated as main author in 20 chapters of several books.
Module 2 - Blood Transfusion
E-mails: enrictgn@gmail.com & econtreras@bst.cat
Juan R. Grífols has a Bachelor in Medicine and Surgery by the University of Barcelona (Spain) and is specialist in Hematology and Hemotherapy. He holds other relevant titles as the Certificat d'Université d'Enseignement Européen in Transfusion Medicine by Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg (France) as well as a Diploma degree in Hospital Management by ESADE Business & Law School in Barcelona (Spain). Currently he is working in the Banc de Sang i Teixits (BST) as the Medical Director of one of its Transfusion Services located at the University Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, close to Barcelona. At the meantime, Dr. Juan R. Grífols is the BST’s International Coordinator Medical Affairs. He works as Short Time Expert in several European Commission projects in different European countries and has worked and/or led different international projects related to the implementation and development of blood organizational models and structuring transfusion networks, as well as the development of programs that encourage voluntary blood component donation and a safe, sustainable and quality transfusion.
With more than 30 years of professional experience in the fields of blood donation, transfusion of blood components, immunohematology, therapeutic apheresis and stem cell transplantation, he is the author of multiple communications and scientific articles and organizer and/or coordinator of different national or international courses or meetings. He is an active member of the Spanish Society of Blood Transfusion, the Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy, the American Association of Blood Banks and the Ibero-American Transfusion Medicine Group.
Module 2 - Blood Transfusion
E-mails: jrgrifols@bst.cat & jrgrifols@gmail.com
Chantal Lechanteur is a pharmacist by training. After a PhD and a total of 12 years in oncology research, she joined the LTCG as R & D coordinator. After nearly 10 years of running the clinical grade MSC bank, she has been part of several projects with industrial or academic partners and is currently in charge of Quality Control for ATMP (Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products).
Module 4 - Cell and Tissue Therapy. TissueBank
E-mail: c.lechanteur@chuliege.be
Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery by the University of Barcelona. From 1995 to 1998 he did his training as a specialist in Immunology at the Immunology Service of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. In the same department he presented his doctoral thesis in 1999. That same year he joined the Banc de Sang i Teixits, being the head and director of the Histocompatibility Laboratory from 1999 to 2013. His activity in this laboratory was oriented to studies of histocompatibility in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and immunogenetic studies of different immune-mediated diseases. In 2013 he joined the Transplant Immunology Section of the Immunology Service of the Hospital Clínic, becoming the Head of this section in March 2016 and co-director of the laboratory accredited by the EFI (European Federation for Immunogenetics). This Transplant Immunology section constitutes the so-called Histocompatibility Laboratory of Catalonia, which provides support in Transplant Immunology to all solid organ transplantation units of hospitals in Catalonia for kidney, liver, heart, lung and pancreas transplantation. In 2014 he obtained the European Diploma of Specialization in Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics awarded by the EBTI-UEMS (European Board of Transplant Immunology - European Union of Medical Specialists), a newly created qualification aimed at the directors of histocompatibility laboratories. He has been part of the boards of directors of the Spanish Immunology Society, the Catalan Immunology Society and the Catalan Transplant Society. He was also part of the Education Committee of the EFI (European Federation for Immunogenetics). He is currently Commissioner in the Spain / Portugal region for the EFI accreditation of histocompatibility laboratories.
Module 3 - Immunohematology
E-mail: epalou@clinic.cat
Graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1980 at the University of Barcelona and Specialized in Hematology and Hemotherapy in 1985. Doctor of Medicine in 1989 from the same university. After being a resident doctor at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, he became part of the Hematology staff at the Department of Hemotherapy and Haemostasis at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. His last position was Senior Consultant in Hematology at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. He has had more than 200 publications in various indexed medical journals.
Module 1 - Blood Donation
E-mails: apereira@clinic.cat & arturopereira13@gmail.com
Sergio Querol
Haematologist, specialist in Hematopoietic Stem cell transplantation and Cell Therapy. He is Director of the Barcelona Cord Blood Bank representing Inter-regional Donation programme (Concordia). This public CB bank have available more than 20,000 units through Spanish Donor Registry and performed close to 2,000 cord blood transplants. He is also Director of the Cell Therapy Services at the Catalan Blood and Tissue bank. This is a FACT-Netcord and JACIE accredited laboratory and has in addition facilities to manufacture advanced therapy medicinal products like CAR-T cells, TILs or MSC. Cell therapy laboratory is a central facility for most of the Clinical sites in Barcelona area performing transplantation and cell therapy application with more than 500 procedures conducted per year. Research areas are developing new uses of CB units either collected or frozen as starting material for ATMP, improving cord blood transplantation, or developing volunteer-donor derived ATMP like virus-specific T cells, MSC and iPSC haplo-bank from cord blood. He is author of more than 100 papers in peer review journals.
Module 4: Cell and Tissue Therapy. Tissue Bank
E-mail: squerol@bst.cat
Paolo Rebulla
Graduated in Milan in Medicine and Surgery in 1973. Dr Rebulla holds a specialty in Clinical and Laboratory Hematology and in Immunohematology. He directed the Service of Transfusion Medicine, Cell Therapy and Cryobiology of the Foundation Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Hospital in Milan, Italy, from 2005 to 2013. A member of scientific societies in the area of transfusion, hematology and transplantation, Dr Rebulla is involved in biomedical and biotechnological research, with particular reference to platelet transfusion of patients suffering from blood diseases, cell cryopreservation and cellular therapy. He is the author or co-author of about 300 scientific publications, 235 of which registered on PubMed (h-index (google scholar) 55. In 2017 he was a co-founder of Episkey srl, a start up company working on the development of novel reagents and biopharmaceuticals from umbilical cord blood.
Module 1- Blood Donation
E-mail: paolo.rebulla@policlinico.mi.it
Montserrat Sáez Bruguera
Graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Barcelona in 1975 and Specialist in Hematology and Hemotherapy in 1979. After being a resident doctor at the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, she has developed all her professional activity at the Blood Bank, first at the Bank of Blood of the Red Cross and then to the BST, from the fixed center of the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona, in the areas of donation, tissues, transfusion, quality and apheresis, where BST-Sant Pau is a benchmark in apheresis of progenitor cells from REDMO donors. Responsible for the Self-Assessment in Immunology program of the SCBTS from 1989 to 2001. Hematology responsible for the Blood Bank of the Hospital de la Esperanza from 1988 to 1992 and of the blood deposit of the Sant Jordi Clinic from 1992 to 2020, where she is president of the Committee of transfusion from 2006 to 2020 and participates in the Epidemiological Study of blood transfusion in Catalonia (2007). She is a member of the European Society of Hemapheresis, SCBTS, NATA,
Her teaching career begins in 1984 and continues until 2021. She is a Speaker in courses, Postgraduate (2003-2008) and Doctorate (2012) on Immunohematology, Autotransfusion and Blood Saving in Surgery. She participates in expert group meetings on the use of erythropoietin in Autotransfusion and Pericirurgy. ATS, TEL and DUE teacher at the Red Cross Blood Bank. MIR teacher at the Hospital Hematology Service of H. Sant Pau from 2000 to 2020. Coordinator, professor and speaker of the course "Transfusion Medicine in Catalonia" at the UAB (2014 to 2018). Coordinator, teacher and author in the transfusion area of the Master "Transfusion Medicine and Cell Therapy" organized by the BST in collaboration with the Dr. Robert Foundation (from 2007 to 2017). Tutor and professor of the BST Nursing Master, Donation Module (2010). Online speaker of the "Advanced Immunohematology Course" of the School of Medicine of Monterrey, Mexico (2016). Professor in the Master of the BST and the UAB, Blood Transfusion Module (2018-2021).
Module 2 - Blood Transfusion
E-mail: montserratsaez1952@gmail.com
PhD in Biology by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain). She developed her research in hepatitis C and HIV in the Liver Unit of the University Hospital Vall d’Hebron in Barcelona. Since 1999 she is responsible of the Transfusion Safety Laboratory of the regional Blood and Tissue Bank of Catalonia (Spain). Besides the screening of infectious diseases activities, the Laboratory has a research line on biosafety of blood, tissue and cell donations. Sauleda has published more than 80 research papers on hepatitis C, hepatitis B, HIV and emerging infectious diseases. She is a member of the ISBT (International Society of Blood Transfusion) Transfusion-Transmitted Diseases Working Party and, since 2017, coordinates the Transfusion-Transmitted Diseases Working Party of the Spanish Society of Blood Transfusion.
Module 1 - Blood Donation
E-mail: ssauleda@bst.cat
Biochemist, MSci in Biotechnology and PhD in Biochemistry (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain) with extensive experience in the R&D biotech sector, both in private and academic environments, where he focused on the optimisation of cellular processes towards A) high yield production of diagnostic and therapeutic molecules, and B) the development of methods to produce cells for drug screening and as a therapy, in compliance with current regulatory and quality standards. Dr. Vives conducted post-doctoral research at the Institute for Stem Cell Research (University of Edinburgh, UK), then moved to Stem Cell Sciences Ltd (Cambridge, UK), and joined Banc de Sang i Teixits (Barcelona, Spain).
He has authored 50+ scientific publications, supervised 8 PhD projects and he is inventor of three patents.
Module 4: Cell and Tissue Therapy. Tissue Bank
E-mail: jvives@bst.cat
Jaap Jan Zwaginga
M.D. in Medicine and PhD in Pathogenesis of Uremic bleeding in 1989. His research on clinical transfusion medicine involves: a) the classical use of red blood cells, trombocytes and plasma, but also b) the “academic hospital reserved areas” of immuno-modulatory and regenerative therapies with manipulated blood, marrow or tissue-derived cells. His teaching activities started in 2007 to the present, which is the LUMC Director of Education at the joint Master’s Degree in Transfusion Medicine and Cellular and Tissue Therapies. He has 204 publications and 2 book chaptes at the Web of Science. The average citations per item is 22,7.
Module 4:Tissue Therapy. Tissue Bank
E-mail: j.j.zwaginga@lumc.nl
Leendert Porcelijn
Medical doctor. Since 1993 head of the platelet/Leukocyte serology laboratory and Staff-member of the Immunohematology Diagnostics Department of Sanquin Diagnostic Services. In 2005 he successfully completed his training as a Transfusion Specialist (Transfusiearts). He has been member of the international Platelet and Granulocyte Immunobiology Working Party steering committee (2000-2016) and president of the Dutch Society of Blood Transfusion (2003-2006).
Module 3 - Immunohematology
E-mail: l.porcelijn@sanquin.nl
Biologist and PhD in molecular virology in 1998 in Paris (France). After a 5-year post-doctoral experience in Hepatitis C virus research projects in the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute in Barcelona (Spain), she joined the Transfusion Safety Laboratory of the Catalan Blood and Tissue Bank where she currently supervises general activities of the laboratory (serology and molecular testing, blood grouping, microbiology quality control laboratory, quality management...). Her fields of expertise are (i) development, validation or evaluation of emerging pathogens detection tests (NAT and serology) and (ii) infectious diseases prevalence studies in blood donors (Chagas, HTLV-I/II, malaria, WNV, HEV, DENV, SARS CoV-2...).
Module 1: Blood Donation
E-mail: mpiron@bst.cat
Eduardo Muñiz
Haematology and Haemotherapy Specialist since 1986 and PhD in Medicine by the University of Barcelona graded “Cum Laude” for the thesis “Study of the platelet membrane antigens, of the antibodies which define them and of the clinical entities with which both relate” mentored by professor AEGKr von dem Borne. Currently he is the head of the Immunhematology Division at the Blood and Tissue Bank of Barcelona. Within the las 20 years he presented more than 300 communications in national and international reunions. He has 80 published articles in national magazines and 50 in international magazines and he is the autor and coautor of different chapters in a dozen of books about immunohematology. Within the last years he has received the award which the Spanish Society of Transfusion gives to the best project in their anual reunion.
Module 3: Immunohematology
E-mail: emuniz@bst.cat
Masja De Haas (MD, PhD) is an internationally recognized expert in the highly specialized field of transfusion medicine of laboratory immunohematology. The past 10 years, she has led the Dutch reference center for immunohematology Sanquin. It's an organization for blood supply and its knowledge. She is an appointed professor of “Translational Immunohematology” at the Leiden University Medical Center.
Module 3 - Immunohematology
E-mail: m.dehaas@sanquin.nl