International Symposium From Genes to target therapy in Hematology - a meeting to celebrate 50+2 years of Hematology Department in Florence

It is undoubtful that hematology has witnessed many exciting discoveries in the last 50 years, ranging from the description of recurrent chromosomal defects uniquely associated with disease, such as the Philadelphia chromosome in chronic myelogenous leukemia, to the discovery of genes considered to be disease-driver and/or associated with unique clinical characteristics and prognosis, to the immunophenotypic characterization of very rare bone marrow and blood cell subsets with specific functions, perhaps no other field in clinical medicine witnessed so rapid translation of discoveries from the laboratory to patient’s side, in terms of new powerful diagnostic tools made available, new diagnostic categories being identified and prognostic scores developed, and, after all, new therapeutic options being made available for the patients. There is no doubt that these progresses have contributed to start a new era of personalized medicine in hematology.

It is with these premises that we are honored to host colleagues and friends at this meeting, emblematically entitled “From genes to target therapy in Hematology”.

The topics covered in more than 30 scientific presentations and In Focus talks point to many fields of hematology where the most breakthrough advancements occurred, promoting changes in the diagnosis and management of neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases.

A Faculty of national and international experts will drive us in such exciting pilgrimage to modern hematology.

There is also a more intimate, yet public, reason to promote this meeting,

that is, the opportunity to celebrate, through science, the first 50 years of

the Hematology Unit in Florence, an institution where -we are proudly

convinced- those advances progressively became part of the management

of patients with hematologic disorders. Unfortunately, COVID

pandemia forced us to move the meeting from the spring of 2020 to

summer 2022, so that we are actually celebrating the 52nd year of the

Florence Hematology…but no worries, let the celebration begin!

prof. Alessandro Maria Vannucchi