New Orleans – Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) is mainly focused on education and science, although there are also several hundred posters available for those in need of a data injection.

What I like about the ASH education and scientific program is the high quality of the presentations from thought leaders who not only share where things are at, but just as importantly, where they may be going.

Yesterday, I attended a scientific session on Targeting Apoptosis in Lymphoid MalignanciesT. Organized by the Scientific Committee on Lymphoid Neoplasia, it featured three world-class speakers:

  • Douglas Green, PhD (St Jude Children’s Research Hospital)
  • Andreas Strasser, PhD (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
  • Anthony Letai, MD, PhD (Dana Farber Cancer Institute).

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been following the development of ABT-199/GDC-0199 a novel Bcl-2 inhibitor in development by Abbvie & Genentech for a while now.

It’s a drug with a lot of promise, notwithstanding the tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) deaths seen in the phase 1 CLL dose escalation trial.

In the ASH 2013 scientific session, Dr Letai shared his insights on potential new drug development targets for a small molecule inhibitor of Bcl-2 such as ABT-199 that have come about as a result of BH3 profiling.

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