Prevent 2026

Genetic predisposition and childhood leukemia:
from mechanism to prevention

Workshop: Prevent 2026

Date: September 25th, 2026

The recognition of host genetic factors underlying susceptibility to childhood leukemia has advanced considerably over the past decade. The age at which childhood leukemias manifest appears to correlate with distinct underlying biological pathways. The progression from carrying a deleterious germline variant to developing overt malignancy involves complex, multistep gene-environment interactions with key external triggers, such as infection and inflammatory stimuli, driving clonal progression.

Understanding the mechanisms by which predisposed clones transform under specific pressures may reveal strategies to better treat, and even prevent, hematopoietic malignancies from occurring.

The aim of this meeting is to discuss the knowns and unknowns and to define a long-term strategic research agenda towards a better understanding of the modifiable factors of childhood leukemia in order to prevent it.

Biological Pathways Overview

Preliminary Program

Workshop: Prevent 2026
Date: September 25th, 2026

08:00 Registration

08:45 Opening presentation

Session 1: Genetic predisposition and childhood leukemia therapy

Chair: Manuel Ramírez-Orellana

09:00 Gianni Cazzaniga
Genetic Predisposition to Childhood Leukemia: Open Questions on the Path to Prevention University of Milano-Bicocca Tettamanti Center, IRCCS San Gerardo, Italy

09:30 Franziska Auer
Molecular Mechanisms of PAX5-Mediated Predisposition and Stepwise Leukemic Evolution in B-ALL Technical University of Munich, School of Medicine and Health, Department of Pediatrics, Munich, Germany

10:00 Olli Lohi
Chromosome 12p alterations shape drug sensitivity in ETV6::RUNX1 leukemia Tampere Center for Child, Adolescent, and Maternal Health Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

10:30 – 11:00 ☕ Coffee Break

11:00 Alejandro Vaquero
The SIRT7–PAX5 axis in B-ALL: linking B-cell identity, epigenetics and stress adaptation Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC), Barcelona (Spain)

Short talks selected for oral presentation

11:30 Biola M. Javierre
Deciphering Genetic Susceptibility in B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Through a 3D Epigenetic Lens Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC), Badalona, Spain
Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona, Spain

11:45 Ninad Oak
Cooperation Between Germline Etv6 and Pax5 Haploinsufficiency Drives B-ALL Development Independent of Infection Exposure Department of Oncology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

Session 2: Modifiable factors and childhood leukemia

Chair: Cesar Cobaleda

12:00 Janine-Alison Schmidt
BfS research program «Radiation Protection in the Process of Power Grid Expansion»: Childhood leukemia and magnetic fields Federal Office for Radiation Protection (Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, BfS), Germany

12:30 Joachim Schüz
Environmental causes of childhood leukaemia: what we know, what we don’t know International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France

13:00 Carolina Vicente-Dueñas
Etiologic Diversity in the Development of Distinct Molecular Subtypes of B-ALL Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca (IBSAL), Salamanca, Spain

13:30 – 15:00 🍽️ Lunch, poster viewing and group picture

Short talks selected for oral presentation

15:00 Jorge Martínez-Cano
Ionizing radiation cooperates with Pax5 predisposition to promote childhood B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany

15:15 Mayla Bertagna
Lineage-specific remodeling of CXCL12–CXCR4 signaling in ETV6::RUNX1 pre-leukemia Tettamanti Center, Fondazione IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori, Monza, Italy

15:30 Ana Casado-García
Can Early-Life Immune Training Rewrite the Risk of Infection-Triggered B-ALL in Genetically Predisposed Carriers? Cancer Research Center, Salamanca, Spain.

Session 3: From Genetic predisposition to Leukemia

Chair: Gianni Cazzaniga

15:45 Anindita Roy
Understanding the origins and evolution of preleukaemia in childhood ALL Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

16:15 Ali Farrokhi
From Preleukemia to Prevention: Molecular Characteristics and Vulnerabilities of the Preleukemic State in a Mouse Model of Hyperdiploid B-ALL University of British Columbia: Vancouver, BC, CA

16:45 Simon Haas
«Decoding Cross-Scale Interactions Governing Clinical Trajectories in Leukemia» Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology, MDC Berlin-Mitte, Germany

Short talks selected for oral presentation

17:15 Davide Seruggia
Dissection of cis and trans regulators defines regulatory logic of disease-associated sequence variation at IKZF1 St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute (CCRI) / CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna, Austria)

17:30 Oriol de Barrios
Preventing immune evasion in infant t(4;11) pro-B-ALL: HDAC7 induction as a novel therapeutic approach Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, Badalona (Spain)

17:45 – 18:15 ☕ Coffee break

Looking forward – Prevention for future generations and resource-related challenges (Round Table)

18:15 – 18:30 Joachim Schüz, Gianni Cazzaniga & Isidro Sánchez-Garcia (on behalf of the scientific community)

Presenting the first joint global and multidisciplinary research effort intended to alter the course of childhood B-ALL

18:30 – 19:30 Panel discussion

Chairs: Marta Puyol (AECC, Madrid, Spain) and Laura Galbiati (Fondazione AIRC, Milan, Italy)

Participants:

Janine-Alison Schmidt (Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), Germany)
Christine Williams (Executive director of ACCESS, CIHR, Ontario, Canada)
Gianni Cazzaniga (University of Milano-Bicocca Tettamanti Center, IRCCS San Gerardo, Italy)
Joachim Schüz (International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France)
Isidro Sánchez-García (Cancer Research Center, CSIC-USAL, Salamanca, Spain)
Gregor S. D. Reid (University of British Columbia: Vancouver, BC, Canada) -online-
Elena Huarte-Mendicoa (Fundacion Unoentrecienmil, Madrid, Spain)