FA Europe Scientific Meeting, Gdansk, May 7-8, 2026
Event Report and Save the Date for 2027!
Join us at next year’s meeting in Madrid, 24-25 September 2027.
From the evening of Wednesday 6th to Friday 8th May 2026, over 85 clinicians, scientists and patient support group representatives gathered together, both formally and informally, for the 3rd annual FA Europe Scientific Meeting at the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland. The agenda covered a wide range of topics from patient experience to fundamental science. We were delighted to welcome as speakers both Matt Farrow, the world’s first cord blood transplant recipient and Prof Eliane Gluckman, who performed the transplant in 1988.
This event is the largest annual gathering of FA specialists in Europe. These meetings are deliberately held as in-person only, as the key intent is to bring the experts together to encourage knowledge sharing, collaboration and learning about the latest research. This year 14 European countries were represented, as were the US and Canada. For the first time we were delighted to welcome a clinician from the Ukraine and researchers from Finland. This is the full list of countries involved: Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Ukraine, United States.
A number of opportunities and commitments to work together were made during the event including (but not limited to):
- Support from the UK for the development of the Polish Registry
- Support from Poland on training for the Ukraine in FA diagnostics, including a Ukrainian secondment to Poland for training in the MMC Test
- Advice from Portugal to Poland about MMC Test follow-up
- 3 more clinicians applied to join the Virtual Tumour Advisory Board during the meeting as a result of a talk by Dr. Eunike Velleuer, bringing the current total up to 66 Board members from 12 countries
- An action for FA Europe to manage the development of Europe-wide guidelines for the transition to adult care/adult surveillance. This is to be headed up by Christine Krieg in Germany
- An action on FA Europe to survey the European FA community (i.e. patients, patient support groups, clinicians and researchers) on whether Fanconi Anemia should be renamed, and if so, to what?
- The FA Europe management team reiterated that whilst FA Europe itself is an informal network not a legal entity, letters of support from FA Europe for Clinicians and scientists were available to support grant applications, one fo which has now been requested
Over 2 days the meeting included topics such as:
- Stem cell transplantation and haematology
- Cancer and cancer surveillance
- New and emerging therapies
- Biology of Fanconi anaemia
- Transition to adulthood and lifelong care
- Patient experience and quality of life
To encourage newer researchers in particular, a series of 13 Flash Talks and/or poster presentations were included in the programme. These covered a wide range of topics, including:
- Genotype-Phenotype Stratification in FA-D1
- Novel Therapeutic Targets for Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC
- Development of Preclinical Models
- Structured Surveillance and Registry Insights
- Genomic Instability and Accelerated Aging
- Emerging Personalized Therapies
- Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress
- Fertility and Family Building
Copies of many of the presentations will be made available online when permission from the authors has been received.
We are grateful to all the clinicians, scientists and patient support group representatives for giving up their time to contribute to such an important meeting.
Thank you to those who have made this meeting possible – Our supporters, collaborators and patrons across Europe.
- Famicord, for supporting the participation of Professor Gluckman and Matt Farrow, and subsidising our buffet dinner
- The European Haematology Association for supporting the attendance of several of the speakers.
- The Polish Society of Human Genetics, the Polish Society of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology, and EBMT for their patronage of this event
- The Organising team—Anna, Krys, Julia and Jolanta here in Poland, Christine and Birgitte in Germany, and Samir in the Netherlands
- Paula Rio, Carlo Dufour and Eunike Velleuer for leading the Scientific Committee and shaping the programme.
- The European patient support groups who have provided the majority of the funds for this event
- The Medical University in Gdansk for providing the excellent venue free of charge.
- To all attendees for travelling, often long distances, to be at the event.
And finally…. Save the Date! Next year’s Scientific Meeting will be in Madrid, 24-25 September 2027.
Please help sustain our FA Europe Scientific Meetings by donating here.