Researcher

Title

• Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal

• 2002 Doctorate (PhD) in Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS), Brazil. He defended his PhD dissertation (Association of CD34 cell dose with hematopoietic recovery, infections, and other outcomes after identical HLA-identical sibling bone marrow transplantation) on March 27, 2002.
• 2000 Fellowship, Bone Marrow Transplantation, Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris, France
• 2000 University degree “Infection in Hemato-Oncology,” Paris 12 Val de Marne University - Paris-Val-de-Marne, France.
• 1999 University degree “Cell Therapy,” Paris 7 Denis-Diderot University, Paris, France.
• 1998 MSc in Health, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He defended his Master’s thesis (Use of hematopoietic growth factors in relapsed or refractory acute leukemia patients treated with high-dose chemotherapies) on July 17, 1998.
• 1996 Residency in Hematology, Porto Alegre Clinical Hospital (Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
• 1993 Residency in Internal Medicine, Porto Alegre Clinical Hospital, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
• 1990 Medical Studies: Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

• Treatment of acute, chronic, de novo and relapsed leukemias;
• Hematopoietic stem cell transplant and cell therapy with effector cells;
• Transplantation conditioning regimens
• Post-transplantation complications
• Graft-vs-Host (GVH) disease and graft-vs-Leukemia (GVL) effect
• Early Cancer Therapy (Phase 1/2)

Career Summary

Professor at the University of Montreal since 2010.

Initial training in internal medicine and hematology at Porto Alegre Clinical Hospital, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

Complementary training in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris, France.

His career began in the Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Department at Porto Alegre Clinical Hospital, Porto Alegre, Brazil. He then created and coordinated the Bone Marrow Transplantation Department of the Santa Casa Hospital Complex, Porto Alegre, Brazil. At the end of 2004, he joined the hemato-oncology team at the Clinical Hospital of the Minas Gerais Federal University in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where he coordinated the bone marrow transplantation program and was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of the Minas Gerais Federal University.

At the beginning of 2010, he joined the hemato-oncology team (Hematopoietic Stem Sell Transplantation Program) at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center.

Publications

PubMed

• Benefits and challenges with diagnosing chronic and late acute GVHD in children using the NIH consensus criteria. Cuvelier GDE, Nemecek ER, Wahlstrom JT, Kitko CL, Lewis VA, Schechter T, Jacobsohn DA, Harris AC, Pulsipher MA, Bittencourt H, Choi SW, Caywood EH, Kasow KA, Bhatia M, Oshrine BR, Flower A, Chaudhury S, Coulter D, Chewning JH, Joyce M, Savaşan S, Pawlowska AB, Megason GC, Mitchell D, Cheerva AC, Lawitschka A, West LJ, Pan B, Al Hamarneh YN, Halevy A, Schultz KR. Blood. 2019 Jul 18;134(3):304-316.
• CTL019 (tisagenlecleucel): CAR-T therapy for relapsed and refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Vairy S, Garcia JL, Teira P, Bittencourt H. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2018 Nov 12;12:3885-3898.
• Genetic mechanisms of target antigen loss in CAR19 therapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Orlando EJ, Han X, Tribouley C, Wood PA, Leary RJ, Riester M, Levine JE, Qayed M, Grupp SA, Boyer M, De Moerloose B, Nemecek ER, Bittencourt H, Hiramatsu H, Buechner J, Davies SM, Verneris MR, Nguyen K, Brogdon JL, Bitter H, Morrissey M, Pierog P, Pantano S, Engelman JA, Winckler W. Nat Med. 2018 Oct;24(10):1504-1506.
• Incorporation of GSTA1 genetic variations into a population pharmacokinetic model for IV busulfan in paediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Nava T, Kassir N, Rezgui MA, Uppugunduri CRS, Huezo-Diaz Curtis P, Duval M, Théoret Y, Daudt LE, Litalien C, Ansari M, Krajinovic M, Bittencourt H. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2018 Jul;84(7):1494-1504.
• Tisagenlecleucel in Children and Young Adults with B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia.Maude SL, Laetsch TW, Buechner J, Rives S, Boyer M, Bittencourt H, Bader P, Verneris MR, Stefanski HE, Myers GD, Qayed M, De Moerloose B, Hiramatsu H, Schlis K, Davis KL, Martin PL, Nemecek ER, Yanik GA, Peters C, Baruchel A, Boissel N, Mechinaud F, Balduzzi A, Krueger J, June CH, Levine BL, Wood P, Taran T, Leung M, Mueller KT, Zhang Y, Sen K, Lebwohl D, Pulsipher MA, Grupp SA. N Engl J Med. 2018 Feb 1;378(5):439-448.
• A phase 1 study of azacitidine combined with chemotherapy in childhood leukemia: a report from the TACL consortium. Sun W, Triche T Jr, Malvar J, Gaynon P, Sposto R, Yang X, Bittencourt H, Place AE, Messinger Y, Fraser C, Dalla-Pozza L, Salhia B, Jones P, Wayne AS, Gore L, Cooper TM, Liang G. Blood. 2018 Mar 8;131(10):1145-1148.
• GSTA1 Genetic Variants and Conditioning Regimen: Missing Key Factors in Dosing Guidelines of Busulfan in Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. Nava T, Rezgui MA, Uppugunduri CRS, Curtis PH, Théoret Y, Duval M, Daudt LE, Ansari M, Krajinovic M, Bittencourt H. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2017 Nov;23(11):1918-1924.