MOLECULAR PATHOLOGY COURSE

COURSE PROGRAMME

All session times are in Turkey Time (GMT+3).
Please make sure to convert to your local time zone.

4.10.2025 SATURDAY

	Course Director: Sibel Erdamar MD.
10:00-10:15	Opening Session
10:15-11:30	Section 1 Moderators: Işınsu Kuzu MD. & Serpil Dizbay Sak MD.
10:15-10:45	Basic Principles and Practical Tips for Optimal Specimen Utilization to Improve Molecular Testing Success, Preanalitic Conditions Sibel Erdamar, MD
10:50-11:30	Testing Strategies for Tumor Type Agnostic Biomarkers: What You Need to Know İbrahim Kulaç, MD
11:30 -12:30	Section 2 Moderator: Ayça Erşen Danyeli MD.
	Methylation Profiling of Tumors: Next Level Precision Felix Sahm, MD., PhD
12:30-13:00	Break
13:00-14:00	Section 3 Moderator: Süheyla Bozkurt MD.
	HRD Testing in Molecular Pathology: Current Practices and Emerging Horizons Zehra Ordulu, MD
14:00-15:00	Section 4 Moderator: İbrahim Kulaç MD.
	FGFR3 Alterations in Urothelial Carcinoma and Beyond - Practical Approach and Clinical Implication Hikmat Al- Ahmadie, MD & Jie-fu Chen, MD
15:00-16:00	Section 5 Moderator: Sibel Erdamar MD.
	New and Emerging Molecular Biomarkers for Precision Predictive Therapy for Colorectal Cancer Antonia Sepulveda, MD. PhD
16:00-17:00	Section 6 Moderators: Serpil Dizbay Sak MD. & Yeşim Gaye Güler MD, PhD
	Molecular Testing in Thyroid Carcinomas: Diagnostic and Predictive Applications in Surgical Pathology Özgür Mete, MD., FRCPC
17:00-18:00	Section 7 Moderator: Işınsu Kuzu MD. & Sibel Erdamar MD.
	Spatial Transcriptional Profiling: Seeing the Unseen in the Tumor Microenvironment Jonathan Nowak, MD., PhD

Prof Dr Dr Sahm, MD, PhD, MBA is a board-certified neuropathologist, Vice-Chair of the Dept. of Neuropathology and Head of the Div. Molecular Neuropathology at Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany.

His record is centred around successful development of biomarkers and assays from discovery to clinical application, including accreditation, commercialisation and reimbursement. As a result, Dr Sahm serves as advisor for several pharma companies, guideline and accreditation authorities.d

He is Full Professor of Neuropathology at University of Heidelberg, Faculty of the National Center for TumorDiseases (NCT) Germany, and co-speaker of the Molecular Diagnostics and Early Detection branch of the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK).

Prof Sahm earned his MD from Heidelberg University, Germany in 2012; PhD from University of Kent, UK in 2017; and MBA with specialization in biotech and healthcare from IE Business School, Madrid, Spain in 2015.

The research group he leads focuses on the identification of novel biomarkers for diagnosis, prognostication and prediction of response in brain tumors. They typically implement the findings immediately in routine diagnostics, while challenges in patient care in turn inform the priorities of their research.

This approach has resulted in a variety of discoveries and assay developments with over 300 publications (first / senior author e.g. in Lancet Oncology, JCO, Nature Cancer, Nature Medicine). These include the application of DNA methylation for the grading of meningiomas, discovery of a variety of novel targetable alterations in different brain tumour types, or early development and implementation of routine next-generation-sequencing on DNA and RNA. Likewise, the findings led to more accurate delineation of tumor subtypes with clinical relevance. More recently, his group developed methods to make the diagnostic process much faster, employing novel long-read sequencing technology that allows intra-operative molecular testing.

Several of these developments resulted in first-of-its-kind reimbursement schemes in Germany,

His studies are based on a large network of outstanding international collaborators, with focus on the US (UCSF, Harvard, Mayo), France and the UK, and more recently in LMIC via the Molecular Neuropathology Outreach Consortium, of which he is Chair of the Steering Committee.

Prof Sahm serves in several trials of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) as reference molecular neuropathologist. He is author of multiple guidelines for the German Societies of Neurology, Pathology, Neuropathology, or Radiooncology, the European Association of Neuro-oncology (EANO), the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO). Prof Sahm serves as member of the working group for the WHO classification, the cIMPACT Steering Committee of the International Society of Neuropathology, the ITCC-Brain Steering Committee, as chair of the EORTCBTG Translational Research Committee, and formerly as member of the EANO Executive committee. He is also member of the National Expert Council for Accreditation and auditor for the German Accreditation Body.

Prof Sahm is co-founder of the academic spin-off Heidelberg Epignostix GmbH, a company founded 2023. Epignostix offers SaaMD-solutions based on their proprietary, patented approach of classifying tumors more accurately with a DNA methylation-based AI application. This approach has already been endorsed by the WHO, NCCN and other guidelines and the first product of the company received its dedicated CPT MAAA code in 2024.

Ozgur Mete, MD, FRCPC is a Senior Consultant Endocrine Pathologist at the University Health Network, and Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto (Ozgur Mete | Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology).

Dr. Mete received his medical degree from Istanbul University in 2001 and completed his residency training in Anatomical Pathology at Istanbul University in 2005. He then did fellowship training (2009-2010) in endocrine pathology under the supervision of Professor Sylvia L. Asa at the University of Toronto. He was appointed as an academic pathologist at Istanbul University before joining the faculty at the University of Toronto in January, 2011.

As a Clinician Investigator, Dr. Mete’s research focusses on the translation of basic findings to clinical tests that provide diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers for endocrine and neuroendocrine neoplasms. His other interests involve development of practice guidelines, digital pathology, and innovative teaching designs.

In 2013, Dr. Mete received the Danny Ghazarian Resident Teaching Award, and in 2014 and 2017 the prestigious Wightman-Berris Academy Award for excellence in undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching at the University of Toronto. In 2018, Dr. Mete received the teaching excellence award of the MD program at the University of Toronto as well as the undergraduate teaching award of the Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. Dr Mete is currently the Anatomic Pathology Residency Site Director at the University Health Network.

Dr. Mete has lectured in many international meetings, has co-edited 5 pathology textbooks, and authored over 140 textbook chapters, and more than 250 peer-reviewed journal articles in endocrine pathology.

As a World Health Organization (WHO) recognized international disease expert, Dr Ozgur Mete has been appointed as one of the expert editors for the 5th series of the WHO endocrine and neuroendocrine, and the WHO head&neck bluebooks. In addition, Dr Mete served as a leading author in several chapters for the 4th and 5th editions of the WHO classification of endocrine and neuroendocrine tumors, and he has been actively involved in endocrine chapters in the 5th series of the WHO central nervous system, pediatric, genitourinary, head&neck and genetic tumor syndromes bluebooks.

Dr. Mete is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Endocrine Pathology Journal and served as the President of Endocrine Pathology Society (2020-2022). Dr Mete is also a member of the College of American Pathologists (CAP)’s Cancer Committee and has been appointed to lead the CAP endocrine tumor protocols since 2019.