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Chief Medical Advisor

Peter Hillmen, MB, CHB, PHD

  • Apellis Pharmaceuticals
  • United Kingdom

About Peter

Professor Peter Hillmen is an Emeritus Professor of Haematology at the University of Leeds and since May 2022 has been employed by Apellis Pharmaceuticals. He qualified in Medicine at Leeds University Medical School in 1985 and completed his general medical training in Leeds in 1988. He then spent 5 years specialising in hematology at the Hammersmith Hospital including completing a PhD on the pathophysiology of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) under the supervision of Professor Lucio Luzzatto. He returned to Leeds in 1994 and was appointed Professor of Haematology at the University of Leeds in 2013. Professor Hillmen’s research interests include both paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).  Understanding the pathophysiology of CLL and developing novel therapies for the disease has been an interest of his since 1995. His group pioneered the use of measurable residual disease (MRD) assessment in CLL. He Chaired the NCRI CLL sub-group between 2002 and 2018 and Chaired the NCRI Haematological Oncology Research Group, which oversees UK trials in leukemia and related conditions, from 2017 to 2022. Prof Hillmen led the initial trials of eculizumab in PNH from 2002 and subsequently established the UK National PNH Service.  He has been the Chief Investigator of many Phase I-III CLL Trials since 1996 including recently the NCRI FLAIR Trial. He was the Chair of the International PNH Interest Group (IPIG) and of the Executive Committee of the Global PNH Registry from 2004 to 2022.  He is a member of the International Workshop on CLL (iwCLL) and was the Chair of the iwCLL Executive from 2019 to 2023. He has published over 250 papers mostly on PNH and CLL. In 2017 was awarded the Binet-Rai Medal for his outstanding contribution to CLL research and in December 2022 he delivered the Ernest Beutler lecture at the American Society of Hematology meeting recognizing his 30 years of research into PNH and complement inhibition.