Falko Fend, MD, is Full Professor of Pathology and Chairman of the Institute of Pathology and Neuropathology and Reference Center for Hematopathology at the Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen, Germany.

He did his postgraduate training in the Departments of Pathology and Internal Medicine at Innsbruck University and joined the Department of Pathology as staff pathologist in 1991. From 1997-1999, he worked as research fellow at the Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, with Mark Raffeld and Elaine Jaffe. In 1999, he was appointed Associate Professor of Pathology at the Institute of Pathology of the Technical University Munich. In 2007, he moved to his current position at the University of Tübingen. His main research interest focuses on the pathology and molecular genetics of malignant lymphomas and innovative molecular pathology. He obtained competitive funding from multiple national and international grant agencies, has authored or co-authored over 450 publications and has contributed to major textbooks and reference works. He serves/-ed as member of the executive boards of the German Society of Pathology, the European Association of Haematopathology, the Advisory Board and Council of the European Society of Pathology and as Chairman of the European Bone Marrow Working Group.

Dr. Choi completed his residency in Anatomic Pathology and a fellowship in hematopathology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Upon completion, he joined the Department of Pathology at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania as a hematopathologist.  After three years, he was recruited and moved 100 yards to establish a pediatric hematopathology program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. After 10 years and successfully building a highly regarded pediatric hematopathology service, Dr. Choi was recruited and moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where he maintained a top pediatric hematopathology service and established clinical flow-based minimal residual disease (MRD) assays for national acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) protocols.  After 9 years, he was recruited to UAB.

Dr. Choi has published over 100 peer reviewed articles and over 20 book chapters with two main research focuses. Early in his career, his focus was more bench science based and focuses on increasing our understanding of the transcription factor TCF3 and its relationship to normal and leukemic B cell development. His current research focus is clinically based and applies new approaches to diagnose difficult pathologic entities.  He has two patents and has been involved in several clinical trials on oncology related drug research throughout his career. His teaching and lecturing resume is extensive.