New clinical professor of haematology at Odense University Hospital and SDU

Kim Theilgaard-Mönch comes from a position as Consultant in Haematology, Research Group Leader and Associate Professor at Rigshospitalet's Department of Haematology and the Finsen Laboratory as well as the Biotech Research and Innovation Center at the University of Copenhagen.

Kim Theilgaard-Mönch's research area focuses on acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), an aggressive and life-threatening form of blood cancer with very poor long-term survival (<30% 5-year survival in Denmark) due to resistance or frequent relapses after standard treatment. There is therefore a great need for research projects that develop new and more effective treatments and test these in clinical trials to improve the survival of AML patients.

His research group is testing the effect of new treatments on AML patient cells in preclinical studies. Here, they investigate how the new treatments can eliminate cancer cells from AML patients in both cell culture and humanized AML mouse models, so that the new treatments can benefit the patients as quickly as possible.

One of the reasons why Kim Theilgaard-Mönch has applied for the professorship is that SDU and OUH have a vision of a close translational collaboration between clinical and basic laboratory research, not least in connection with the merger of SDU and OUH on the same campus. As a "clinician scientist", he combines clinical work with laboratory research and clinical trials and thus hopes to be able to contribute to this SDU-OUH vision as well as contribute to educating new researchers in translational research.

Kim Theilgaard-Mönch's research group is internationally recognized for its work on patient-oriented translational AML research. In addition, he leads an investigator-initiated pan-Nordic LD-VenEx trial for AML patients.

Kim Theilgaard-Mönch is acting chairman of the Danish Medicines Council's expert committee for AML and ALL and a board member of the Danish Acute Leukaemia Group (ALG) and the Nordic Acute Myeloid Leukaemia Group (NAMLG), including chairman of their working group for clinical trials.

Kim currently lives in Malmö and has two adult children and a partner. When he is not working, he enjoys being in nature, playing sports, cooking, going to concerts and museums with friends and family.