Introduction
Dr. Michael Hallek is the founder of the German CLL Study Group and was instrumental in the formation of the European Research Initiative on CLL (ERIC). Dr. Hallek received his medical degree from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and he was a research associate at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Between 1994 and 2005, he was head of the Gene Therapy program at the Gene Center at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and was head of the Clinical Cooperation Group for Gene Therapy at the GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health in Munich. Since 2003, he has been a Professor of Internal Medicine, Director and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine I at the University Hospital of Cologne, and he is the Director of the Center of Integrated Oncology (CIO) in Cologne. He has received several awards, including the Rai-Binet Medal in 2013. Dr. Hallek is currently an associate editor of Blood, the premier journal of the American Society of Hematology.