Richárd Kiss, M.D., Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Pathology, Head of the Paediatric Neoplasms Diagnostic Advancements (PANDA) Research Group, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the HCEMM-SE Molecular Oncohematology Research Group, Department of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. He completed his medical training at Semmelweis University in 2016 and earned his Ph.D. in Experimental Oncology from the Doctoral School of Pathological Sciences in 2020, with a dissertation focused on the utility of multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) in the copy number profiling of oncohematological diseases. He subsequently completed his pathology residency at the same institution in 2023.
His research interests lie at the intersection of molecular diagnostics, clonal evolution, and precision oncology, with a particular focus on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), pediatric hematological malignancies, and pediatric solid tumors. His work has contributed to defining mechanisms of acquired resistance to targeted therapies such as ibrutinib and venetoclax in CLL, and to the development of high-throughput genomic copy number profiling methods for clinical diagnostic use in both pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia and multiple myeloma. Since 2022, he has served as the principal investigator of a PD-OTKA grant from the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, directing a project on the molecular genetic characterization of clonal evolution and therapeutic targets in childhood soft tissue sarcomas.
Dr. Kiss has authored or co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications, including first-author papers in leading international journals such as Haematologica (IF: 7.9), Modern Pathology (IF: 5.5), Virchows Archive (IF: 3.1), and the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics (IF: 3.4). His cumulative impact factor exceeds 58, and his work has attracted several hundred independent citations. He has presented his research at more than 30 invited and conference presentations.
Beyond his research activities, Dr. Kiss is an active lecturer of pathology in both the English and Hungarian programs of the Semmelweis University Faculty of Medicine. Since 2025, he serves as a PhD supervisor at the Doctoral School of Pathological Sciences, and supervises multiple graduate research students at the Department of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research. Among those students, Júlia Marianna Kárpáti and Janka Hédi Hófer both successfully defended their graduate theses under his supervision in 2025. Kárpáti’s thesis — on the comprehensive genomic profiling of therapeutically targetable molecular genetic alterations in pediatric soft tissue sarcomas — earned a 1st place at the institutional Scientific Students’ Conference (TDK) and a 1st prize at the Meeting of Young Pathologists, a 2nd place at the National Scientific Students’ Conference (OTDK), and a 3rd place at the XXIX. Frigyes Korányi Scientific Forum, along with special awards from the Hungarian Society of Pediatricians and the Hungarian Society of Human Genetics and Genomics, and a 3rd prize at the Rector’s Competition — all in 2025 as first author. Hófer’s thesis — on the spatial and temporal clonal evolution of pediatric soft tissue tumors by molecular genetic methods — received a Rector’s Competition Honorable Mention (2025) and a 3rd prize at the Scientific Students’ Conference (TDK, 2026). He also serves as a mentor in the university’s Kerpel-Fronius Ödön Talent Development Program. Since 2024, he serves as a Supervisory Board Member of the Hungarian Cancer Research and Molecular Pathology Foundation, and regularly appears as a medical and scientific expert in the Foundation’s educational programmes, including the Rákkutatók Podcast, Rákkutatók Vlog, and RÁKelTÉRÍTŐ video series. He also served as the project lead of C80 – The Aesthetics of Cancer? (EUniWell Seed Fund, 2023–2024), an interdisciplinary art-science project developed in consortium with the University of Florence, University of Murcia, and Linnaeus University, which explored the experience of cancer through contemporary art and received wide national media coverage. In 2026, he organised “Space Keeps Count of Everything”, an educational session on free dance and open-score performance held at the Department of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research, featuring artists and musicians of Willany Leó under the direction of Zoltán Grecsó; the programme combined an integrated anatomical perspective with participatory group exercises and was primarily aimed at health science students. He is the editor of cmlinformacio.com, a Hungarian patient information platform dedicated to chronic myeloid leukemia, and regularly organizes patient education events for people living with lymphomas and leukemias. His contributions have been recognized with the Outstanding Young Researcher Merit Award by the Faculty of Medicine (2023), a first prize at the National Scientific Students’ Conference (OTDK, 2017), and a special award at the MOHA-MÚSZ Lymphoma Media Competition (2017).