ASBMT Transplant Clinical Research
Course Will Fill Training Gap
“Clinical training programs in blood and marrow transplantation don't fully cover the principles of taking basic research findings from the laboratory to the clinic. Nor do they adequately prepare the best young physicians for academic careers in blood and marrow transplantation," said Armand Keating, MD, ASBMT past-president.
"We expect the ASBMT Transplant Clinical Research Training Course to address those deficiencies and help close the gap," he said.
Dr. Keating is chair of the committee that has developed the course that will be held in mid-July in Keystone, Colo. Ten new clinicians and investigators have been selected to participate in the first edition of the course, which the Society expects to hold annually.
The six-day course is designed to assist fellows and young faculty in career paths toward successful clinical research in blood and marrow transplantation. The participants were selected competitively from among 30 submitted applications, each including a proposed research project.
Major funding for the clinical research training course is being provided by Amgen, Merck, PDL BioPharma, Genzyme Transplant and Abbott Molecular.
The fellow-in-training participants will be:
Ann Mullally, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
Phillippe Armand, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber, Boston
Carlos Almeida Ramos, MD, M.D. Anderson, Houston
Alana Kennedy-Nasser, MD, Baylor, Houston
Kirsten Williams, MD, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda
Jeanne Palmer, MD, Duke, Durham
Guillermo J. Ruiz Delgado, MD, Hospital Universitario,
Monterrey, Mexico
The junior faculty participants will be:
Guenther Koehne, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering,
New York
Carrie Kitko, MD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
G. Doug Myers, MD, Baylor, Houston
The course is modeled after similar ASH and ASCO courses, but focused on issues in hematopoietic cell transplantation. The course directors are Daniel Weisdorf, MD, of the University of Minnesota, and Nelson Chao, MD, of Duke University. They, together with six other faculty members, will lead the sessions, as well as share their career stories and counsel. Free time for rest, recreation and creative thinking is built into the schedule.
The faculty members for the transplant clinical research training course are:
Chris Bredeson, MD, MSc, Medical College of Wisconsin – clinical trial development, monitoring and data management
Dr. Chao – mechanisms of GvHD, graft manipulation, animal models and grant writing/grantsmanship
Corey Cutler, MD, MPH, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – GvHD, new drug studies and translational studies
Armand Keating, MD, Princess Margaret Hospital Cancer Center, Toronto – stem cell biology, gene therapy and translational studies
Ginna Laport, MD, Stanford University – cancer trials, new agents and multicenter trials
Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center – quality of life/late effects
Brent Logan, PhD, Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research – statistics
Jeffrey Miller, MD, University of Minnesota – cellular and molecular mechanisms of immunologic anti-cancer therapy
Dr. Weisdorf – GvHD clinical and translational trials and complications of transplant