2007-11-01

E. Donnall Thomas Lecture & Prize

Robert Hromas, MD

Dr. Hromas is Professor and Chief of Hematology-Oncology at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center.

Hal E. Broxmeyer, PhD, hand carried the cord blood to France in 1988 for the first cord blood stem cell transplant in the world. The recipient, a young boy with severe Fanconi anemia, needed these cells obtained at birth from his baby sister to replace his own damaged marrow. The recipient is now a thriving young man. Since then, about 10,000 such transplants have been performed worldwide to treat many malignant and non-malignant disorders. For showing that cord blood was a source of transplantable hematopoietic stem cells, and for the first processing and cord blood banking effort, Dr. Broxmeyer is the recipient of the E. Donnall Thomas Lecture & Prize this year. For this contribution, he has also won the Karl Landsteiner Award from the American Association of Blood Banks and the Gold Medal of the City of Paris. Dr. Broxmeyer has also led studies on negative regulators of hematopoiesis and chemokine-controlled trafficking of hematopoietic stem cells. This latter effort produced novel clinical methods of mobilizing peripheral blood stem cells for transplantation. In all, Dr. Broxmeyer has published more than 620 papers. He currently is the Scientific Director of the Walther Oncology Center, and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He has been a Councillor for ASH, Chair of the NIH Hem-2 Study Section, and President of the ISEH. He also organized the first International Conference on Cord Blood Transplantation. Dr. Broxmeyer’s lecture, "The Road to and Future of Cord Blood Transplantation," will take place on Monday, December 10, at 9:30 a.m. during the ASH annual meeting.

Henry M. Stratton Medal

Sharon B. Murphy, MD

Dr. Murphy is Director of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Murphy is also Chair of the ASH Awards Committee.

The 2007 recipient of the Henry M. Stratton Medal is Carlo Croce, MD, who is recognized for his seminal contributions to the understanding of the molecular genetics of lymphomas and leukemias. Dr. Croce has had a distinguished career and is currently Professor and Chairman of the Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Medical Genetics and Director of the Human Cancer Genetics Program at the Ohio State University School of Medicine in Columbus. He was among the first to recognize the importance of chromosomal translocations in B-cell neoplasia, opening new avenues of research into genetic mechanisms of disease pathogenesis. Among his many contributions have been the discovery, molecular cloning, and characterization of a number of oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and microRNAs, including bcl-1, bcl-2, Tcl-1, and MLL1. Dr. Croce is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has been recognized by numerous prestigious honors and awards, including the Mott Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, and the Pezcoller International Award for Cancer Research and the Clowes Award from AACR. The Henry M. Stratton Medal will be presented to Dr. Croce on Tuesday, December 11, at 9:30 a.m. during the Presidential Symposium.

William Dameshek Prize

Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, FACP

Dr. Kaushansky is Helen M. Ranney Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Kaushansky is also President-Elect of ASH.

The 2007 recipient of the William Dameshek Prize is William P. Vainchenker, MD, PhD, who is recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of normal and neoplastic hematopoiesis, and particularly for his recent insights into the genetic basis for the myeloproliferative diseases. Dr. Vainchenker has had a distinguished career and is currently INSERM Directeur de Recherche Exceptionnel and Director of the INSERM Unit 790, focusing on hematopoiesis and normal and leukemic stem cells at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France. Dr. Vainchenker was among the first investigators to grow megakaryocyte colonies in vitro. He participated in the characterization of the c-Mpl proto-oncogene, contributed to the understanding of the physiology of thrombopoietin and its receptor, and identified the humoral mediators of myelofibrosis. Three years ago, Dr. Vainchenker was the first to identify the Jak2V617F mutation in virtually all patients with polycythemia vera and about half of patients with idiopathic myelofibrosis and essential thrombocythemia. Dr. Vainchenker has received numerous awards from a number of French and international scientific organizations. The William Dameshek Prize will be presented to Dr. Vainchenker on Tuesday, December 11, at 9:30 a.m. during the Presidential Symposium.

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