2020 E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize Recipient: Toshio Suda, MD, PhD

ASH will present the 2020 E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize to Toshio Suda, MD, PhD, of the National University of Singapore and the International Research Center for Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University in Japan for his outstanding contributions to the field of stem cell research.

This lectureship and prize, established in 1992, was named after the late Nobel Prize laureate and past president of ASH E. Donnall Thomas, MD. The E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize recognizes pioneering research achievements in hematology that represent a paradigm shift or significant discovery in the field.

Dr. Suda will present his lecture at the 62nd ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition.

“It is a great honor for a stem cell biologist like me to receive the award named after Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, a renowned expert in bone marrow transplantation,” said Dr. Suda. “I am grateful to be acknowledged by ASH, and I accept this award with gratitude to my colleagues, whose hard work has been critical to our discoveries.”

Dr. Suda is internationally respected for his 40-year career during which he has focused predominately on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and the stem cell niche. His work has encompassed the purification of HSCs, identification of cytokine signaling in hematopoiesis, and characterization of HSC niches in the bone marrow. Through his research, Dr. Suda has provided new insights into molecular regulation of HSCs and improved the field’s understanding of the hematopoietic system. He identified the metabolism in the hypoxic niche for HSCs in the bone marrow, and also established the new field of oxidative stress in HSCs.

Dr. Suda has published more than 435 peer-reviewed papers in Blood, Nature, Nature Medicine, Cell, Cell Stem Cell, Immunity, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Suda has trained more than 100 graduate students in Japan, many of whom have become professors or primary investigators at various universities and are now leading research into stem cell biology, cancer biology, and clinical hematology.