Transfusion Biology and Cellular Therapies

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

PROJECT SUMMARY For the past century, a major focus for Transfusion Medicine has been the immune compatibility of blood components with added attention to the safe and appropriate use of blood products. The success of these investigations has fueled expansive growth in the field with efforts focused on developing novel blood components for transfusion and to generate cellular therapies. These activities require a concerted effort to link advances in basic science with therapeutic interventions in the clinic. Transfusion Medicine Scientists and Specialists lead the effort to train individuals to advance blood and hematopoietic cellular therapies. The overall goal of the Program in Transfusion Biology and Cellular Therapies continues to be the preparation of M.D., M.D./Ph.D. or Ph.D. postdoctoral fellows for biomedical research careers. This long-standing program entering its third decade has supported 80 postdoctoral fellows with over 40% of trainees being women or underrepresented individuals. The T32 supports 8 postdoctoral fellows for 2-3 years enabling them to move on to leading positions in academia or industry. As the field of Transfusion Medicine continues to grow, as does the program to include the scientific areas around Immunobiology, Hematopoiesis, and Cellular Therapy. Major strengths of our multi-disciplinary program include utilizing the strong clinical and basic research environments at Harvard Medical School involving Boston Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham & Women's Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition to scientific investigation, we have developed programs to a) educate trainees in responsible conduct of research, grant writing, laboratory management, and ensuring rigor and reproducibility of data b) offer opportunities to develop skills in public speaking c) recruit and retain trainees from underrepresented or disadvantaged groups and d) maintain academic oversight for scholarship to advance career development. Dr. John Manis will continue his role as overall PI and has expanded the number of Program co-Directors to effectively represent both basic science and clinical Transfusion Medicine. These leaders will be responsible for the scientific direction of the training program, the mentoring of trainees as well as junior faculty, and monitoring milestones to ensure continued success. We have assembled our faculty roster this year to increase contemporary scientific representation from disciplines related to Transfusion and to better reflect the needs of our applicant pool. We believe our approach of including broad representation of clinical, basic and translational research talent is a fundamental strength of our program and fits well with the evolving field of Transfusion Biology and Cellular Therapies. This distinctive training approach has generated a unique environment for trainees in the Harvard Medical Area and ours remains a highly sought-after program. The outstanding pool of applicants and recruitment of faculty dedicated to the program has facilitated this goal. Our evolving Training Program strives to provide a unique and rich training environment for academic transfusion biology and cellular therapies.