In the next installment of ASTCT’s Titans of Transplant series, Susan Slater, nurse practitioner and recipient of the Best APP Abstract Award at the 2016 BMT Tandem meetings and the 2020 APP SIG Lifetime Achievement Award, is interviewed by Dr. Jennifer Saultz, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Oregon Healthy & Science University and a member of the Adult Transplant and cellular therapy team.

About Susan Slater

Susan Slater, MN, FNP-BC is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University. She has 25 years’ experience as nurse practitioner caring for patients with hematologic malignancies undergoing stem cell transplantation. Her main focus of care is long-term follow up and survivorship care. She’s the recipient of the Best APP Abstract Award at the 2016 BMT Tandem meetings as well as the 2020 APP SIG Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the co-editor of Blood and Marrow Transplant Handbook which is currently in its third edition. She also serves as the Co-director of the Knight Cancer Institute APP Fellowship Program and looks forward to enrolling the first cohort of fellows in January, 2023.

About Jennifer Saultz

Dr. Jennifer Saultz (@jennifernsaultz) is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Oregon Healthy & Science University and a member of the Adult Transplant and cellular therapy team. Her research focuses on the innate immune resistance signatures in AML. She is also a member of the ASTCT Content Committee.

The Titans of Transplant series seeks to recognize, celebrate and chronicle the physicians, researchers, pharmacists, nurses, social workers and more who were on the frontlines of the early days of transplant.

In this latest episode of ASTCT Talks, Dr. Steven Pergam talks with Dr. Amy Spallone and Dr. Emily Ford to discuss Monkeypox in HCT and CAR T. They cover the basics of Monkeypox, risk factors for Monkeypox among patients, presenting symptoms for Monkeypox, vaccines for Monkeypox and more.

About Dr. Steven Pergam

Dr. Steven Pergam (@PergamIC) is an Infectious Diseases Physician and Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in the Division of Vaccine and Infectious Diseases.  He is also the Infection Prevention Director of the Cancer Center, and a faculty member of the University of Washington's Division of Allergy & Infectious Diseases.  His research focuses on the epidemiology, treatment and prevention in high-risk immunosuppressed cancer patients.  He is particularly interested in vaccines and hospital acquired pathogens, and is a member of the ASTCT Infectious Diseases Special Interest Group.

About Dr. Amy Spallone

Dr. Amy Spallone (@A_Spallonii) is an Infectious Diseases physician at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. After completing a 2-year clinical fellowship and a 1-year advanced research fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine, she joined the faculty in 2021 at MD Anderson, where she is the Associate Chief Infection Control Officer and Patient Safety & Quality Officer in her department. She is also involved in numerous treatment and lab-based clinical trials focused on viral pathogens in patients with hematologic malignancies and recipients of hematopoietic cell transplants and cellular therapies

About Dr. Emily Ford

Dr. Emily Ford is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington and an Associate in the Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. She is a physician on the Infectious Diseases consult service at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and in the Roosevelt Virology Clinic at the University of Washington in Seattle.

In the next installment of ASTCT’s Titans of Transplant series, Dr. John. F. DiPersio, an internationally recognized leader in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and acute leukemia and past president of ASTCT (2019) is interviewed by Dr. Roman Shapiro.

About Dr. John F. DiPersio

John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD is deputy director at Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, director at Center for Gene and Cellular Immunotherapy and chief of the division of oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Virginia E. and Samuel J. Golman professor of medicine. His research focuses on mechanistic and translational aspects of leukemia and stem cell biology. He has played a key role in the clinical development of plerixafor as a mobilizing agent for stem cell transplantation. DiPersio has played a key leadership role in the team-science work at Washington University that has defined the genetic and epigenetic factors that contribute to clonal evolution and relapse in AML. He has served in leadership roles for the American Society of Hematology (ASH), multiple NIH, CIRM, LLS, and CPRIT Study Sections, and has served on NCI’s Board of Scientific Counselors. He is an elected member of ASCI and AAP, and past president of the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (2019).

About Dr. Roman Shapiro

Roman Shapiro, MD is a physician working with the bone marrow transplantation group at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His main clinical and academic interest is the prevention and treatment of malignant disease following stem cell transplant. His contributions to science include optimizing the use of natural killer (NK) cell therapy, including cytokine-induced memory-like (CIML) NK cells, for the prevention and treatment of post-transplant relapse of myeloid disease.

The Titans of Transplant series seeks to recognize, celebrate and chronicle the physicians, researchers, pharmacists, nurses, social workers and more who were on the frontlines of the early days of transplant.

In this latest episode of ASTCT Talks, we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month as Dr. Jennifer Saultz talks with Dr. Eneida Nemecek to highlight her work and share her advocacy, passion and journey to becoming a medical director of clinical research. She explains her experiences as a Latina woman in the field of cellular therapy and transplantation, barriers Hispanic and marginalized groups face in cellular transplantation, inclusivity efforts for health equity, the value of mentor and sponsorship and more.

About Dr. Jennifer Saultz

Dr. Jennifer Saultz is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Oregon Healthy & Science University and a member of the Adult Transplant and cellular therapy team. Her research focuses on the innate immune resistance signatures in AML. She is also a member of the ASTCT Content Committee.

About Dr. Eneida Nemecek

Dr. Eneida Nemecek is a Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Oncology and Medical director of Clinical Research at the Knight Cancer Institute-Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. Her research focuses on bone marrow and cellular therapies, and health services research addressing disparities in access for underrepresented groups. She has served in leadership roles in steering committees for several NIH/NCI-funded cooperative groups. She has also held elected leadership positions as director, trustee or committee chair in multiple organizations including Be The Match/National Marrow Donor Program, Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network, the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium, American Society of Transplant and Cellular Therapies, American Society of Hematology and Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy.

In the next installment of ASTCT’s Titans of Transplant series, Dr. Rainer Storb, one of the pioneers who established allogeneic, or donor, blood stem cell transplantation as a cure for diseases like leukemia and aplastic anemia, is interviewed by Dr. Masumi Ueda.

About Dr. Storb

Rainer Storb, MD, serves as Professor and Head of Transplantation Biology Program Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutch.

About Dr. Ueda

Masumi Ueda, MD, serves as Associate Professor in the Clinical Research Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the Division of Medical Oncology at University of Washington School of Medicine and assistant medical director of inpatient blood and marrow transplantation at University of Washington Medical Center and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Hospital.

The Titans of Transplant series seeks to recognize, celebrate and chronicle the physicians, researchers, pharmacists, nurses, social workers and more who were on the frontlines of the early days of transplant.

In the next installment of ASTCT’s Titans of Transplant series, Dr. Hema Rangarajan, an oncologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a member of the ASTCT Content Committee, speaks with Dr. Adriana Seber, who is a professor of medicine at the University of Miami and the Kalish Family Chair and Chief of Division of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and Vice-President of the Brazilian BMT Society.

The Titans of Transplant series seeks to recognize, celebrate and chronicle the physicians, researchers, pharmacists, nurses, social workers and more who were on the frontlines of the early days of transplant.

In this latest episode of ASTCT Talks, Dr. Andrés Gómez De León, a physician at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León Hematology Service in Monterrey, Mexico, and Dr. Cristóbal Frutos, who is the Coordinator for the Bone Marrow transplant Unito the Hospital Central Instituto de Previsión Social in Asunción Paraguay, discuss the current state of transplant activities and the importance of having access to cell therapies worldwide. Dr. Frutos presented on this topic during the 2022 Tandem Meetings of ASTCT & CIBMTR.

In the next installment of ASTCT’s Titans of Transplant series, Dr. Rahul Banerjee, Advanced Fellow, BMT/CAR-T Therapy, with the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, speaks with Dr. Krishna Komanduri, who is a professor of medicine at the University of Miami and the Kalish Family Chair and Chief of Division of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The Titans of Transplant series seeks to recognize, celebrate and chronicle the physicians, researchers, pharmacists, nurses, social workers and more who were on the frontlines of the early days of transplant.

In the latest episode of ASTCT Talks, Dr. Zainab Shahid, internist in the hematology department of the Levine Cancer Institute Morehead in Charlotte, North Carolina, leads a conversation around ongoing clinical challenges regarding management of COVID-19 in transplant cellular therapy recipients. Dr. Shahid is joined by some of the foremost experts in infectious disease and transplant patients:

In the second installment of ASTCT’s Titans of Transplant series, Dr. Andrés Gómez De León, physician with the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León Hematology Service in Monterrey, Mexico, speaks with Dr. Gregorio Jaimovich, who is the director of the bone marrow transplantation programs of the Favaloro University Hospital and the Anchorena Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Titans of Transplant series seeks to recognize, celebrate and chronicle the physicians, researchers, pharmacists, nurses, social workers and more who were on the frontlines of the early days of transplant.