Don’t You … Forget About (C)ME
As you walk away from the 2020 Annual Meeting, don’t forget about continuing education credits. Here are some FAQs, and complete info can be found on the ASH website. Is CME/MOC available? Attendees do not need to attend the live sessions as they air in order to claim...
Classical Hits: A Hematology Review
I’m with Dr. Alice Ma on this one. Classical hematology, or the study of nonmalignant, but not so “benign,” hematologic conditions evokes an image of white bearded, Latin speaking, tweed blazer (with elbow patches) wearing physicians, gathering in dusty, musty...
Beutler Lecture Recap Part 2: A Mind Open to the Possibilities — Ari Melnick, MD
“If nature has taught us anything it is that the impossible is probable.”―Ilyas Kassam, Philosopher While most of us are earnestly playing checkers, Dr. Ari Melnick is playing three-dimensional chess when it comes to unraveling the drivers of leukemogenesis. Moving...
One Size to Fit All: The Quest for the “Universal Donor” in Hematology
As a transfusionist, around Christmas and major holidays I pester my hospital blood bank staff to see if we have enough group “O” red blood cells (RBCs) to serve our patients. O cells lack “A” and “B” antigens on the RBC surface and serve as the “universal donor” for...
Running Behind, But Flying Ahead: Late Breaking Abstracts Pushing Science Forward
In 2020, we are all running behind. Research stalled or halted due to a deadly pandemic becomes just another reason on a long list that prevents us from getting our science finalized before it is shared. Fortunately, ASH provides a mechanism to those scientists whose...
Behind the Podium: Q&A With Dr. Courtney DiNardo
Despite her high profile, Dr. Courtney DiNardo shies away from the spotlight. I am grateful that she took the time to provide insight into the evolution of her career and recent advances in employing “epigenetic targeting” therapies in the treatment of AML. ASH News...
Beutler Lecture Recap Part 1: Translational Science Strikes the Right Chord — Courtney DiNardo, MD, MSc
All those who suffered through the once esoteric agony of mastering the minutiae of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle can now rejoice. As recounted during Monday’s Beutler lecture by Drs. Ari Melnick and Courtney DiNardo from the perspective of a scientist and...
A River Runs Through It
The legacy of E. Donnall Thomas is one that defies comparison, rivaled perhaps only by Marie Curie and Sidney Farber, in his success creating entirely new fields of both scientific exploration and clinical care. The “Father of Bone Marrow Transplantation,” Dr. Thomas...
What a-Treat!
Any physician treating malignancy is acutely aware of the fact that the adverse effects of our treatments can sometimes be as bad as the disease that we are treating. Severe thrombocytopenia is a common complication of treatment for hematologic malignancies and can...
A Low-STaKes Game: Blast-Phase Transformation in Philadelphia Chromosome–Negative Myeloproliferative Neoplasms
What do Silicon Valley longevity fanatics and blast phase transformation of Philadelphia chromosome–negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) have in common? Both are intent on manipulating the signaling axis of STK11-AMPK and related kinases to their benefit....
When the Music Plays Without the CD: How ABC-DLBCLs Thrive Due to BCL10 Gain-of-Function Mutations
“There are more lymphoma mutations than there are labs that study lymphoma mutations,” Dr. Ari Melnick of Weill Cornell Medicine told me over a Zoom chat. He was trying to express that precision medicine in lymphoma is not an easy terrain to navigate, but the Melnick...
It’s a Marathon… and a Sprint?
In the running of a marathon, it is always necessary to run the first mile to get to the 23rd. There is no avoiding the hard work of the race to skip to the finish. Nevertheless, without conserving some energy and saving a certain amount of intestinal fortitude while...
CRISPeR Stem Cells That Make More Hemoglobin F: Potential Cure for Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia?
Sickle cell disease (SCD) and thalassemia affect millions of people around the globe. Patients with SCD can have debilitating complications such as strokes, vaso-occlusive (VOC) disease, and chronic pain, and while red blood cell (RBC) transfusion and novel...
AML-ing While Black: Race, AML and Survival Discrepancies in America
Owning an automobile became increasingly attainable to African Americans in the early 1960s and ‘70s, affording increasing freedom of mobility over the past five decades. With that freedom, came increased discrimination and violence. Driving While Black: Race, Space...
Die Hard: The Story of the BCL-2 Family of Apoptosis Adjudicators at This Year’s Ham-Wasserman
Keying “venetoclax” into this year’s program yields almost 300 hits . Venetoclax has become the cheddar cheese of malignant hematology therapeutics, being “sprinkled” onto nearly every investigational drug regimen. The paradoxical beauty of its action lies in...
Waiting in the Tall Grass
Adoptive immunotherapy, including both allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT) and chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) constructs, is one of the few modalities that can offer cure for several aggressive hematologic malignancies. Too often...
Mentorship As the Ultimate Investment in the Future
Drs. Judith Gasson and Wendy Stock Are Recognized With the 2020 ASH Mentor AwardJudith Gasson, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Wendy Stock, MD, of the University of Chicago are being awarded the 2020 ASH Mentor Award for their work as...
Two Careers Built on a Great Passion to Improve Outcomes for Patients
Drs. Michelle Le Beau and Maria Domenica Cappellini Receive 2020 Henry M. Stratton MedalMichelle Le Beau, PhD, of the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Maria Domenica Cappellini, MD, of the University of...
Two Hematologists Working to Make Precision Medicine a Reality
Drs. Ari Melnick and Courtney DiNardo Awarded 2020 Ernest Beutler Lecture and PrizeThe Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize is being awarded this year to Ari Melnick, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, and Courtney DiNardo, MD, of the University of Texas MD...
Toshio Suda, MD, PhD, to Present the 2020 E. Donnall Thomas Lecture
During this year’s annual meeting, Toshio Suda, MD, PhD, of the National University of Singapore and Kumamoto University in Japan will be awarded the 2020 E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize in recognition of his outstanding contributions therapying the field of stem...
From "What If" to "What’s Next"
Adolfo Ferrando, MD, PhD, Wins 2020 William Dameshek Prize Adolfo Ferrando, MD, PhD, of the Columbia University Institute for Cancer Genetics in New York has been awarded the 2020 William Dameshek Prize. This award is named after the late William Dameshek, MD, a past...
Engineering Better Care for All
Dr. Mohandas Narla Receives the 2020 Wallace H. Coulter AwardMohandas Narla, DSc, has been awarded the 2020 Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology. He is vice president for research at the New York Blood Center and a member of the adjunct...
Uplifting Diversity, Strengthening Progress
Dr. Edward J. Benz Receives 2020 ASH Award for Leadership in Promoting DiversityA world-renown advocate of diversity and inclusion in hematology will be honored during the 2020 ASH Annual Meeting, as Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD, is awarded the 2020 ASH Award for...