Catalysts for Change

NMDP Founders Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

In the 1980s, the vision and energy of Bo Dupont, M.D., D.Sc., and John Hansen, M.D., served as a driving force behind the creation of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). Their dedication and pioneering efforts, which served as a catalyst for change in the field of blood and marrow transplantation, recently earned them the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT).

"Drs. Dupont and Hansen have made major contributions to our understanding of the HLA system and the role of allo-antigen disparities to transplant outcome," said ASBMT President Richard O'Reilly, M.D. ASBMT is a professional association representing cellular therapy and blood and marrow transplantation clinicians and investigators and the patients they serve.

Dupont is a member of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and professor of immunology at Cornell University, Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York. Hansen is professor of medicine at the University of Washington and a member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Efforts Improve Transplant Safety and Success

"Through their leadership of international workshops on human histocompatibility, molecular typing of HLA alleles has been established as a standard for histocompatibility testing," said O'Reilly, noting that it has been rapidly disseminated throughout the world. "Subsequent large-scale studies led by Hansen's laboratory also demonstrate the importance of molecular matching to transplant outcomes."

Dupont began working on compatibility questions in 1971 at Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Hansen initiated research on human immunogenetics at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 1972. Their early studies led to the first successful stem cell transplants using unrelated HLA-matched donors. Over the years, they have continued to share their ideas and discoveries.

Hansen and Dupont remain active with the NMDP and have served in a variety of leadership roles.

Dupont and Hansen were honored at the 2002 annual meeting of ASBMT in Orlando, Fla. The award -- supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Pharmacia Corporation -- recognizes individuals who have made continuing contributions to the field of blood and marrow transplantation, either in basic biology or clinical applications.

More information is available about the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) on their Web site.