Researchers Receive Prestigious Grants

Post Transplant Research to Improve Patient Outcomes

Amy Strelzer Manasevit wanted to extend and improve the lives of patients who receive bone marrow transplants. Although Amy died of complications following an unrelated marrow transplant, her efforts continue today as the National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP) and The Marrow Foundation announce the winners of the 2001 Amy Strelzer Manasevit Scholars grants.

Dr. Leo Luznik of the Oncology Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and Dr. Judith A. Shizuru of the Stanford University School of Medicine were selected, through a competitive process, to receive the research grants. The doctors accepted their awards at a special presentation held as part of the Annual Meeting and Scientific Assembly of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation in Keystone, Colo.

Dr. Luznik will be investigating "Prevention of Relapse with Tumor Vaccines after Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplant," and Dr. Shizuru's research will focus on "Designing Hematopoietic Grafts to Optimize Post-Transplant Immune Reconstitution."

A priority of the NMDP is to support research that will improve the survival rates and quality of life for recipients of marrow or blood stem cell transplants. The Amy Strelzer Manasevit Scholars Program addresses this priority, and the findings of the Scholars will lead to important breakthroughs in our understanding of post-transplant complications," said Dr. Jeffrey Chell, NMDP chief executive officer.

With the grants to Dr. Luznik and Dr. Shizuru, The Marrow Foundation has provided nearly $2 million in research support over the past four years to a total of eight Scholars and two Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc (BIPI) Post-Doctoral Fellows. Contributions to the Scholars Program have come from numerous corporations and foundations including ABC Sports, The Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation of Baltimore, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, The F.M. Kirby Foundation, Inc., and the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation of Orange, Calif.

Dr. Alexandra Filipovich of the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati chaired the blue ribbon Awards Committee for the selection of this year's Scholars. "The pioneering research program, which offers generous support to young investigators for ground-breaking work, has the potential to solve some of the most challenging post-transplant complications experienced by marrow or blood stem cell transplant recipients," Dr. Filipovich said.

By recruiting committed donors, maintaining the largest and most diverse Registry of potential volunteer donors in the world and offering patient services, at least 140 patients receive blood stem cell transplants through the NMDP each month. The NMDP's Registry contains more than 4 million volunteers and is the only one that searches all three sources of blood stem cells available: marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood.

In 1991, the late Admiral E.R. Zumwalt, Jr., created The Marrow Foundation to secure resources from the private sector for the work of the National Marrow Donor Program. The Marrow Foundation supports the priorities of the NMDP: to assist patients with financial need as they search the NMDP's Registry for a match; to increase the diversity of the Registry of unrelated marrow and blood stem cell donors; and to sponsor research to improve the understanding and outcome of unrelated marrow and blood stem cell transplantation on a worldwide basis.