Amy Strelzer Manasevit Scholars Program

Seattle Scientist Chosen for the Study of Post-Transplant Complications

The Marrow Foundation^® and the National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP) announce that Anna Mari Malkki, Ph.D., is one of only two individuals chosen for the Amy Strelzer Manasevit Scholars Program to study bone marrow post-transplant complications. The research grant is awarded to scientists and clinicians who are early in their careers in order to advance the understanding of issues arising after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

"I'm very honored to be chosen as one of only two professionals in this prestigious scholars program," said Anna Mari Malkki, a resident of Seattle, Wash. and a staff scientist in the Division of Clinical Research, Program of Human Immunogenetics at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Her research project is titled "Identification of Functional Human SNPs in Unrelated Hematopoietic Stem Cell."

The mission of the NMDP is to extend and improve life through innovative stem cell therapies. The Marrow Foundation supports the NMDP through strategic fundraising efforts with corporations, foundations and individuals. The awards given are for a maximum of $240,000 in research support and are divided over three years. The program is dedicated to the memory of Amy Strelzer Manasevit and is made possible through the generosity and commitment of her family and friends.

"Our goal is to provide four novel applications to clinical medicine: 1) the development of a new array-based technology for rapid, cost-effective identification of human genomic variation; 2) the discovery of new variation; 3) the identification of SNPs encoding minor histocompatibility genes, and 4) the prospective application of technology and genomic data to improve the overall success of unrelated transplantation," explained Malkki, who has written numerous articles on related medical topics for a variety of journals and publications.

Previously, Malkki was a research technician III at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a molecular biologist in the Internal Medicine Clinic at University Hospital in Kuopio, Finland. Malkki holds several degrees from the University of Kuopio including a B.S. in biochemistry, a M.Sc. in biotechnology and a Ph.D. in molecular biology.

Other honors and awards that Malkki has received during her career from institutions in Kuopio include a graduate study award for leukemia research; a diabetes research training grant; and an international training grant for diabetes research.

The Marrow Foundation

The Amy Strelzer Manasevit Scholars Program for the Study of Post Transplant Complications was established by The Marrow Foundation in memory of a patient who had a successful marrow transplant facilitated by the NMDP but later succumbed to pneumonia. In collaboration with Amy's family and friends, the Foundation has raised nearly $2.5 million over the past five years to support the research projects of 10 scholars and three BIPI post-doctoral fellows. Contributions to the Scholars Program have come from numerous corporations and foundations, including the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation of Baltimore, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, the F.M. Kirby Foundation Inc., and General Motors Cancer Research Foundation. The awards are granted annually and handed out at the annual meeting of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry.

National Marrow Donor Program