Dr. Catherine M. Verfaillie, M.D., the 1991 Carreras Fellowship awardee, was one of three speakers on the Presidential Symposium at the annual American Society of Hematology meeting in December. Dr. Verfaillie’s topic was "Stem Cells: Differentiation and Development." It is particularly gratifying to The Friends to have Dr. Verfaillie recognized by the American Society of Hematology. The annual meeting is attended by over 16,000 people and represents one of the most important specialty meetings both in the U.S. and internationally.
Dr. Verfaillie’s work in the area of stem cells is so highly regarded that the University of Minnesota has named her to head a new Stem Cell Research Institute. Stem cells, which are found in the blood, are the building blocks for all of the blood cells and are the key cells in successful marrow transplantation. However, Dr. Verfaillie’s work is focussing on other stem cells, which seem to have the potential to produce cells such as pancreas islet cells, kidney cells and many other types of body cells. The possibilities for harnessing these cells to replace non-functioning or absent cells are of great interest.

Dr. Koichi Akashi, the awardee of the José Carreras International fellowship for 1998-2001, spent much of his award period working in the laboratories of Dr. Irving Weissman at Stanford University School of Medicine. Like Dr. Verfaille, he studied the hematopoietic stem cell. Dr. Akashi’s results were recently published in the prestigious journal Nature. He and his colleagues proposed a very elaborate model to outline the entire cell production scheme. Dr. Akashi is now working at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and continues to publish additional work in fields of hematology and immunology.

Dr. Robert Negrin, a Carreras fellow from July 1993-1996, was named Program Director and Chief of the Division of Bone Marrow Transplantation at Stanford University Medical Center in Stanford, California. Dr. Negrin replaces Dr. Karl G. Blume, a pioneer in the marrow transplant field and head of the Stanford program since 1987. The Stanford program is one of the outstanding U.S. transplant centers, with a very active clinical and laboratory research program. Dr. Negrin assumed his new duties in October, 1999.