ASH to present honorific awards
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ASH will present honorific awards to several hematologists during this year’s ASH Annual Meeting, scheduled for Dec. 11-14.
The awards recognize clinicians and scientists who have made important contributions to the field.
“We commend this year’s honorific award recipients, whose achievements highlight what an exciting time it is in our field,” ASH President Martin S. Tallman, MD, professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and chief of the leukemia service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said in a society-issued press release. “Their meaningful advances in patient care, research and mentorship have directly improved the lives of people living with blood disorders.”
Harvey Lodish, PhD, a molecular and cellular biologist at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will receive the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology.
Lodish’s research has examined the structure and biogenesis of red blood cells. His work has yielded important insights into beta-thalassemia, and his lab pioneered the cloning of red blood cell membrane proteins.
Margaret A. Shipp, MD, chair in lymphoma at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Stephen M. Ansell, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, will receive the Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize.
The award honors one person for enabling advances in basic science and another for using clinical science or translational research to carry basic science advances through to tangible improvements in patient care.
Shipp received the basic science award for her work to understand the genomics of Hodgkin lymphoma and its effects on the tumor environment.
Ansell, a HemOnc Today Editorial Board member whose work focuses on understanding the tumor microenvironment in lymphoma, received the translational/clinical award for his efforts to identify therapy approaches using immune cells that target the malignant clone.
Deepika Darbari, MD, of Children’s National Hospital and George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, will receive the ASH Award for Leadership in Promoting Diversity.
Darbari will be recognized for her contributions to the mentorship and training of underrepresented minority researchers, and for advancing care for underrepresented patient populations, including individuals living with sickle cell disease.
Elizabeta Nemeth, PhD, of University of California, Los Angeles, will receive the William Dameshek Prize, presented to an early- or mid-career hematologist who made a recent outstanding contribution to the hematology field.
Nemeth will be recognized for her work to understand the regulation of iron homeostasis. Her work helped define the role of the iron-regulatory hormone hepcidin in different iron disorders, including beta-thalassemia and anemia of inflammation.
Connie Westhoff, PhD, of New York Blood Center, will receive the E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize, which recognizes pioneering research achievements that represent a paradigm shift or significant discovery.
Westhoff, an investigator in the field of transfusion medicine, discovered that RH genetic diversity and mutation contributes to Rh incompatibility after blood transfusion.
Denisa Wagner, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, and Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, MD, director emeritus of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and professor emeritus of pediatrics at University of Pennsylvania, will receive the Henry M. Stratton Medal.
The award honors two senior investigators who made important contributions to basic and clinical/translational hematology research over several years.
Wagner, the basic science awardee, is known for her contributions to the fields of vascular biology, inflammation and thrombosis. She discovered that von Willebrand factor is contained in a reservoir within endothelial cells ready to coat the inside of blood vessels to aid platelet and leukocyte recruitment.
Ohene-Frempong, the translational/clinical awardee, has established many current practice standards for sickle cell disease treatment. His research provided insights into frequency of strokes among children with sickle cell disease, which led to studies that established transcranial doppler screening for stroke risk assessment in this population.
Jonathan Licht, MD, of University of Florida Cancer Center, and Anthony Goldstone, BM BCh, FRCP, FRCPath, of University College London Hospital, will receive ASH Mentor Awards for their contribution to the professional development of several hematology trainees.
Licht, the basic science awardee, has served as a mentor in the ASH-EHA Translational Research Training in Hematology 1-year mentorship and training program, as well as in his role as director of University of Florida Cancer Center.
Goldstone, the clinical awardee, is recognized for his expertise in bone marrow transplantation. He has shared his expertise with the next generation of leaders in the field by taking an active mentorship role in a diverse population of trainees at his institution.
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