Hematologists Honored at 2025 Tandem Meetings

Several hematologists were recognized for their contributions to the fields of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and cellular therapy at the 2025 Tandem Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR. The annual meeting took place February 12-15, 2025, in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

ASTCT Lifetime Achievement Award

Joseph Antin, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, received the ASTCT Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the field of blood and marrow transplantation. Dr. Antin’s clinical interests include aplastic anemia, bone marrow failure, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and stem cell and bone marrow transplantation.

“This award by my peers in recognition of 40+ years of work could not be more meaningful to me,” Dr. Antin told Blood Cancers Today. “Transplantation has provided me with wonderful colleagues and friends and a fantastic journey making transplantation safer and more effective.”

ASTCT Public Service Award

Marcos de Lima, MD, director of the Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Mary Flowers, MD, professor emeritus at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, received the ASTCT Public Service Award for advancing the interests of the bone marrow transplant and cellular therapy field.

Dr. de Lima’s clinical and research focus includes HSCT for patients with leukemia. He also serves as a professor in the Division of Hematology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

“The award reflects our work with collaborators in Latin America, especially in Brazil. We have been involved in a variety of training and program development initiatives there, most recently with helping advocate and ‘jump start’ cellular therapy ideas with point-of-care manufacturing, enabling local creation of innovative ecosystems,” Dr. de Lima told Blood Cancers Today. “I share the award with Dr. Mary Flowers, who also happens to be Brazilian like myself—and who has trained generations of Latin American physicians in addition to her contributions in the field of GVHD.”

Dr. Flowers pioneered and established a public HSCT clinical and research program in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before immigrating to Seattle in 1987. Her clinical focus includes chronic GVHD and other effects of HSCT.

“I am deeply honored and grateful to receive the ASTCT 2025 Public Service Award, of which I have been a proud member since its establishment in 1993,” Dr. Flowers told Blood Cancers Today. “Such merit does not belong to an individual alone, as it represents the efforts and contributions of hundreds of people from a variety of disciplines with whom I have had the privilege of collaborating with and mentoring from all parts of the word.”

Dr. Flowers also provided advice for young investigators. “Find your own niche of interest in HSCT, work very hard, know your strength and weakness, and surround yourself with bright and good people,” she said.

CIBMTR Distinguished Service Award

Fernando Barroso Duarte, PhD, head of the Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Walter Cantídio University in Brazil, received the CIBMTR Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to CIBMTR’s mission to advance hematopoietic cell transplantation and cellular therapy research worldwide. Dr. Duarte established the Bone Marrow Transplant Service at the Hospital Universitário Walter Cantídio in partnership with Hemoce and currently serves as president of the Brazilian Society of Cell Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplant (SBTMO).

“This award is an honor to me and my team, because it recognizes the work that we are doing in the northeast of Brazil, a very poor region,” Dr. Duarte told Blood Cancers Today. “Many other colleagues from other countries have merit to receive this award, and we represent all of them, especially in Latin America. We did more than 900 HSCTs and an academic CAR-T [chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy] in the Hospital Universitário Walter Cantídio/Universidade Federal do Ceará with Hemoce. It’s very important our strength with partnership of SBTMO with ASTCT and CIBMTR.”

Reference

Awards. Tandem Meetings |Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR. Accessed February 10, 2025. https://www.tandemmeetings.com/About/Awards