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Remembering Thomas Michael Przybysz (1951-2018)
Thomas Michael
Przybysz, MD
Thomas Michael Przybysz, MD, an oncologist, passed
away on July 19, 2018, at the age of 66.
After serving in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1972, Dr.
Przybysz earned his MD from West Virginia University
in 1979, then completed his residency in internal medi-
cine at Mercy Hospital and his fellowship in medical
oncology at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
He eventually moved with his wife and children to
Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1984 and opened his private practice in
medical oncology.
Dr. Przybysz served his community as an oncologist for more than
30 years, during which he also served as medical director of Wheeling’s
Valley Hospice.
He is survived by his wife, Kathryn, their five children, and their six
grandchildren.
Source: West Virginia News obituary, July 21, 2018.
Remembering Hans Erik Johnsen (1948-2018)
Hans Erik Johnsen, PhD, professor of Clinical Hema-
tology in the Department of Hematology at Aalborg
University in Denmark, passed away on May 17, 2018, at
the age of 70.
Dr. Johnsen was a specialist in internal medicine
and hematology at Aarhus University with an interest
Hans Erik Johnsen, PhD in lymphoid biology and neoplasms.
Dr. Johnsen was a founding member of the Euro-
pean Myeloma Network (EMN) and served as a board
member and its secretary from 2004 to 2007. In 2007, he became the
coordinator of the European Myeloma Stem Cell Network, known as MSCNET. Throughout his career, Dr. Johnsen was involved with numer-
ous scientific projects and grants, published 286 scientific articles in
peer-reviewed journals, and supervised more than 50 PhD and mas-
ter’s degree students.
Dr. Johnsen is remembered by representatives from the European
Hematology Association as “a great scientist and an original inves-
tigator. … His contributions to the founding and development of the
European Myeloma Network have been significant and essential for its
current success.”
Icahn School of Medicine Receives NIH Grant
for SCD Research Lili Yang Wins $1.4 Million CIRM Quest
Discovery Grant
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a
$4 million grant to researchers in the departments
of emergency medicine and hematology at the Icahn
School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New
York City. The funding will support the IMPROVE 2
study, which is evaluating inhaled corticosteroids to
treat sickle cell disease (SCD) in people who do not
Jeffrey Glassberg, MD
have asthma.
Jeffrey Glassberg, MD, associate professor of
Emergency Medicine and of Medicine, Hematology, and Medical
Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine and director of the Mount
Sinai Comprehensive Program for Sickle Cell Disease, will lead the
team of researchers, including specialists in hematology, pulmonol-
ogy, and immunology.
“In SCD, the interaction between the lung and red blood cells rep-
resents a potentially high-value therapeutic target,” said Dr. Glass-
berg. “Inhaled corticosteroids offer a creative new approach with the
potential to dramatically improve patient outcomes.” Lili Yang, PhD, a researcher at the Eli and Edythe
Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem
Cell Research at the University of California,
Los Angeles (UCLA), received a Quest Discovery
Program award from the California Institute for
Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Dr. Yang also is a
member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Can-
Lili Yang, PhD
cer Center and an assistant professor in the UCLA
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and
Molecular Genetics.
The award, which is intended to support the development of
new stem cell–based technologies that may be ready for transla-
tional studies within two years, provides approximately $1.4 million
in funding.
Dr. Yang’s research focuses on developing a cellular therapy for
the treatment of multiple solid-tumor cancers and hematologic
malignancies, including breast cancer, leukemia, multiple myeloma,
and myelodysplastic syndromes.
Source: Mount Sinai press release, August 13, 2018. Source: UCLA press release, July 19, 2018.
Source: European Hematology Association press release, May 23, 2018.
Geoffrey Hill Receives José Carreras/E. Donnall Thomas Endowed Chair
Geoffrey Hill, MD
ASHClinicalNews.org
Geoffrey Hill, MD, was named the recipient of the
José Carreras/E. Donnall Thomas Endowed Chair for
Cancer Research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center in Seattle. In December 2017, he was recruited
from Australia to act as director of Hematopoietic
Stem Cell Transplantation at Fred Hutch.
Dr. Hill is the third recipient of this chair, which provides $425,000 in
funding over five years. He plans to use the funding to continue efforts
to integrate bone marrow transplantation and immune therapies to
minimize the risks of relapse and graft-versus-host disease in patients
with leukemia. ●
Source: Fred Hutch News Service, August 14, 2018.
ASH Clinical News
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