Cynthia Dunbar | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Hematology |
Institutions | National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute |
Cynthia Dunbar is an American scientist and hematologist at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is the Branch Chief of the Translational Stem Cell Biology Branch. [1]
She was the Editor-in-Chief of Blood, the flagship publication of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), from 2007 to 2012. [2] She is currently Secretary of ASH. In 2020, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for "leading pioneering genetic marking and therapy trials targeting hematopoietic stem cells, and developing uniquely predictive non-human primate models to successfully improve the safety and efficiency of various gene therapies as well as gain insights into hematopoiesis and immunology". [3]
Cynthia was born in Syracuse, New York. She moved to Westport, Connecticut, at a young age and attended Staples High School. During her sophomore year, a close friend developed Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer stemming from white blood cells lymphocytes. While he underwent treatment at Yale New Haven Hospital, she visited him frequently. She decided to pursue a career in medicine after he died during their senior year. [4]
Dunbar earned a B.A. magna cum laude in History and Science from Harvard University in 1980. She received an M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1984. She completed an internal medicine internship and residency at Boston City Hospital, and did a hematology fellowship at University of California, San Francisco. [2]
In 1987, Dunbar started at the NIH as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Arthur W. Nienhuis. She became an independent Investigator in 1993, and has been Head of the Molecular Hematopoiesis Section since 2000. She served as the program director for the NIH/NHLBI clinical hematology fellowship program for 17 years. [2]
Dunbar's current research at the Molecular Hematopoiesis laboratory in the Translational Stem Cell Biology Branch focuses on understanding the biology and clinical applications of stem cells. [1] The research centers on haematopoiesis, the development and differentiation of stem cells into multiple types of blood cells. Her research focuses on hematopoiesis in vivo and optimizing and improving the safety of gene transfer for therapeutic purposes. [2]
Dunbar's laboratory utilizes a rhesus macaque transplantation model, and her facility is one of only a handful worldwide able to successfully support non-human primates through stem cell transplantation. Dunbar's team has developed new gene therapy vector systems for high-efficiency transduction of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Recently, her laboratory has focused on developing, testing, and optimizing gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9. [2]
Her recent clinical work has focused on strategies to expand human in vivo hematopoietic stem cells, including a trial of the stem cell stimulatory cytokine analog eltrombopag for the treatment of patients with aplastic anemia. [2] The trial resulted in the first FDA-approved new drug to treat aplastic anemia in over 30 years. [1]
Dunbar's research team has also focused on what happens when hematopoietic stem cells age and whether that might explain why older adults have increased risk for blood cancers and other blood-related illnesses. Her team has found that stem cell abnormalities that arise as a part of aging may contribute to an increased risk of heart disease and even the inflammatory response seen in some patients with COVID-19. [4]
Dunbar became an associate editor of Blood in 1998 and served in that position until 2008, when she was elected as the first female Editor-in-Chief of Blood. She served in that position between 2007 and 2012. [5] She, along with Ezekiel Emanuel, revived the NIH Assembly of Scientists to advise NIH leadership and represent the concerns of NIH's scientific and clinical staff in top-level decision-making. [4]
Dunbar is currently the Secretary of the American Society of Hematology. She was the President of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. [2] She was a faculty member for the ASH-European Hematology Association Translational Research Training in Hematology program from 2011 to 2016 and was co-director in 2016. [5]
Dunbar resides in Washington, D.C., with her husband, whom she met singing in the Choral Arts Society of Washington. She has two children. [6]
Dunbar has received numerous awards for teaching, mentorship, and research, including:
Aplastic anemia (AA) is a severe hematologic condition in which the body fails to make blood cells in sufficient numbers. Aplastic anemia is associated with cancer and various cancer syndromes. Blood cells are produced in the bone marrow by stem cells that reside there. Aplastic anemia causes a deficiency of all blood cell types: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) is one of the institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is the third largest Institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. It is tasked with allocating about $3.6 billion in FY 2020 in tax revenue to advancing the understanding of the following issues: development and progression of disease, diagnosis of disease, treatment of disease, disease prevention, reduction of health care disparities within the American population, and advancing the effectiveness of the US medical system. NHLBI's Director is Gary H. Gibbons (2012–present).
Elizabeth Nabel is an American cardiologist and Executive Vice President of Strategy at ModeX Therapeutics and OPKO Health. Prior to this role, she served as President of Brigham Health and its Brigham and Women's Hospital, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Susan Shurin is a senior adviser at the National Cancer Institute. From 2006–2014, she served as Deputy and Acting Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
Allen Charles Edward Eaves is the founding Director of the Terry Fox Laboratory for Hematology/Oncology Research, which over a 25-year period (1981–2006) he grew into an internationally recognized centre for the study of leukemia and stem cell research. His own research on chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) has led the way to a new understanding of the disease. As Head of Hematology at the British Columbia Cancer Agency and the University of British Columbia for 18 years (1985–2003) he engineered the building of one of the first and largest bone marrow transplant programs in Canada. In recognition of his research accomplishments and leadership in moving basic science discoveries in stem cell biology into the clinic, he was elected President of the International Society of Cellular Therapy (1995–1997), Treasurer of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (1995–2002) and President of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (1999–2000). In 2003 he was awarded the prestigious R. M. Taylor Medal by the Canadian Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute of Canada.
Timothy J. Ley is an American hematologist and cancer biologist. He is the Lewis T. and Rosalind B. Apple Professor of Oncology in the department of medicine, and is chief of the section of stem cell biology in the division of oncology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a member of the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center.
Kenneth Kaushansky, M.D., Master of the American College of Physicians (MACP) is an American medical doctor, hematologist, former editor of the medical journal Blood, and served as the dean of the Stony Brook University School of Medicine from 2010 to 2021. Prior to moving to Stony Brook, he was the Helen M. Ranney Professor, and chair of the department of medicine at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
Neal Stuart Young is an American physician and researcher, chief of the Hematology Branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Director of the Center for Human Immunology at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. He is primarily known for his work in the pathophysiology and treatment of aplastic anemia, and is also known for his contributions to the pathophysiology of parvovirus B19 infection.
Margaret ("Peggy") A. Goodell is an American scientist working in the field of stem cell research. Dr. Goodell is Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine, Director of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (STaR) Center, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She is best known for her discovery of a novel method to isolate adult stem cells.
Helen Elisabeth Heslop is a physician-scientist from New Zealand whose clinical interests are in hematopoietic stem cell transplants. Heslop’s research focuses on immunotherapy to treat viral infections, post transplant and hematologic malignancies. She is a professor in the Department of Medicine and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and the director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital and Houston Methodist Hospital. She is also the Dan L. Duncan Chair and the associate director of clinical research at the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center.
Roland Mertelsmann is a German hematologist and oncologist. He was a professor at the Freiburg University Medical Center, Department of Internal Medicine I (Oncology/Hematology). Mertelsmann is known for his scientific works in the fields of hematology, oncology, gene therapy and stem cell transplantation.
Elaine Sarkin Jaffe is a senior National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) most well known for her contribution to hematopathology. She completed her medical education at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, receiving her M.D. degree from University of Pennsylvania in 1969. After an internship at Georgetown University she joined NCI as a resident in anatomic pathology, and has been a senior investigator since 1974, focusing on the classification and definition of lymphomas. Jaffe's early work helped to provide a deeper understanding of the origin of lymphomas, especially follicular lymphoma. Her team notably elucidated the difference between T cell and B cell lymphomas.
Guo Mei is a hematologist and associate director of 307th Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army and deputy director of Radiation Research Institute.
Stefan Karlsson is a Professor of Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy at the Lund Stem Cell Center, in the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University, Sweden. He is recognized for significant contributions to the fields of gene therapy and hematopoietic stem cell biology and in 2009 was awarded the Tobias Prize by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Nirali N. Shah is an American physician-scientist and pediatric hematologist-oncologist, serving as head of the hematologic malignancies section of the pediatric oncology branch at the National Cancer Institute. She researches the translation of immunotherapeutic approaches to treat high-risk hematologic malignancies in children, adolescents and young adults.
Giovanna Tosato is an Italian–American physician-scientist and cancer researcher investigating the endothelium, angiogenesis, and the hematopoietic stem cell niche. She heads the molecular and cell biology section in the laboratory of cellular oncology at the National Cancer Institute in the United States. Tosato was a division director in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research from 1992 to 1999.
Christa Edith Muller-Sieburg was a German-American immunologist and hematologist, whose work became central to the understanding of the clonal heterogeneity of hematopoietic stem cells. Muller-Sieburg is known for her contributions to the purification of hematopoietic stem cells, the characterization of individual stem cell clones and her revision of the process of hematopoiesis.
Courtney D. Fitzhugh is an American hematologist-oncologist and scientist. She is a clinical researcher and head of the laboratory of early sickle cell mortality prevention at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Neelam K. Giri is an Indian pediatric hematologist/oncologist and physician-scientist who researches bone marrow failure syndromes. She is a staff clinician in the clinical genetics branch at the National Cancer Institute.