Awardee Biographies

CIBMTR and ASBMT Awards
Friday, February 23, 2017
5:00 PM - 5:45 PM

CIBMTR Awards
  • CIBMTR Distinguished Service Award

The CIBMTR collaborates with the global scientific community to advance HCT and cellular therapy research worldwide. The purpose of the Distinguished Service Award is to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the CIBMTR's reasearch mission in one or more of the following areas: promoting HCT research and clinical care in developing countries; advancing the field despite unique challenges; expanding the availability of transplantation; disseminating research results to clinicians and patients to improve outcomes and quality of life; and collaboration with organizations to increase data exchange and research collaboration worldwide.

Mahmoud D. Aljurf, MD, MPH

Dr. Mahmoud Aljurf is the Director of Adult Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Program and Deputy Director of the Oncology Centre at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 
He received his M.D. degree in 1985 and internship at King Khaled University Hospital. Subsequently, he completed residency training in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and combined Hematology & Oncology Fellowships at Stanford University Medical Center. He also received Masters in Public Health (MPH) from Johns Hopkins University and FRCPath degree from the United Kingdom.

Dr. Aljurf is American Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology, Hematology, Medical Management and Quality Assurance. Dr. Aljurf has published over 200 scientific papers, several book chapters and the Lead Editor for the EBMT/ESH book on “Congenital and Acquired Bone Marrow Failure” and Co-editor for Springer Publisher book “Establishing a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Unit: A Practical Guide”.

Dr. Aljurf worked with his colleagues at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre to develop the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Unit which is now one of the world’s largest units for HSCT of allogeneic type (particularly for bone marrow failure) with current performance of 250 allogeneic cases per year.

He worked with his colleagues in the EMRO region in establishing The Eastern Mediterranean Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EMBMT) organization as a cooperative platform for physicians, scientists and healthcare workers from institutions in the WHO designated EMRO region with the goal of sharing experience, initiation of cooperative trials and establish common strategy to achieve optimization in the field of HSCT. 

Dr. Aljurf is the Editor-in-Chief for the Elsevier journal “Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Therapy”.

He was the recipient of the American College of Physicians (ACP) Mastership Award for the year 2012.





































ASBMT Awards
  • The ASBMT Lifetime Achievement Award
The ASBMT Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual who has made continuing contributions to the field of blood and marrow transplantation, either in basic biology or clinical application.

 A. John Barrett, MD 

The 2018 ASBMT Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to A. John Barrett, MD, chief of the Bone Marrow Stem Cell Allotransplantation Section of the Hematology Branch, National Heart Lung Blood Institute (NHLBI).  A past president of the ASBMT, Dr. Barrett is an outstanding senior investigator with numerous contributions to research in blood and marrow transplantation for more than 30 years.  Co-chair of this year’s annual ASBMT-ISCT Cell Therapy Training Course, Dr. Barrett has been involved with the course since its inaugural session in 2015.  

"It is important to note that his application of immune suppression to treat marrow failure disorders has been practice-changing,” said Catherine Bollard, M.D., FRACP, FRCPA, of the Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC. “Furthermore, both his laboratory and clinical work in transplantation immunology have significantly contributed to the stepwise improvements in outcome, and the broadening application of allogeneic stem cell transplantation that we have witnessed particularly in the last 20 years."     






















  • BBMT Editorial Awards

    Abstracts submitted to Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, ASBMT's monthly journal, are eligible for one of three editorial awards. These awards, which include a $5,000 prize, are conferred by BBMT Editor-in-Chief Robert Korngold, M.D., and are presented at a special awards ceremony at the BMT Tandem Meetings.

      • The George Santos Award is given for the best clinical science article by a new investigator.
      • The Ernest McCulloch and James Till Award is given for the best basic science article.
      •  The Karl Blume Award is given for a distinguished clinical science article by a new investigator.

    Note: Recipients will be announced in late October/early November.


  • ASBMT New Investigator Awards

    Each year, the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation is proud to sponsor the research initiatives in the field of HCT. The ASBMT New Investigator Awards are designed to encourage clinical or laboratory research by young investigators in the BMT field. The award is $30,000 per year, typically for two years, and is preferably to be used to support the investigator’s salary for his or her research effort. 

    Note: The NIA Recipients will not be identified until December, 2017.


  • ASBMT Public Service Award

    The ASBMT Public Service Award recognizes an individual outside of the ASBMT membership who has advanced the interests of blood and marrow transplantation or given special service to the patients and families that we serve.

    The 2018 ASBMT Public Service Award will be presented to Jeffrey W. Chell, MD, & Michael Boo.

    Michael Boo, JD

    Michael Boo serves as a business consultant to the health care industry, particularly in the areas of blood and marrow transplantation. He is the former Chief Strategy Officer of the National Donor Program/Be The Match (NMDP), the national registry for the United States. He joined the NMDP in 2001. 

    His contributions while at NMDP included the redesign and implementation of a new strategic planning process that has helped guide substantial growth at NMDP, guide the development of the Center for Cord Blood in 2003, and expand NMDP growth in cord blood in the United States from 15 percent of the market to over 90 percent. Boo was also responsible for identifying new products and services that have had significant bottom-line revenue impact and developed new relationships within the extensive NMDP network of national and international partners that have improved access to cell sources and markets worldwide. He has provided leadership and oversight for legislative activities, has helped establish a new federal funding program for cord blood inventory growth which has provided more than $100 million to date, and pursued other strategies to continue and expand government funding sources. More recently, he has led a number of initiatives to address deficiencies in reimbursement for transplant related-costs by both the public and private payers. 

    Prior to joining the NMDP, he served as Vice President of Strategic and Corporate Development, Allina Health System; Associate General Counsel, Health Central, Inc.; and General Counsel, American Redevelopers, Inc. 

    Boo received his Juris Doctor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Bachelor of Arts, Urban Studies, at the University of Minnesota Duluth.





























    Jeffrey W. Chell, MD

    Current Positions:

    • Executive Director, Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research
    • Chief Executive Officer Emeritus, National Marrow Donor Program – Be The Match
    • Board Chair, CLR Insurance
    • Board Member, Jeff Gordon Children’s Cancer Foundation

    Education and Honors:

    Dr. Chell served as the CEO of NMDP/Be The Match from 2000 to 2017. Under his leadership the organizations has grown by 400% and now facilitates over 6,200 unrelated hematopoietic transplants per year. As the world’s leader in facilitating transplants from adult donors and cord blood units, the NMDP has supported over 85,000 transplants since its inception from a database of 16 million adult donors and 200,000 cord blood units. Dr. Chell began a related transplant program at Be The Match, he opened Be The Match’s first international donor center in Mexico and founded Be The Match Biotherapies to support the rapidly growing cellular therapy industry. Dr. Chell was named a 2009 Champion in Health Care by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal for his work leading the organization through a major expansion in its mission to provide bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplant to patients in the U.S. and around the world. In 2017, Dr. Chell was named one of ten Most Admired CEOs by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Dr. Chell served as co-chair of Bone Marrow Donor’s Worldwide and led the initiatives to transform its structure, governance and IT systems to better serve International Blood and Marrow Donor Registries and Cord Blood Banks.






















    With Dr. Mary Horowitz of the Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. Chell co-founded the Center for Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) in 2004. The CIBMTR is the world’s leader in observational studies, clinical research and health services research in hematopoietic transplant publishing 100 research papers per year in peer-reviewed journals.

    Dr. Chell received his MD from the University of Minnesota. He completed both an internship and a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Wisconsin. Prior to his role with the NMDP, Dr. Chell was the President of the Allina Medical Clinic, a 600‐provider medical practice in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. From 1986 to 1994, Dr. Chell practiced Internal Medicine in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to that he served in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps, where he achieved the rank of Major and received the Meritorious Service Medal. Dr. Chell is a member of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the American Society of Hematology.

    Recent Publications: