This article is part of the April 2018 edition of ASBMT eNews. Download the full issue here.
A Word from President John DiPersio, MD, PhD
This has been a busy two months since the 2018 Tandem Meetings for ASBMT. The transition to SmithBucklin from EAI, the previous ASBMT association management company, is now complete. The leadership of ASBMT is absolutely delighted with how easy and uneventful the transition went. This is a testament to not only David Schmahl and Janet Rapp and their team at SmithBucklin but also to the outgoing ASBMT Executive Director, KenLuurs, EAI, and ASBMT President-Elect Navneet Majhail, who led this transition effort from the ASBMT side.
All documents and electronic records have been transferred, including our terrific ASBMT website, which is now being managed by an outstanding communications and informatics group at SmithBucklin. I personally have been so impressed with our new partners and their pride and dedication to their work and to our society. I am looking forward to our partnership going forward and to leveraging SmithBucklin’s size, experienced leaders and general connection to those other professionals both within and outside the organization who are experts in website development and management, marketing and communications, education, governmental affairs, and fundraising and development. We are also delighted that Stephanie Farnia (ASBMT Director of Health Policy and Strategic Relations) and Angie Dahl (ASBMT Director of Development) are staying with the team and will continue to lead our efforts in governmental affairs and fundraising.
I just returned from the yearly American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting in Chicago (also home of SmithBucklin and ASBMT). I was impressed by the enormous size of this meeting, as well as how difficult it was to both navigate the meeting and, more importantly, interact with one’s colleagues. This is clearly one of the great joys and advantages of the BMT Tandem Meetings (now the Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASBMT and CIBMTR), which brings together experts from around the world in a size and scope that is manageable, ensuring frequent, productive interactions with a vast majority of those that attend the meeting.
I was also struck by the enormous infiltration of clinical studies and translational studies at this year’s AACR meeting. Historically, AACR has focused on very basic science and hypothesis-generating, mechanistic, discovery-based science. I believe what was always lacking was the clinical and translational impact of these exciting basic science observations, which was front and center at this year’s AACR meeting. I did hear some grumblings from the rank-and-file basic scientists who worried that this change of direction might dilute the impact of the meeting, showcasing the best-of-the-best basic science. I also heard many accolades from those who viewed this more balanced scientific program positively as a way to both enhance the meeting and bring more clinically oriented investigators and companies generating clinical products to future meetings.
I believe that this is something that ASBMT needs to focus on as a society in the future. We have been very successful at reaching a broad swath of healthcare workers (physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, etc.) interested in clinical and translational aspects of stem-cell transplantation. Just as AACR has made an effort to “balance” its program with more clinical material with the hope of bringing additional members in that may have overlapping, but not identical, interests as the basic scientists, ASBMT should be doing the same. Since ASBMT has historically been very strong in all things clinical and translational, we should also work hard to diversify and expand our membership by strengthening our basic science footprint in transplantation, immunology, T-cell signaling, cellular therapy, stem-cell biology, and genetic and graft manipulation, thus attracting this group of scientists and translational scientist to our future TCT meetings. There is a lot of work to do, but it is all good and worthwhile.
John F. DiPersio, M.D., Ph.D.
President of ASBMT