Hall of Fame Inductees

AABB Foundation Hall of Fame The AABB Foundation introduced the Hall of Fame in 2007, recognizing a prestigious and select group of Foundation grant recipients who leveraged their early-career grant funding into successful careers in transfusion medicine or biotherapies and who demonstrated exemplary leadership within the field.

The Hall of Fame was reinstated in 2015 as an annual recognition, inducting one to three new members each year that meet the following criteria:

Eligibility Criteria

Must be an AABB Foundation Scholar: completed AABB Foundation-funded research.
Must have served on three or more AABB committees or workgroups. (AABB Board of Directors, The AABB Foundation Board of Trustees and TRANSFUSION Editorial Board included.)
- If an AABB Foundation Scholar who is an active AABB member has served on at least one AABB committee or workgroup, the individual, at the request of AABB Foundation staff, can be considered for Hall of Fame eligibility through their submission of a one-page justification addressing volunteer leadership service. Such service can be with other professional hematology or transfusion medicine-related organizations or within their own institution (e.g. directing a transfusion medicine fellowship program).
Demonstrates a successful career and exemplary leadership through commitment, forward thinking, and various contributions to the field.
Must be a current AABB individual member.

AABB Foundation Scientific Research & Exemplary Leadership Hall of Fame

2023 Hall of Fame Inductees

Angelo D’Alessandro, PhD

Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Director, University of Colorado School of Medicine Metabolomics Core
Director, Mass Spectrometry Shared Resource - Colorado Cancer Center
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics; Department of Medicine - Division of Hematology
University of Colorado – Anschutz Medical Campus

“As a result of the successful Early Career award I received from the AABB Foundation, I had a chance to accumulate sufficient preliminary data to apply for and be awarded an Early Career Grant – Webb-Waring award (2017) sponsored by the Boettcher Foundation. I was also granted multiple promotions at the University of Colorado and have continued to grow my research lab.”

Stephanie Eisenbarth, MD, PhD

Adjunct Associate Professor, Yale School of Medicine
Professor of Medicine and Pathology; Chief of Allergy & Immunology; Director of the Center for Human Immunobiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Roy and Elaine Patterson Professor of Medicine, Northwestern University

“Funding from the AABB Foundation enabled my lab to identify a subset of conventional dendritic cells (DCs) in the spleen that induces CD4+ T cell priming to RBC-derived alloantigens and identify how these DCs could be activated through innate immune receptors during transfusion. This has important implications for preventing a potentially harmful consequence of transfusion, in particular in patients requiring lifelong RBC support such as those with sickle cell disease.”

Krystalyn Hudson, PhD

Assistant Professor, Columbia University, Department of Pathology & Cell Biology

“The AABB Foundation grant ignited my career, boosting confidence as an early investigator, and funding essential research. Its support paved the way for a successful R01, leading to new discoveries in tolerance to RBC autoantigens.”

Anand Padmanabhan, MD, PhD

Co-founder, President & Chief Science Officer - Retham Technologies
Senior Associate Consultant - Division of Hematopathology and Division of Transfusion Medicine
Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Teaching/Examining Privileges in Clinical & Translational Science
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science

“AABB Foundation funding, my first extramural grant, was critical in jump-starting my research in the field of platelet immunology, and provided funding to help support subsequent federal research grant application that were critical for my academic growth.”

Brian R. Smith, MD

Deputy Dean for Clinical and Translational Research
Co-Director, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation
Professor and Chair of Laboratory Medicine
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Int Medicine, Pediatrics
Yale University School of Medicine

“The AABB Foundation was instrumental in moving my research focus to translational projects designed to positively impact ameliorating the complications of transfusion and improve cellular therapy. Very importantly, it also provided key opportunities to co-mingle clinician-scientists, clinicians, and non-clinician investigators that encouraged cross-disciplinary collaborations critical to moving Transfusion Medicine forward.”

Don L. Siegel, PhD, MD

Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Director, Division of Transfusion Medicine & Therapeutic Pathology
Director, Clinical Cell & Vaccine Production Facility
Director, Fellowship Program in Transfusion Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

“The AABB Foundation funding provided me with the support necessary to be “retooled” in state-of-the-art laboratory methods that had developed after my time in graduate school during my subsequent years of medical training. I was then positioned to address scientific problems known to exist at the start of my career — but most importantly was prepared for what unexpectedly came along years later such as the opportunity to “hack” the immune system and create engineered T cells.”

Brian R. Curtis, PhD, D(ABMLI), MT(ASCP)SBB

Senior Director, Diagnostic Hematology
Director, Platelet & Neutrophil Immunology Lab
Senior Investigator, Blood Research Institute
Versiti, Wisconsin

“The AABB Foundation funding helped finance my early research studies that led to publications, name recognition in the field, and a cascade of career advancing opportunities.”

Cheryl Lobo, PhD

Head, Blood-Borne Parasites
Lindsley Kimball Research Institute
New York Blood Center

“Being recognized as an AABB Foundation awardee supported my laboratory both financially and professionally. Not only did the grant monies focus my work on parasite biology in a translational research direction but also allowed me to forge strong connections with a collaborative network of transfusion medicine researchers.”

Eldad A. Hod, MD

Associate Professor
Department of Pathology and Cell Biology
Columbia University Medical Center
and New York Presbyterian Hospital

“The AABB Foundation award was a critical source of funding at a critical time in my early investigative career. It allowed me to generate the data needed to jump start my extramurally funded research program.”

Sean Stowell, MD, PhD

Medical Director, Center for Apheresis
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Director, National Center for Functional Glycomics
Harvard Medical School

“The AABB Foundation grant was the first grant I had written or received. It came at a critical time in my career when I was determining whether it was tenable to choose a career as a physician-scientist in transfusion medicine and in so doing, had a significant impact on my career.”

Neil Blumberg, MD

Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Director, Blood Bank/Transfusion Medicine
University of Rochester Medical Center

“The AABB Foundation funding in 1989 was one of my first extramural grants. It provided validation of our work on transfusion immumomodulation and post-operative infections, which has been central to my career. These Foundation studies provided data suggesting that avoiding allogeneic transfusions of red cells improved clinical outcomes.”

Brian Custer, PhD, MPH

Vice President, Research and Scientific Programs
Director, Epidemiology and Health Policy Science
Vitalant Research Institute
Adjunct Professor, Laboratory Medicine
University of California San Francisco

“The AABB Foundation funding literally launched my extramurally funded research career, showing me I could successfully obtain grant funding.”

Beth H. Shaz, MD

Deputy Director, Marcus Center for Cellular Cures
Professor of Pathology
Duke University
AABB Past President

“Receiving AABB Foundation funding was a critical step in my academic career. Through the process I learned how to write a grant, how to successfully and systematically perform studies and publish their results, and about blood donation. I am thankful for the funding support.”

Jeffrey L. Carson, MD

Provost
Rutgers Biomedical Health Science, New Brunswick
Distinguished Professor of Medicine,
Richard C. Reynolds, M.D., Chair, General Internal Medicine
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

“The AABB Foundation funding was one of the first national competitive peer reviewed research grants that I was awarded, and it contributed significantly to establishing me as an independent investigator in transfusion medicine.”

Stella T. Chou, MD

Chief, Division of Transfusion Medicine
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

“I feel tremendous gratitude for the AABB Foundation grant which provided critical support during my early career in transfusion medicine which was essential for establishing my research laboratory and translational program to improve transfusion therapy for patients with sickle cell disease.”

Diane Krause, MD, PhD

Anthony N. Brady Professor, Departments of Laboratory Medicine, Cell Biology and Pathology
Associate Director
Yale Stem Cell Center
Medical Director
Clinical Cell Processing Laboratory
Yale University School of Medicine

“The research award that I received from the AABB Foundation was very important to me and came at a critical time early in my career. The ability to receive funding and the amount of money received were both key in my now having uninterrupted NIH funding and multiple exciting discoveries on the transcriptional regulation of early hematopoiesis.”

Jose Cancelas, MD, PhD

Professor & Director/Chairman
Hoxworth Blood Center
Leader, Stem Cell Group and Translational Core Laboratories
Director, Translational Core Laboratories
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

“The AABB Foundation was a crucial step in my career since it provided me with the first source of extramural funding to support my research project in 2005. As a result, I was able to generate data that cemented the fundamentals of my research endeavors.”

Laura Cooling, MD, MS

Professor, Department of Pathology
Associate Medical Director of Transfusion Medicine
Medical Director for the Cellular Therapy and Immunohematology Reference Laboratories
University of Michigan

“The AABB Foundation was an important step in my early career as a young faculty member transitioning into academic medicine. It provided a foundation for subsequent clinical and translation studies during my career in the areas of immunohematology and bone marrow transplantation support.”

James D. Gorham, MD, PhD

Medical Director, Transfusion Medicine Services
Chief, Division of Laboratory Medicine, and Professor Department of Pathology
University of Virginia

“The AABB Foundation was the very first grant for my nascent research lab as an independent Principal Investigator and was instrumental in launching our early research efforts focusing on cytokines in transfusion biology, tolerance, and autoimmunity. The Foundation holds a special place in my heart.”

Jeanne E. Hendrickson, MD

Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Adjunct Professor of Laboratory Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine

“Early career funding by the AABB Foundation was instrumental in allowing me the time and resources to develop my red blood alloimmunization research ideas. This grant also provided me with confidence that my research ideas were worthy of exploration.”

Steven L. Spitalnik, MD

Executive Vice-Chair of Laboratory Medicine and Professor
Department of Pathology & Cell Biology
Columbia University

“I received an AABB Foundation grant soon after arriving at Columbia University. I had decided to take the risky step of radically changing my research focus to use mouse models to study poorly understood issues in transfusion medicine, such as the mechanisms underlying hemolytic transfusion reactions. This funding was critically important in allowing us to change our focus and succeed in a new area.”

Karina Yazdanbakhsh, PhD

Executive Director of Research
Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute
New York Blood Center

“The AABB Foundation grant support allowed me to pursue a new exciting research direction in transfusion medicine and to secure my first R01 and American Heart Association grants. I am forever grateful to the AABB Foundation for providing me with the crucial support to jumpstart my career in transfusion medicine.”

Larry J. Dumont, MBA, PhD

Affiliated Investigator
Vitalant Research Institute, Denver, Colorado
Clinical Professor
University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado

“The AABB Foundation funding was central to completion of my PhD and has been a key in transitioning to an academic focus that provides a strong bridge between product development, academic research, education and delivery of clinical care. This has strengthened my contributions to the safe and efficacious care of patients.”

Jill R. Storry, PhD

Associate Professor
Division Hematology & Transfusion Medicine
Department of Laboratory Medicine
Technical Director, Immunohematology
Clinical Immunology and Transfusion Medicine
Office of Medical Services
Lund University

“My AABB Foundation grant permitted me to establish myself in a new country and gave stability to my post-doctoral employment. Those early results led to further funding from other local sources, and to the discovery of a novel erythrocyte protein. AABB Foundation grants are an enormously important source of research funding in Transfusion Medicine and Cellular Therapy.”

James C. Zimring, MD, PhD

Professor, Pathology
University of Virginia

“My AABB Foundation award came at a crucial time, early in my career, when it was unclear in what direction my lab would develop. The support was indispensable in allowing me to develop a mature research program, focused on transfusion biology, which has been the basis of my research career.”

James P. AuBuchon, MD, FCAP, FRCP(Edin)

Retired
Former President and Chief Executive Officer
Bloodworks Northwest
AABB Past President

“The support I received from the AABB Foundation was critical in allowing me to start my career in radiolabeling and component improvement.”

Michael P. Busch, MD, PhD

Director Emeritus
Vitalant Research Institute
Vice President for Research and Scientific Programs
Vitalant
Professor of Laboratory Medicine
University of California San Francisco
President of the International Society of Blood Transfusions (ISBT)

“Although an investigator on grants prior to my AABB Foundation grant in 1992, this was my first PI-status grant. The grant led to a publication in Blood and development of the Viral Activation in Transfusion Study. Over the subsequent decades I have led dozens of similar studies with Vitalant Research Institute as the Central Laboratory.”

Sunny Dzik, MD

Co-Director, Blood Transfusion Service
Massachusetts General Hospital

“Participation in the AABB Foundation— as an applicant, an awardee, a reviewer of grant applications, and as a financial contributor—has built strong and positive relationships during my career in academic transfusion medicine. I look at recent and current AABB Foundation awardees and I am extremely proud of their scientific achievements and their investigative enthusiasm. The AABB Foundation is one of the best parts of our Profession.”

Christopher D. Hillyer, MD

President and CEO
New York Blood Center
Professor, Department of Medicine
Weill Cornell Medical College
AABB Past President

“The value of the AABB Foundation grant to me was substantial. It was seed funding at a point in my career when I would not have been able to get major, investigator-initiated grants. It was peer reviewed at a very good and high level, allowing me to learn the process. These set the stage for me to get R01 and even P01- level funding. Through the AABB Foundation grant process, I was also able to meet other investigators and network in a way that supported my career development.”

Paul D. Mintz, MD

Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
Verax Biomedical Inc.
AABB Past President

“The AABB Foundation grant I received played a key role in the transfusion medicine research program at the University of Virginia and in my career development. This award allowed us to study the relationship of platelet morphology to platelet recovery and survival and to learn the techniques required to radiolabel platelets and to perform these studies. We subsequently applied this knowledge to other research.”

Joann Moulds, PhD, MT (ASCP)SBB

Retired
Former Scientific Director
Immunohematology Center
Grifols Diagnostic Solutions Inc.

“My AABB Foundation grant allowed me to obtain the experience with molecular techniques as applied to blood groups that I needed to become a leader in the field of molecular immunohematology and become an advocate for the use of blood group genotyping in patient care.”

Sandra J. Nance, MS, MASCP, MT (ASCP) SBB

Former Senior Director
National Laboratories for American Red Cross and American Rare Donor Program
Past Editor-In-Chief
Immunohematology Journal of Blood Group
Serology and Molecular Genetics
Former Adjunct Assistant Professor,
Division of Transfusion Medicine and Therapeutic Pathology
University of Pennsylvania

“The AABB Foundation grant was the first grant I applied for and received which led to a subsequent publication reporting use of the Monocyte Monolayer Assay. These early research years as a PI on the Foundation grant were formative and laid the foundation for my continuing research, presentations, publications, and review roles. It reinforced the importance of learning and teaching others. Receiving a Foundation grant, becoming a Scholar, and an inaugural inductee to the Hall of Fame are a continuing source of pride, along with having the MMA be used to predict transfused RBC survival of incompatible red blood cells over 35 years later.”

Marion Elizabeth Reid, FIMBS, PhD, DSc (Hon.)

Retired
Former Director of Immunohematology and Head Immunochemistry
New York Blood Center

“The AABB Foundation is a very valuable stepping-stone for researchers. It follows the NIH format and gave me experience in grant writing.”

John D. Roback, MD, PhD

Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Director, Center for Transfusion and Cellular Therapy Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Medical Director, Blood Bank
Emory University Hospital

“Although I received an AABB Foundation grant in 1998, when NIH funding was relatively abundant, the award was absolutely critical for jump-starting my transfusion medicine research career and laying the groundwork for my later investigations. In today’s more challenging NIH funding climate, the AABB Foundation awards are more important than ever for developing the next generation of transfusion medicine investigators.”

Christopher C. Silliman, MD, PhD

Professor of Pediatrics and Surgery
School of Medicine
University of Colorado Denver
Associate Director HOB Fellowship
Head Clinical Competency Committee
Professor
Senior Independent Investigator
Children’s Hospital Colorado

“The AABB Foundation was the first organization to take my data seriously and gave me working capital when no one else would. This has led to consistent extramural funding and a rewarding clinical and research career. I will be forever indebted.”

Edward Snyder, MD, FACP

Professor Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Yale Medical School
Chair, Yale COI Committee, Vice-Chair, DSMB
Yale Cancer Center
Attending, Blood Bank YNHH, Director
Blood Bank Bridgeport Hospital
Co-Director Tissue Programs -Yale-New Haven & Bridgeport
Yale-New Haven Hospital
AABB Past President

“The AABB Foundation provided me with funding to start my research in the field of blood filtration. That seed grant grew into a major research effort that afforded me the opportunity to publish papers, participate in local and national research symposia and be recognized as a useful committee member and advisor to National Organizations and Federal Agencies. That small grant of $5,200 paid large dividends and formed the foundation of my career in Transfusion Medicine.”

Connie M. Westhoff, SBB, PhD

Executive Scientific Director of Immunohematology and Genomics
New York Blood Center

“The AABB Foundation grant brought my research career back to my first love — the field of transfusion medicine — and the chance to contribute to improve transfusion therapy through genomics.”