Director (Cellular Therapies Section Representative)

Thomas R. Spitzer, MD, is medical and laboratory director of the Cellular Therapy and Transplantation Laboratory and emeritus director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Walter Bauer Firm Chief in the department of medicine.

Spitzer received his bachelor of science degree in biology from Bucknell University and his MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and his hematology/oncology fellowship at Case Western Reserve University.

His primary research interests have included the development of novel strategies for performing hematopoietic cell transplants across HLA barriers for hematologic malignancies and for inducing specific tolerance for organ transplantation by performing combined bone marrow and kidney transplants. The cellular therapy lab that he directs has provided all the products for hematopoietic cell transplantation at MGH and is currently involved with many novel immune effector cellular therapy trials.

He has assumed leadership roles in AABB, including being elected as chair of the Cellular Therapy Section Coordinating Committee (CTSCC). He is a devoted teacher of medical students and residents in his Firm Chief role, and he has been the recipient of teaching awards for his contributions to medical education.