AABB Foundation Award for Innovative Research

Renamed in 2016, the AABB Foundation Award for Innovative Research recognizes a scientist whose original research resulted in an important contribution to the body of scientific knowledge in transfusion medicine or biotherapies. The award recipient receives a $1,000 honorarium and must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• The recipient must be an AABB Foundation Scholar who completed his/her early-career grant research in the thirty-six (36) months immediately prior to receipt of the Award. After this 3-year period, a Scholar is no longer eligible for the award.
• The recipient need not be a member of AABB.
• The Foundation prefers that the recipient attend the AABB Annual Meeting, where the Award will be presented and the recipient provides an update on his/her research program; however, the Foundation will not reimburse the recipient for travel expenses.
• The AABB Foundation Scientific Research Grants Review Committee (GRC) annually selects a Foundation Scholar to recommend as the award recipient to the AABB Foundation Board of Directors. The Board of Directors evaluates the research based equally upon the innovation and creativity exhibited, and the practical impact the research will have on patient outcomes in transfusion medicine and biotherapies.

Please send all inquiries about this award to awards@aabb.org.

2023 Award Recipient

Robert Sheppard Nickel, MS, MSC
Assistant Professor
Children’s National Hospital
Washington, DC

Citation:

For his 2021 AABB Foundation-funded research project, “Hydroxyurea and Transfusion (HAT): Pilot Study of Combination Therapy for Patients with Sickle Cell Anemia.” Through his research, Dr. Nickel demonstrated that the addition of hydroxyurea to chronic transfusion for patients with sickle cell disease is both feasible and effective in reducing transfusion burden. While both of these treatments (chronic transfusion, hydroxyurea) are well-established for patients with sickle cell disease, their use in combination is innovative and an important treatment advancement.

Moreover, this combination therapy addresses an important problem that has become even more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic-blood shortages. Combination hydroxyurea and chronic transfusion effectively decreases the red blood cell volumes needed to support these patients. Our research thus creatively combines existing treatments as a feasible blood conservation strategy. Since the completion of his AABB Foundation grant in 2021, Dr. Nickel has co-authored 11 scientific papers, of which he is the senior author on three.

Past Recipients of the AABB Foundation Award for Innovative Research

2022 Moritz Stolla, MD, PhD
2021 David Gibb, MD, PhD
2020 Angelo D'Alessandro, PhD
2019 Krystalyn E. Hudson, PhD
2018 Sean Stowell, MD
2017 Stephanie Eisenbarth, MD, PhD
2016 Anand Padmanabhan, MD, PhD
2015 Jianhua Yu, PhD
2014 Eldad A. Hod, MD
2013 Chance John Luckey, MD, PhD
2012 Taku Kambayashi, MD, PhD
2011 Cheryl Lobo, PhD
2010 Christine Margaret Cserti-Gazdewich, MD, FRCPC
2009 Lan Zhou, MD, PhD
2008 Jose A. Cancelas, MD, PhD
2007 James C. Zimring, MD, PhD
2006 Andrés Hidalgo, PhD
2005 Carl Goodyear, PhD

*In 2022, the name of this award changed from National Blood Foundation Award for Innovative Research to AABB Foundation Award for Innovative Research.

*In 2016, the name of this award changed from Jack Latham Memorial Award for Innovative Research to National Blood Foundation Award for Innovative Research.

*In 2013, the name of this award changed from David B. Pall Prize for Innovative Research in Transfusion Medicine to Jack Latham Memorial Award for Innovative Research.