AABB23: Meet the Social Media Champions: Daniela Hermelin, MD, CABP

The AABB23 social media champions are a group of social media power-users who will share their insights on can’t-miss sessions, practice-changing research, networking opportunities, special events and fun during the 2023 AABB Annual Meeting in Nashville.

Ahead of the meeting, AABB sat down with each of this year’s champions to discuss their careers, involvement with AABB and what they’re looking forward to learning at the blood banking and biotherapies community’s premier event.

Tell us a bit about yourself:

My name is Daniela Hermelin, MD, CABP. I am the chief medical officer at ImpactLife and an assistant professor of pathology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

X (Twitter) Handle:

@HermelinMD

When was your first AABB Annual Meeting?

2017, I was a third-year pathology resident.

What are you most looking forward to at #AABB23?

Being in person. The excitement is electrifying.

What is one 2023 Annual Meeting session that you can't miss?    

I am always drawn to the basic science research topics so I can continue to add knowledge to the why. This year, Sean Stowell, MD, PhD, and Connie Arthur, PhD, will be speaking on Monday on the topic of alloimmunization. The objectives seem very interesting, including the role of heme in regulating key immune cells involved in red blood cell immunization in patients with sickle cell disease. This sounds very cool.

Which Nashville attraction are you most excited to visit?            

Anything with live music.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in transfusion medicine / biotherapies?

A few things drew me into transfusion medicine while I was in my pathology training. First, I was lured by the intense energy of the blood bank. This is where the action takes place.

Beep beep beep: The MTP pager alarms and coolers of blood are rushed to the trauma bay, spinning centrifuges whir, timers announce that agglutination reactions are ready to be checked, shaken test tubes glimmered and benchtop mirrors magnified the answers. Immunohemotology was a puzzle of fun, and I wanted to learn the serology and advancing molecular testing, which helps us interpret how plasma and red blood cells interact. I learned that blood is medicine and connects all of us, every medical subspecialty and every patient population. Also, I loved the vein-to-vein paradigm and knowing that blood is donated by an anonymous volunteer donor. And let’s just face it, blood bankers are the best.

Secondly, I was in awe of the concept of apheresis and how it could draw out blood and divide it into parts. Clinical therapeutic apheresis brought me outside of the lab and to the patient’s bedside. I was directly involved in patient care, and having the patient interaction was very special to me.

Finally, it was amazing mentors like Doug Blackall, MD, Nancy Dunbar, MD, (my AABB mentor) and Joe Chaffin, MD, who helped me realize that transfusion medicine was truly the right fit for me and provided opportunities to grow within the field.

If I wasn't working in transfusion medicine or biotherapies, I would be a...

Marine biologist, but I think that spending time on a boat somewhere in the middle of the ocean would be harder to pull off with six kids. 😊