Frederick Appelbaum, MD, to Deliver Keynote Speech at 2026 AABB Annual Meeting

AABB is pleased to announce that the keynote speaker for this year’s Annual Meeting will be Frederick Appelbaum, MD. Appelbaum is the executive vice president at Fred Hutch and a professor in Fred Hutch’s clinical research division. He has been an influential leader in the blood and biotherapies field for decades, authoring or coauthoring more than 800 peer-reviewed articles; his work has led to landmark advancements for patient care.

Early in his career, while working at the National Cancer Institute, Appelbaum described the first use of autologous transplantation as curative therapy for malignant lymphoma. This therapy is now used to treat more than 50,000 patients annually. After moving to Fred Hutch, Appelbaum led the first studies demonstrating the ability of transplantation to cure myelodysplasia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin disease, as well as its role in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Appelbaum was also instrumental in developing gemtuzumab ozogamicin, the first antibody-drug conjugate approved by the FDA.

In his keynote address, Appelbaum will trace the arc of bone marrow transplantation – from its earliest days to the frontier of in vivo gene therapy – and will detail the critical role of the blood banking and transfusion medicine community. Appelbaum will highlight the historical relationship between bone marrow transplantation and transfusion medicine, including AABB’s own early role as a model for field regulation and self-governance, and how a strong blood bank infrastructure was foundational to making transplant medicine possible.