Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD)

Dr. Punwani is a hematologist/oncologist with the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai. He earned his BA from Lehigh University, an MPH in Health Care Management & Policy from Harvard School of Public Health and his MD from Drexel University College of Medicine. He did his Internal Medicine Residency at George Washington Unviersity Hospital and his Fellowships in Hematology and Oncology at the University of Southern California. Dr. Punwani is board certified in Internal Medicine and is both researcher and clinician with more

Dr. Shaffer is a board certified hematologist specializing in bone marrow transplantation for leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, lymphoma, and other bone marrow disorders. He works in a collaborative fashion with other members of our team to provide comprehensive cancer care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His research focuses on the role of Natural Killer (NK) cells in outcomes after transplantation. NK cells are white blood cells that have anti-tumor and anti-infection properties. His goal is to improve the transplantation process for patients via understanding and optimizing NK

Dr. Niyongere joined the School of Medicine and Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center as an Assistant Professor in 2018. Her clinical focus is in acute leukemias, myelodysplastic syndromes, myeloproliferative neoplasms and bone marrow failure syndromes. Dr. Niyongere’s primary research interests are in finding new therapeutic targets by understanding oncogenic signaling pathways involved in AML and MDS as well as studying the role of the tumor microenvironment in the development of chemoresistance in leukemia. Dr. Niyongere also serves as an attending physician on the

James R. Cook, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Pathology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He serves as Section Head of Hematopathology in the Department of Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Cook's clinical interests focus on diagnostic hematopathology and molecular diagnostics. His research interests include diagnostic and prognostic markers in non-Hodgkin lymphoma and plasma cell disorders, and molecular diagnosis of leukemia and lymphoma. He participates in numerous multi-institutional research efforts including the Lymphoma and Leukemia Molecular Profiling Project (LLMPP) and the

Dr. Guang-Shing Cheng is Associate Professor in the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutch in Seattle. Dr. Cheng is a pulmonologist who focuses on improving outcomes for cancer patients who have respiratory failure and lung complications related to their cancer treatments. She is developing new ways to prevent lung damage and improve lung function in these patients. Dr. Cheng’s main interest is bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome, a serious complication of blood stem cell transplantation. She also studies the role of respiratory viruses and other infectious pathogens in lung disease in

David Jacobsohn, MD, ScM is the Division Chief, Blood and Marrow Transplanation at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. Previously, he was at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he served as a member of the Stem Cell Transplant Program staff and as the Director of the Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease Clinic. He has lectured widely on GvHD/BMT in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Dr. Jacobsohn obtained a Bachelor of Science from Yale University, his medical degree from Tufts University, and a Masters in Clinical Investigation from Johns Hopkins School of

Ryotaro Nakamura, MD is Professor, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation; Director, Center for Stem Cell Transplantation at City of Hope. Since joining City of Hope in 2002, Ryotaro Nakamura, M.D., has been at the forefront of leading-edge research in stem cell transplantation and development of cancer vaccines. Among his promising projects: A study indicating that bone marrow transplants may be effective in treating systemic mastocytosis, a rare blood disease with no known cure, and the use of vaccines to replace antivirals which can often spawn deadly infections. Dr