The late Gerhard Schmidt, M.D., lost his battle with cancer in 1993 — but 15 years later, his legacy continues to grow at City of Hope.
A physician and researcher who joined City of Hope’s Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Program in 1977, Schmidt established the Autologous Stem Cell Transplant and Histocompatibility Laboratory programs, and eventually became the associate director of the program.
The Gerhard Schmidt Memorial Lecture in Transplantation Biology and Medicine commemorates Schmidt’s work and dedication to advancing the science of transplantation.
Every year, leading up to the “Celebration of Life” Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Reunion, City of Hope invites an accomplished researcher to visit City of Hope and deliver this honorary lecture.
This year, world-renowned researcher and physician Frederick Appelbaum, M.D., director of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, will deliver a lecture titled “Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: Past, Present, Future.” The lecture will be held at 4 p.m. on April 23 in Cooper Auditorium.
Appelbaum, who heads the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine and serves as executive director of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, is known for advancing the understanding of the biology of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and the use of novel therapeutics to treat AML and other hematologic malignancies. He also chairs the Southwest Oncology Group’s leukemia committee and leads the Program in Clinical Transplant Research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which focuses on clinical trials investigating novel transplant treatment approaches, graft-versus-host disease and the prevention of transplantrelated complications.
In addition, he is co-editor on “Thomas’ Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation,” the definitive textbook on the topic for scientists and health-care professionals, alongside Stephen J. Forman, M.D., the Francis and Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope, Karl G. Blume, M.D., professor of medicine in the Division of Bone Marrow Transplantation at Stanford University, and Robert S. Negrin, M.D., division chief in the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Stanford Cancer Center. The book was named for E. Donnell Thomas, M.D., who received the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology in 1991 for his work in bone marrow transplantation.
