Research

Robert Soiffer, MD
CO-PI BCRP; Chief, Hematologic Malignancies, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Soiffer graduated from New York University School of Medicine in 1983, and trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he also was chief medical resident.

He joined Dana-Farber in 1988, after completing a medical oncology fellowship. He is currently chief of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies and co-chief of the Division of Adult Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies. He has served as vice president (2006), president (2007), and immediate past president (2008) of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

Irene Ghobrial, MD
CO-PI BCRP; Senior Physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Ghobrial is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. She is a physician-scientist who specializes in the fields of multiple myeloma and Waldenström's macroglobulinemia. Dr. Ghobrial is director of the Michele and Steven Kirsch Laboratory and director of the Clinical Investigator Research Program.

Her research interests are in the area of cell trafficking and cell metastasis in B cell malignancies and specific homing to the bone marrow niches. She is the principal investigator of several clinical trials in multiple myeloma and Waldenström's macroglobulinemia.

Matthew Davids, MD, MMSc
CO-PI BCRP; Physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Associate Director, Center for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Dr. Davids completed his MD at the Yale University School of Medicine. He served as an intern and resident in internal medicine at the NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He then completed his fellowship in hematology and oncology in the Dana-Farber Partners CancerCare program.

He is an attending physician in the Lymphoma Program of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies at Dana-Farber, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Davids has an active translational research program in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), studying mechanisms of treatment resistance and how resistance can be overcome in the laboratory, and developing clinical trials to evaluate these strategies in patients with CLL.

Farah Daftary
Director of Clinical Trial Operations at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Farah is the Co-Director of the Clinical Trials Office at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is well versed in clinical research, particularly in hematologic malignancies. Farah oversees the Clinical Research Managers in the Hematologic Malignancies Department.

Jun Xu, PhD
LLS Director, Therapy Acceleration Program

Dr. Jun Xu is Senior Director for the Therapy Acceleration Program^TM (TAP) at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). LLS TAP seeks to fund clinical development of therapies that have the potential to change the standard of care for patients with blood cancer, especially in areas of high unmet medical need. Dr. Xu has personally reviewed over 100 funding requests to select the best ones to be supported by LLS. She also serves as Research Advisory Committee member for a diverse LLS TAP alliance portfolio, mostly innovative immunotherapies. Prior to joining LLS Dr. Xu spent more than 16 years working in health care industry including more than a decade at Pfizer. She has successfully led multiple projects in Oncology and Immunology from target validation to clinical development. Dr. Xu has broad and in-depth experience in drug discovery and development, especially in oncology and inflammation therapeutic areas. Dr. Xu has published in peer reviewed journals including Nature and is the lead inventor for several patents. Dr. Xu received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego and conducted her postdoc research at the California Institute of Technology.

Community Principal Investigators

Asad Bashey, MD, PhD
Blood and Marrow Transplant Group of Georgia

Dr. Bashey is board certified in the subspecialties of medical oncology and hematology. He is the clinical research Medical Director for Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Northside Hospital. For 2013, Dr. Bashey has been selected as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor in the field of Hematology.

Dr. Bashey's clinical and research interests include novel approaches to allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, strategies for augmentation of the graft-versus-tumor effect after allogeneic transplantation, and stem cell mobilization. He has received major funding from the National Institutes of Health for his clinical research. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator for The Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Northside Hospital's Core Center status with the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMTCTN).

Adam Boruchov, MD
St. Francis Medical Center

Dr. Boruchov completed a hematology/oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer (MSKCC) and then joined the MSKCC faculty on the hematology service. He conducted clinical trials and laboratory research with a focus on immune therapies for cancer.

In 2008 he moved to the Saint Francis/Mount Sinai Regional Cancer Center as an Assistant Professor at UCONN Health Science Center. He recently became the clinical director of the Lea Economos Hematology Center for Clinical Research. Dr. Boruchov’s practice is limited to treating patients with benign and malignant conditions of the bone marrow, including leukemias, lymphomas, multiple myeloma, MDS and myeloproliferative disorders.

Allan Louie Cruz, MD
Northern Light Cancer Care

Dr. Cruz specializes in the treatment of lung cancer, thoracic oncology, and hematologic malignancies. He received his medical degree from the University of Santo Tomas Hospital in Manila, Philippines, and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and Medstar Georgetown University Hospital.

Yogesh Jethava, MD
University of Iowa, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Jethava specializes in myeloma, amyloidosis, blood cancers, BMT, and CAR T-cell therapy. Dr. Jethava received his medical degree from Pune, India. He completed his internal medicine residency at Mumbai University in India. He was awarded membership in the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Jethava was the founding director of the bone marrow transplant program at the University of Arkansas. He is presently a hematologist at the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center for the University of Iowa, as well as a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He is the lead investigator in clinical trials in the areas of multiple myeloma.

M. Zachary Koontz, MD
Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula

Dr. Koontz graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Chemistry from Santa Clara University and was accepted to Phi Beta Kappa, as well as the scientific (Sigma Xi) and foreign language (Phi Sigma Iota) honor societies. He received his medical degree from UC Irvine, where he was the only member of his class to earn honors in each third-year clinical clerkship rotation, as well as induction into the medical honors society (Alpha Omega Alpha) and humanism in medicine honors society (Gold Humanism). His internship, residency, and fellowship took place at Stanford University, where he was recognized by his residency class with the annual Excellence in Teaching Award and Patient Care Award, as well as by the medical students with a Gold Humanism teaching award. After completing training, he joined Stanford faculty as a clinical assistant professor in the Divisions of Hematology and Oncology, where he focused on gastrointestinal cancers and was a co-leader of the first Stanford inpatient nurse practitioner-based combined hematology and oncology service. He is a board member of the Association of Northern California Oncologists (ANCO), vice-chair of Oncology and medical director of Clinical Oncology Affairs at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula.

Jeffrey Matous, MD
Colorado Institute of Blood Cancer

Dr. Matous specializes in the treatment of blood cancers such as multiple myeloma, amyloidosis, lymphoma and leukemia, as well as in the field of blood and marrow transplantation. Dr. Matous received his medical degree with honors from the University of Washington. He completed his internal medicine residency and chief residency at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is presently the medical director for the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute as well as a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is also on the board of the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society.

Dr. Matous has a particular interest in medical education and supervises both medical students and internal medicine residents who are interested in the field of hematology/oncology. He has been recognized as an outstanding clinical teacher of the medicine house staff. He is the lead investigator in clinical trials in the areas of lymphoma, Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia, and multiple myeloma.

Mohammad Omaira, MD
West Michigan Cancer Center & Institute for Blood Disorders

Dr. Omaira joined West Michigan Cancer Center & Institute for Blood Disorders in 2014, after completing a hematology/oncology fellowship at Michigan State University's Breslin Cancer Center in East Lansing. Prior to his training there, during which time he served as chief fellow, Dr. Omaira completed a residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where he was chief resident. He earned his medical degree from the University of Damascus in the Syrian Arab Republic. Dr. Omaira's clinical interests are leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, anemia, and clotting disorders.

Leyla Shune, MD
The University of Kansas Medical Center

Dr. Shune is an assistant professor of Medicine with The University of Kansas Medical Center, specializing in blood and marrow transplantation, cellular medicine, and hematology. Dr. Shune's clinical practice focuses on blood and marrow transplantation, cord blood transplantation, haplotype mismatched allograft transplantation, leukemia, and lymphoma.

Dr. Shune is a graduate of Istanbul University. She completed her residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in hematology oncology and transplantation at the University of Minnesota. While at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, she completed her fellowship in bone marrow transplantation. She is a member of multiple organizations, including the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Bone Marrow Transplantation, and American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Eric Wiedower, DO
West Cancer Center

Eric Wiedower, DO, completed his fellowship in Medical Oncology & Hematology at West Cancer Center. During his Fellowship, he served as Chief Fellow — a prestigious honor awarded by West Cancer Center faculty to one of the top performing fellows. He also served as chief resident during his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Kansas, where he demonstrated excellence and leadership among his peers. In addition to a reputation of compassionate clinical care, Wiedower is an award-winning researcher, recognized at some of the world’s premier cancer conferences. He is a member of the American Society of Hematology, as well as the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Ira Zackon, MD
New York Oncology Hematology

Dr. Zackon is the Director of the New York Oncology Hematology Stem Cell Transplant Program. He completed a professional development program in Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation and Hematologic Malignancies at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute during 2011-12.

In addition to further expanding his expertise in this specialized arena, he has enhanced the collaborative relationships with Dana-Farber specialists. Dr. Zackon most values family time with his wife and two children; he enjoys leisure sports and is an active community volunteer.