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Research

BCRP Leadership and Investigators

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

    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
    Irene Ghobrial, MD

    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
    Matthew Davids, MD

    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-Prebyterian 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.

    Alexandra Savell
    Research Project Manager

    Alexandra is the senior project manager for the Blood Cancer Research Partnership. She has extensive knowledge of hematologic malignancies, clinical trial operations, regulatory affairs, and data management. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a background in public health policy.

    Jun Xu, PhD
    LLS Director, Therapy Acceleration Program
    Jun Xu, PhD

    Dr. Jun Xu is Senior Director for the Therapy Acceleration ProgramTM (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
    Asad Bashey, MD, PhD

    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
    St. Francis Medical Center
    Adam Boruchov

    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.

    Rodrigo Maegawa, MD
    Northern Light Cancer Care
    Rodrigo Maegawa, MD

    Dr. Maegawa is the Medical Director of Northern Light Lafayette Family Cancer Institute (NLLFCI) in Brewer, ME. He is originally from Brazil, where he obtained his medical degree from Federal University of Parana. He completed his internship and medicine residency at St. Luke's–Roosevelt Medical Center in New York, NY, followed by a Hematology-Oncology fellowship at the University of Colorado in Denver, CO, and a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant fellowship at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA. Since 2012, he has been practicing at NLLFCI, and he is particularly interested in bringing clinical trials in hematological malignancies to his patients in Eastern Maine.

    Jeffrey Matous, MD
    Colorado Institute of Blood Cancer
    Jeffrey Matous, MD

    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 housestaff. 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
    Mohammad Omaira, MD

    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
    Leyla Shune, MD

    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.

    Laura Stampleman, MD
    Pacific Cancer Care
    Laura Stampleman, MD

    Dr. Stampleman completed her undergraduate degree at The City College of the City University in New York, NY. She received her Medical Degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, NY. She completed her residency at The Stamford Hospital in Stamford, CT and her Medical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY.

    Dr. Stampleman is the principal investigator for both Pacific Cancer Care and the ECOG CCOP of Salinas Valley memorial hospital. She served as the Medical Director of the ACOS certified program at Salinas Valley for 6 years and remains active in the cancer program with an emphasis on clinical trial enrollment and survivorship care. Dr. Stampleman lives with her husband in Aromas. They have two children and two grandchildren. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, gardening, baking, cooking and listening to music.

    Eric Wiedower, DO
    West Cancer Center
    Eric Wiedower, DO

    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
    Ira Zackon, MD

    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.