The Division of Blood & Marrow Transplantation has a large research program that is engaged in a multidisciplinary approach to scientific inquiry.
Our research programs excel in the pursuit of cutting-edge research in basic science, clinical, and translational research. We are supported by the National Institutes of Health and foundation award. Our investigators have program project grants and multi-institutional awards.
Tiffany Tanaka, M.D.'s research focuses on finding better treatments for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Her prior work in the lab included the exploration of DNA methylation signatures that helped predict prognosis for patients with MDS. More recently, her research has focused on immune responses to treatment in patients with MDS and AML. She has contributed to research protocols that have led to the development of immunotherapy approaches including adoptive cellular therapy for patients with MDS.
Fotis Asimakopoulos completed his M.D./Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in the UK, working with Tony Green on mapping 20q deletions associated with pre-leukemias. He then spent two (in his own words, “unforgettable”) years in Jerusalem working with Dina Ben Yehuda as a Golda Meir Fellow on mechanisms underlying CML clonal evolution.
After residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, he joined Nobel prize laureate Harold Varmus’ group at MSK. In Harold’s lab, he began his work to generate a RAS-driven model for myeloma, a goal that eventually came to fruition several years later, with the publication of the VQ model (in collaboration with Jing Zhang’s group at UW-Madison as well as Marta Chesi and Leif Bergsagel at Mayo).
In 2010, he became an Assistant Professor and later a tenured Associate Professor at UW-Madison. The Asimakopoulos lab moved to UC San Diego in 2019.
Dan Kaufman, M.D.'s expertise and areas of interest include cell-based immunotherapies, stem cells, regenerative medicine, and natural killer (NK) cell-mediated therapy. He offers chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. CAR T-cell therapy harnesses the patient's own immune cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. It is just one of many types of personalized cancer therapies offered at UC San Diego Health.
Aaron Goodman, M.D's research interests include studying genomics and the natural history of rare hematologic malignancies including peripheral T-cell lymphomas, cutaneous T-cell lymphomas, Erdheim Chester disease, Rosai Dorfman, Langerhans histiocytosis, and Castleman disease. He runs clinical trials utilizing cellular therapies to treat lymphomas and leukemia. Dr. Goodman is so interested in medical education and utilizing social media to educate physicians. He is also interested in clinical trial design for multiple myeloma and identifying structural biases built into trials and identifying ways to improve the trial design. Dr. Goodman co-runs the only cutaneous lymphoma clinic in San Diego with Dr. Orme of the Department of Dermatology. He is also the fellowship director for the BMT fellowship program.
Caitlin Costello, M.D., is a board-certified hematologist and medical oncologist who specializes in treating a variety of blood cancers, including multiple myeloma, lymphoma, and leukemia. She is part of the joint UC San Diego Health / Sharp Healthcare Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program, which provides patients with the unique opportunity to receive care from the same physician throughout all phases of blood cancer treatment. This includes initial consultation and diagnosis, treatment to help achieve remission, care throughout stem cell transplants and cellular therapy, and follow-up survivorship care. Dr. Costello offers chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to adults with multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and acute lymphoblastic leukemias. CAR T-cell therapy harnesses the patient's own immune cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. It is just one of many types of personalized cancer therapies offered at UC San Diego Health. Her primary clinical interests include treating plasma cell disorders such as multiple myeloma, Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia, and systemic amyloidosis. Her research focuses on refining the management and treatment of these diseases. She is committed to conducting clinical trials for multiple myeloma with novel agents and regimens, with a goal to broaden therapeutic options and knowledge of this disease.
Dimitrios Tzachanis, M.D., Ph.D, is a board-certified hematologist and medical oncologist who specializes in treating people with cancers of the blood and lymph system, including lymphoma, myeloma, leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). He is a transplant physician for the joint UC San Diego Health / Sharp Healthcare Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program, which provides comprehensive blood and marrow transplant services, including autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Dr. Tzachanis offers chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. CAR T-cell therapy harnesses the patient's own immune cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. It is just one of many types of personalized cancer therapies offered at UC San Diego Health. As an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, Dr. Tzachanis instructs medical students, residents, and fellows. His research interests include cellular and immune therapies for cancers of the blood. He has authored and co-authored many articles that have been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Blood, Lancet Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, among others. Dr. Tzachanis also serves as an ad hoc reviewer and editorial board member for several medical journals.