DiPersio to become president of transplantation society

John DiPersio, MD, PhD, director of the Division of Oncology and deputy director of Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been elected to the top leadership post in the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT). He will take over the role during the society’s meetings in Salt Lake City in February. 

DiPersio, the Virginia E. and Sam J. Golman Professor of Medicine in Oncology at the School of Medicine, has served on the ASBMT board of directors for several years.

His clinical research focuses on fundamental and translational aspects of leukemia and stem cell biology. Among his many accomplishments, DiPersio was instrumental in developing a drug called plerixafor that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2008 to help treat multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

DiPersio also is chair of the American Society of Hematology Scientific Committee on Hematopoiesis and a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors (Clinical Science and Epidemiology) for the National Cancer Institute.