Symposium 6 Aiming for Safer Transplants

[SY6-2] Respiratory viral infections after hematopoietic cell transplantation: challenges and opportunities

Michael Boeckh (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA)

Michael Boeckh, MD, PhD, is the Head of the Infectious Disease Sciences Program, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and trained in internal medicine in Berlin, Germany, and in infectious diseases at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is an expert in viral infections in the immunocompromised host, with emphasis on cytomegalovirus (CMV) and respiratory viruses. Dr. Boeckh is a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America the current chair of the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) Transplant Infectious Disease Special Interest Group. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, review articles, practice guidelines and book chapters. He is the co-editor of the Transplant Infectious Disease textbook (4^th edition). His CMV research is focused on immune reconstitution after transplantation, viral kinetics, transmission of CMV, and disease management in the immunocompromised patient population. His respiratory virus research focuses on the association of respiratory viruses and airflow obstruction, the adaptive immune response to respiratory viruses, viral dissemination and gene expression signatures as biomarkers for disease severity, as well as management strategies.