Edmund K. Waller, MD, PhD, with Rein Saral, MD and leadership from Emory University and Winship Cancer Institute.
The inaugural Rein Saral, MD Professorship in Cancer Medicine was awarded on February 16 to Edmund K. Waller, MD, PhD, a distinguished Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University (Winship) investigator and physician; director of Winship's Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Program; professor, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology; and director of the Stem Cell and Immune Therapy Division.
The professorship recognizes Waller's outstanding contributions and expertise in the area of hematological malignancies and bone marrow/stem cell transplantation and is given in honor of Rein Saral, MD, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Senior Advisor to Winship Cancer Institute, for his outstanding clinical work, research, and leadership.
Saral was recruited to Emory in 1991 to direct its Bone Marrow Transplantation Program, which he developed into one of the nation's largest and most highly regarded programs. Saral also directed The Emory Clinic during a period of growth and improvement and helped Winship as a member of its Executive Committee and as its Senior Advisor to achieve its National Cancer Institute designation in 2008 and its comprehensive designation in 2016.
"Rein Saral has been a defining leader for Winship in both his innovative work in stem cell science and transplantation medicine and as a senior advisor to Winship's leadership team. This work coupled with his leadership of Emory's physician practice in the Emory Clinic has defined his indelible influence on Winship and all of Emory," says Walter J. Curran, Jr., MD, executive director of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University.
Saral recruited Waller in the mid-1990s to expand Winship's translational research and to further develop the scientific platform of Winship's stem cell transplantation efforts. Waller became a key leader of Winship's Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Center and is known for his practice-changing research in graft-versus-host disease.
"The effectiveness of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation has improved tremendously in the last 20 years, and I'm extremely proud that our people have contributed so much to that success," says Saral. "Ned Waller is disciplined, thoughtful, and compassionate. He's helped bring the Winship transplant program to the forefront of the field."
Today, Winship's Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Program is one of the largest and most influential transplant programs in the U.S. Winship's comprehensive, multidisciplinary teams perform more than 400 transplants each year for autologous, related, unrelated donor, umbilical cord blood, or bloodless transplant patients.
The Rein Saral, MD Professorship will support Waller's innovative research in enhancing immune reconstitution after stem cell transplant and anti-tumor immunology.
