Cynthia R. Giver, PhD

Dr. Giver received her PhD in Environmental Toxicology from University of California in Riverside, CA. She completed post-doctoral fellowships at University of California in San Francisco, CA and Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Giver has extensive research experience in the area of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), with a particular focus on the development of graft engineering methods to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) while maintaining important graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) effects. Her current translational research projects involve collaborations with members of the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Program at the Winship Cancer Institute, as well as with other investigators at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Giver is also interested in the effects of newer epigenetic anti-cancer agents, such as proteasome inhibitors and histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi), especially in relation to off-target effects that result in thrombocytopenia. Collaboration in this area of research has led to new industry funding opportunities and a first-author article in the journal, Leukemia.

In addition to preclinical studies, Dr. Giver is pleased to have the opportunity to be involved with clinical research. She conducted a retrospective study of allogeneic HSCT patients at Emory who received extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) as treatment for chronic GvHD, and shared first-authorship of a recently-published article in the journal, Transfusion, demonstrating that patients who have larger numbers of blood dendritic cells and T-cells at baseline are more likely to have a positive clinical response to ECP therapy. This project has also led to the development of further clinical studies to help understand the mechanism of action of ECP patients receiving this therapy for chronic GvHD.