Thea M. Friedman, Ph.D.

Researcher Thea M. Friedman, Ph.D., specializes in basic science and translational research in the field of blood and marrow stem cell transplantation. For most of her career, Dr. Friedman's research has been concentrated on how to reduce the incidence and severity of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in patients who receive donated stem cells during an allogeneic transplant and how to enhance the ability of these transplanted T cells to fight infection and the malignancy itself. Dr. Friedman utilizes V-beta spectratyping analysis to examine the reconstituting T cell families after engraftment; she also uses this analysis to identify T cells that are responding to relapsing leukemia cells, and/or host elements after transplantation. Dr. Friedman and her collaborator, Robert Korngold, Ph.D., chief of the Division of Research at The Cancer Center, have recently expanded these studies into also investigating the use of V-beta spectratyping to analyze the repertoire of donated T cells in response to multiple myeloma cells, another type of blood cancer. Identifying which T cells may damage the patient with GVHD and which ones may actually help the patient fight the disease may lead to the development of clinical approaches for tempering the GVHD response by donated T cells. It may be possible somedayallogeneic stem cell transplants for each specific type of cancer and patient to be treated.

In Dr. Friedman's role as a member of the Cancer Immunopathology and Immunotherapy Study Section of the National Institutes of Health's Center for Scientific Review, she reviews grant applications submitted to the NIH, makes recommendations on these applications to the appropriate NIH national advisory council or board, and surveys the status of research in the field of cancer immunopathology and immunotherapy. This position carries with it the responsibility to evaluate grant applications objectively so that the best science is funded. NIH Study Sections affect the course of research on a global level.

Dr. Friedman's research is funded by several National Institutes of Health R01 and U19 grants and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. Her work has been published in numerous medical journals, including Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the Journal of Clinical Investigations, and Blood. She is on the editorial board of Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, and is an ad hoc reviewer forthe Journal of Immunology, and Haematologica Journal.
 

  • Associate Scientist at The David Joseph Jurist Research Center for Tomorrows Children at Hackensack University Medical Center
  • Graduate Education: Ph.D. in Cell Biology, University of Pennsylvania
  • Post-Doctoral Fellowships: The Institute for Cancer Research, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia
  • Specialization: Immunology
  • Research Interests: transplantation immunology, cellular biology, T-cell subsets, bone marrow transplantation, T-cell repertoire reconstitution and complexity, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), graft-versus-leukemia and myeloma effects, minor histocompatibility antigens
  • Honors/Awards: National Institutes of Health-NRSA pre- and post-doctoral fellowships, Amy Strelzer Manasevit Marrow Foundation and the National Marrow Donor Program
  • Memberships: American Society of Hematology, American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, American Association for Cancer Research