Sponsorship  
 

 

As a non-profit organization, the BEST Collaborative is grateful for sponsorships that help support our mission, and the activities of the four teams described below.
For information about sponsoring BEST Collaborative, please contact The BEST Collaborative Chair, Lorna Williamson, MD.

Cellular Therapy Team

The BEST Cellular Therapy Team is led by Ziggy Szczepiorkowski (Dartmouth, US) and Derwood Pamphilon (Bristol, UK) and its members work at leading institutions in North America, Europe and Asia. Key objectives of the team are to survey current practice in the preparation, assessment, storage and distribution of cellular therapy products and to perform detailed laboratory studies in selected areas of interest. Recent and current studies include:

  • Interlaboratory proficiency testing of cord blood stem cell collections
  • Intra and interlaboratory proficiency testing of dendritic cell products for immunotherapy protocols
  • Assessment of stem cell storage and transportation aiming to define best practice
  • Understanding the key release criteria for cellular therapy products
  • Microbiological contamination of cellular therapy products
  • Standardisation of colony forming units and other key parameters for the assessment of hemopoietic stem cells

The BEST cellular therapy team works closely with international organizations such as AABB, ISCT and EBMT in surveying current practice and its laboratory-based projects are conducted by expert scientists at leading institutions around the world. The results of all studies are published in leading scientific journals such as Transfusion and Cytotherapy. A list of recent publications may be found at the Publications link of this website. We are keen to continue to forge new scientific links with researchers in other leading academic organisations and with key manufacturers of products used in the field of cellular therapy. We are committed to expanding our interests further into the fields of immunotherapy and regenerative medicine as these are developed for clinical study and subsequent routine application in specific patient groups. We hope that you share our belief that the horizons of cellular therapy are ever-expanding and help to support our efforts in the translation of new cellular therapies into the clinic.

Clinical Studies Team

The Clinical Studies Team of BEST seeks to address clinically related topics in transfusion medicine through design and execution of clinically related laboratory studies, pilot clinical studies to generate supporting data larger randomized controlled trials, and guideline development. The study methodology used to address different research questions had included survey methodology, observational studies and randomized controlled trials.

Past projects have included:

  • Design and implementation of a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of low dose prophylactic platelet transfusions compared to standard dose platelets currently used
  • Consolidation of international platelet databases that allowed for comparisons between countries
  • Evaluation of the variability in antibody titration methods results between laboratories in an international study

Current projects include:

  • The relationship between hemoglobin content in a red cell concentrate and patient hemoglobin increment post transfusion;
  • A comparison of the radiolabeled platelet recovery and survival in platelets prepared from whole blood with the buffy coat or platelet rich plasma method
  • Platelet recovery and survival using phenotypic disparity as an alternative to radioisotopes
  • Clinical practices in the use of ABO incompatible platelets using survey methods

The Clinical Studies Team is well positioned to identify and address clinical issues that vary between countries.

The team leaders for Clinical Studies are Larry Dumont, MBA, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH and Nancy Heddle MSc., FCSMLS(D), Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and Director of the McMaster Transfusion Research Program, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON.

Conventional Components Team

The BEST Conventional Components Team is led by John Hess (Baltimore, US) and Pieter van der Meer (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

Transfusion Safety Team

The BEST Transfusion Safety Team is led by Suny Dzik (Boston, US) and Michael Murphy (Oxford, UK).