Prof Shimon Slavin
Head, Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cancer Immunotherapy Hadassah University Hospital Ein-Karem, Jerusalem

Prof. Shimon Slavin is a renowned international leader in stem cell transplantation (SCT), cancer immunotherapy and transplantation biology. Chairman of Israel’s National Bone Marrow Transplantation Center. In addition, he has been the director of the Baxter-Hadassah Research Center, director of The Danny Cunniff Leukemia Research Laboratory and since 2001 has served as Medical Director of Cancer Immunotherapy at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). His contributions include a new series of proprietary procedures and therapeutic tools for ultimate treatment of an otherwise incurable broad spectrum of malignant and non-malignant diseases.

External Academic Positions
Visiting Prof.: Univ. of Minn.; Univ. of Texas at Dallas
Univ. of Singapore.

Memberships and Fellowships:
Amer. Immunological Soc.; Int'l Transplantation Soc.; Amer. Federation of Clinical Res.; Int'l Soc. for Experimental Hematology; Int'l Gnobotic Soc.; Amer. Soc. of Hematology; Amer. Rheumatism Assn.; Isr. Med. Soc.; Isr. Immunology Soc.; Isr. Soc. for Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Research Interests
Bone marrow transplantation (BMT); mechanisms and induction of
transplantation tolerance; new approaches to leukemia and solid tumor
therapy focusing on cell and cytokine-mediated immunotherapy in
experimental animals and man; hematopoiesis and enhancement of
hematopoietic reconstitution by cytokines and new growth factors.
Treatment and mechanisms of autoimmune diseases in experimental animals and man.

2007 - Bone Marrow Derived Cells and New Low-Molecular Weight Compounds for Tissue Regeneration and Delaying the Aging Process 

PAST AACL CONFERENCES

2006 - Stem cells for treatment of malignant and non-malignant diseases and for tissue repair
Stem cells used in the context of autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation can be used for the treatment of an increasing number of malignant and non-malignant disorders, including diseases caused by deficiency of bone marrow stem cells or bone marrow derived cell subsets, a large variety of genetic disorders and as of recently also for treatment of life threatening autoimmune diseases. However, most stem cells transplant procedures are performed for malignant indications. Standard treatment of patients with malignant hematological diseases and certain metastatic solid tumors that cannot be controlled by conventional chemotherapy, may involve the use of high-dose chemoradiotherapy supported by autologous or preferably allogeneic stem cell transplantation. However, although stem cell transplantation can serve as an optimal therapeutic modality for an increasing number of malignant and non-malignant diseases, procedure-related toxicity and mortality as well as recurrence of the basic disease on the one hand, and anti-host reactivity on the other, still represent major obstacles.  Considering the fact that adoptive immunotherapy with alloreactive donor lymphocytes (primarily T cells, not excluding NK and NK T cells) represent the major therapeutic component of the bone marrow transplant (BMT) procedure, which can be accomplished following induction of donor specific unresponsiveness following engraftment of donor stem cells, replacing conventional myeloablative with reduced intensity conditioning seemed justified. Indeed, in view of the therapeutic potential of donor alloreactive lymphocytes in eradicating undesirable hematopoietic cells of host origin, malignant (e.g. blood cancers & certain metastatic solid tumors (e.g. renal cell cancer) and non-malignant diseases (e.g. genetic diseases such as hemoglobinopathies; lysosomal enzyme deficiency disorders; autoimmune diseases and diseases caused by deficiency of stem cell products) we have documented that safer transplantation can be accomplished by reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) focusing on non-myeloablative stem cell transplantation (NST) as a platform for subsequent adoptive allogeneic cell-mediated immunotherapy. NST can be applied in elderly individuals, which represent the majority of patients in need, as well as in patients with poor performance status, normally excluded from BMT.  In infants and young adults, NST may provide a method for cure of otherwise lethal disease while avoiding transplant related toxicity and mortality, reserving the reproductive system and normal growth and development.  For patients with malignant diseases additional post transplant immunotherapy may be required for elimination of cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy, however, in treating deficiency and genetic diseases such as severe aplastic anemia and Fanconi’s anemia, near 100% cure has been accomplished using NST, with excellent quality of life and no severe GVHD. However, limited anti-tumor responses on the one hand as well as the consequences of acute and chronic GVHD on the other, can still represent major barriers to further successful application of BMT for the treatment of patients in need with malignant as well as non-malignant indications for stem cell transplantation, especially those with no matched donor available.  At present, stem cell transplantation can be accomplished for al patients in need using haploidentically mismatched family member (child to parent or parent to child, or any half-matched family member) following engraftment of donor stem cells T cell-depleted in vitro or in vivo (using positively selected stem cells or negatively selected T cells using immunomagnetic beads). Based on successful experiments in pre-clinical animal models, we are now pioneering the use of specifically immune donor lymphocytes and donor lymphocytes targeted with monoclonal or bispecific antibodies sensitized in vitro and in vivo.  For patients with genetic diseases caused by deficiency or mutation of a recognized functional structural gene, adequate correction of the basic abnormality may be accomplished by gene therapy, mediated by transduction of patient’s own stem cells.  Successful gene therapy was already accomplished in 2 types of severe combined immune deficiency (SCID). Last but not least, great progress has been made using adult stem cells for tissue repair, based on the capacity of bone marrow-derived stem cells to differentiate into blood vessels, bone, cartilage, fat with possible trans-differentiation into other tissues such as nervous system cells, cardiomyocytes etc., mediated directly or indirectly by mesenchymal stem cells.  Taken together, autologous and/or allogeneic adult stem cells may provide important tools for treatment of a broad spectrum of malignant and non-malignant diseases as well as for tissue repair due to senescence, trauma or degenerative disorders.