12/17/2014

Warren Shlomchik, M.D., a leading expert in investigating the immunologic mechanisms underlying graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD), a common complication for some stem cell transplant patients, has been named director of stem cell transplantation and cell therapies for the University of Pittsburgh’s Division of Hematology-Oncology and University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), a partner with UPMC CancerCenter, and  UPCI’s scientific director of hematopoietic malignancies.

Dr. Shlomchik’s appointment is effective March 1, 2015. He will also serve as a professor of medicine and immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He comes to Pittsburgh from Yale Cancer Center at the Yale University School of Medicine, where he had been on the senior faculty for 16 years.

“Warren’s work has been invaluable in helping researchers understand more about the mechanisms of GVHD. His main priorities here in Pittsburgh will be to continue to conduct innovative, ground-breaking lab-based science and to oversee the translation of that science into investigator-initiated clinical trials, which will be a huge advance for our transplant and hematopoietic malignancies clinical research program,” said Edward Chu, M.D., chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and deputy director of UPCI.

Dr. Shlomchik is a leading expert in GVHD, a well-established complication that can occur after a stem cell or bone marrow transplant in which the newly transplanted donor cells attack the transplant recipient's body. At Pitt, Dr. Shlomchik will continue his research on GVHD mechanisms as well as work to develop novel immunologic-based and cell therapy approaches to circumvent and/or overcome the development of GVHD.

“We’ve been very fortunate at UPCI this year to add several renowned researchers to our ranks, including Dr. Shlomchik,” said Nancy E. Davidson, M.D., director of UPCI and UPMC CancerCenter. “The decision of these researchers to come here shows that we are serious about the work we are doing to unravel the mysteries of cancer and take those findings directly to our patients.”

Dr. Shlomchik earned his bachelor of arts at Harvard University and his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency in internal medicine at New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center and was a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in hematology-oncology.