Iranian scientist wins world award for best cancer research

An Iranian scientist won a world award as the best researcher in oncology and blood-related cancers. Professor Ardeshir Ghavamzadeh is to receive the Distinguished Service Award from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research in 2012. According to a statement released by the website of the combined annual meetings of the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) and the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT), the professor will receive the CIBMTR Distinguished Service Award for the year 2012 at the 5-day BMT Tandem Meeting on February 2. Professor Ghavamzadeh is a faculty member of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and the Head of TUMS Hematology-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Research Center (HORCSCT). He is Chief of Oncology-Hematology & BMT at Shariati Hospital in Tehran, where he began his work in stem cell transplantation in 1980 and remains its Director today. His center has contributed data to the IBMTR/CIBMTR for many years and he served on its Advisory Committee in the past. He now serves at an Executive level on the Boards of Asian Pacific and Eastern Mediterranean Registries and remains Chief of the Iranian Board of Hematology since 1991. Dr. Ghavamzadeh oversees an active center that transplanted 377 patients in 2010. His team also educates transplantation teams at other centers in Tehran. In 2009, his program began an unrelated stem cell banking project and is actively engaged in cord blood banking. He is praised worldwide for the successful development of a stem cell transplantation program in a setting with multiple challenges and also for his dedication to advancing the field of transplantation.