2009 Program Information - American Society for Histocompatibility ...

National Faculty Members
Michael D. Gautreaux, PhD, D(ABHI)
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Michael D. Gautreaux, PhD, D(ABHI) is an Associate Professor
in the Department of General Surgery at Wake Forest University
School of Medicine. Dr. Gautreaux is currently the director of the
HLA/Immunogenetics Laboratory at Wake Forest University/Baptist
Medical Center.
Dr. Gautreaux is an active member of the American Society for Histocompatibility and
Immunogenetics (ASHI). He served two years as chair of the ASHI Bylaws Committee,
as a member of the International Affairs, and is currently the chair of the Director’s Affairs
Committee. In addition, Dr. Gautreaux is a co-chair of the ASHI Accreditation Review
Board, which accredits HLA laboratories nationally and internationally. He is a past
member of the board of directors for Life Point of South Carolina, the OPO for that state.
Currently, he is serving as the Region 11 representative to the UNOS/Organ Procurement
and Transplantation Network’s Histocompatibility Committee and is a member of the UNOS
Region 11 Nominating Committee.
Dr. Gautreaux has a special interest in studying anti-HLA antibodies and their role in health
and disease. He has given presentations at several national and international symposia and
has published in several peer-reviewed journals, such as Infection and Immunity, Biology of
Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research,
Transplantation, and Human Immunology.
Mary S. (Susie) Leffell, PhD,
D(ABHI), D(ABMLI)
Johns Hopkins University
Mary S. (Susie) Leffell, PhD, is Professor of Medicine and Director of
the Immunogenetics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University School
of Medicine. Dr. Leffell has been an active participant in clinical histocompatibility
and transplantation for close to 30 years. She has been
involved in numerous ASHI activities, having served as Chair of the Accreditation
Committee, and Vice President and President of the Society. She was a principal player in
the original application to the Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS), which led
to ASHI’s Accreditation Program being awarded deemed status and she has continued to
serve as a liaison to CMS for ASHI. She received ASHI’s Distinguished Service Award in
2003 in recognition of these contributions. She has contributed to the development of transplantation
policies through her service in various capacities to the national Organ
Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/
UNOS), which have included two terms on the board of directors, serving as Chair of the
Histocompatibility Committee, and as a member on the Kidney Transplant and Kidney
Allocation Review committees, which are developing a proposal for a revised, national
renal allocation system. For the past four years, she has served as a member of the Advisory
Committee on Organ Transplantation to the Secretary of the Department of Health and
Human Services. Her research contributions have been in humoral sensitization and
immunogenetic population studies involving HLA alleles and haplotypes, KIR, cytokine alleles,
and minor histocompatibility antigens.
David Senitzer, PhD, D(ABHI),
D(ABMLI)
City of Hope National Cancer Center
David Senitzer has been the HLA Laboratory Director at the City of
Hope for more than 14 years. He graduated from the City College of
New York with a BS in Biology, and Louisiana State University with a
PhD in Microbiology. After serving a postdoctoral fellowship in
Immunochemistry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons he joined the
faculty at the Medical School of Ohio (MCO) as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology. He
started the HLA Laboratory at MCO, and was its Director for 13 years. He moved to southern
California to work at the City of Hope, which is one of the largest hematopoietic cell
transplant centers in the country, performing more than 200 allogeneic transplants per year.
He has served on the ASHI Director Training Review Committee, both as a member and as
the Chairperson. His clinical research interests are in the development of NK cell interactions
in HCT. In the past few years he has been especially interested in KIR matching, and its
effects on the outcome of HCT.
Anajane Smith, MA
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Anajane Smith received her BA and MA in Immunology from the
University of California, Berkeley, with departmental honors and Phi
Beta Kappa. Anajane joined the Clinical Immunogenetics Laboratory
(CIL) at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to work on HLA
molecular typing prior to the 10th International Histocompatibility
Workshop of 1987, the first of the IHWS that included HLA typing by molecular methods.
Anajane oversaw the implementation of DNA-based test technology in the CIL, and managed
the subsequent evolution in molecular test technology and procedures for clinical HLA
typing and engraftment monitoring. In 1998, Anajane was promoted to Manager of the CIL
and continues to serve in this capacity. She has presented workshops and abstracts at ASHI
annual and regional meetings as well as internationally.
Andrea A. Zachary PhD, D(ABHI)
Johns Hopkins University
Andrea A. Zachary, PhD, D(ABHI), is a charter member of ASHI and
has been active in clinical histocompatibility and immunogenetics for
more than 35 years, starting as a technologist and rising to Director of
the Immunogenetics Laboratory of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
She is currently Professor of Medicine and Director of the
Immunogenetics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, following
her tenure (1991-94) as Chief of the Transplantation Section of NIAID, NIH. She has served
ASHI in many capacities, notably twice having been instrumental in the development and
implementation of the Accreditation Program. She served as the first Chair of Accreditation
(1986-88), when the program was revised to facilitate the evaluation of laboratories for
UNOS, and then served as the first Program Director of the Accreditation Review Board
when the program was revised in 1998. She was a member of the ASHI Council for 10
years, holding several offices, including Vice President and President. She was recognized
for her contributions to ASHI in 2000 with the Distinguished Service Award.