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Daniel J. Weiss, MD, PhD
President, ISCT
University of Vermont
United States

Greetings and thank you all again for the privilege and opportunity to serve as President for the next 2 years.  Following in the footsteps of so many distinguished and accomplished individuals, I’ll try to live up to their legacies.  This is a great time to be in CGT with so many exciting advances and promises. Yet there continue to be challenges that, together as a group, we can work to overcome.

For those who don’t know me well, I’m a Professor of Medicine and Affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Vermont.  I have had a longstanding interest in lung repair and regeneration after injury, notably gene and cell therapy approaches for lung diseases.  In particular, this has included developing novel techniques with which to investigate and enhance lung gene and cell therapies.  As such, I view myself as a translational scientist whose work spans from benchtop to clinical trials.  I have been funded by the NIH, NSF, DOD, non-profit Respiratory Disease Foundations, and by industry sources since 1995. Current work in the laboratory is focused in three major areas: 1) Bioengineering approaches for development of functional lung tissue ex vivo; 2) Immunomodulation of lung inflammation by mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs); 3) Development of cell therapy-based approaches for lung disease.

I’ve been with ISCT since 2011 when I was invited to give a talk at the annual meeting in Rotterdam at the invitation of Bob Dean.  I didn’t know what to expect but was impressed with the people I met and the palpable excitement and enthusiasm. Since then, there’s been no looking back and I’ve been increasingly involved with ISCT. Some notable activities include launching the first Scientific Signature Series event in 2014 and serving as inaugural Chief Scientific Officer.

As President I look forward to working with the incredible ISCT Head Office and the many colleagues, collaborators, and friend across ISCT. In subsequent Telegraft communications, I’ll outline my visions and goals for the next two years and beyond.  For now, the focus is on the first 100 days and here are my three initial priorities: 

1) Integrating with Head Office

Having worked closely with many Head Office personnel over the years, I have a strong sense of operations. However, despite many outstanding long serving individuals and very strong recent hires, Head Office struggles with bandwidth to manage the many ongoing and new initiatives that keep ISCT as a current and future leader in CGT.  I’ll be meeting on a regular basis with Head Office staff to get feedback and to help facilitate in any way.

2) Enhance Regional Involvement

ISCT is a global society but to continue to promote global CGT. ISCT is on a continuing learning curve to appreciate and encompass regional practices and nuances into an overall cohesive strategy.  This is both with respect to practical issues, for example, conducting regional meetings, as well as optimizing ISCT support and involvement in any given region. To this end, I’ll be meeting on a regular basis with regional ISCT leadership to discuss issues and concerns, and also to further construct strong effective regional strategies.

3) Defining the Scope and Activities of the New Chief Medical Officer

The recent creation of the CMO position and the encompassing of a clinical pillar is an important and timely move for ISCT. At the end of the day, we need to bring CGT to patients. A significant part of the ongoing efforts towards this is to expand education of and outreach to both the clinical investigators and importantly the clinical caregivers, including but not limited to physicians, APPs, nurses, and pharmacists, who will be on the ground administering CGTs. This also includes outreach to and education of hospital administrators who in many cases control access to these therapies. We are extremely privileged to have Jaap Jan Boelens, MD, PhD as inaugural CMO.  Jaap’s track record in CGTs is outstanding and he is extremely well positioned to take on this role. Jaap and I, in concert with Head Office, the Executive Management Council, and the Board of Directors, will be crafting a range of initial outreach and educational activities.

Overall these are ambitious but achievable goals.  As many of you know, I am a strong cheerleader for the broad ISCT portfolio.  In subsequent communications, I’ll outline visions for the Scientific, Medical, Industry, and Regulatory pillars and activities.  I also want hear on a continuing basis from the broad ISCT membership about ideas, issues, concerns, etc. you may have.  Please reach out to me via email and we can engage in conversation.

Looking forward to working with you all.

Best Regards,

Dan