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ARMENIAN BONE MARROW DONOR REGISTRY HONORS DR. STUART SIEGEL, MD, AND CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL LOS ANGELES
Wall Street Journal, NY
July 16 2013
Award honors the hospital's commitment to saving Armenian children
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2013--
On July 14, the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) presented
Stuart Siegel, MD, of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, with the
"Establishment of the Year" award at their annual gala at the Hilton
Glendale. Siegel and his colleague, Neena Kapoor, MD, director of
the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Program, were instrumental
in helping to establish the first autologous transplant program in
Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
Stuart Siegel, MD, Children's Hospital Los Angeles (Photo: Business
Wire)
"I am honored to accept this award on behalf of Children's Hospital Los
Angeles. We have been pleased and grateful to share in this amazing
work that has come so far in meeting the needs of Armenian children
who need hematopoietic stem cell transplants," said Siegel, founding
director of the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases.
Children receiving intensive chemotherapy as well as children with
certain immunological or blood disorders, may require a stem cell
transplant. During the transplant, immature blood-forming cells,
called hematopoietic stem cells, are given to the child in order to
"rebuild" his or her immune system. The harvested cells travel into
the bone marrow, where they will mature and develop into healthy red
blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
Since transplants ideally require that both the donor and recipient
carry the same inherited tissue type, it can be difficult to identify
a donor outside a patient's immediate family. The most successful
alternative is to search for patient-donor compatibility in an
ethnically-similar population which shares these inherited tissue
types. With the goal of easing the emotional and physical burden placed
on critically-ill patients, Frieda Jordan, PhD, together with Sevak
Avagyan, MD, started the ABMDR in 1999 to identify genetic matches
for Armenians.
Siegel, Kapoor and the hematopoietic stem cell transplant team at
Children's Hospital began working with ABMDR in 2001 as they developed
the registry. In 2012, the ABMDR sought the help of Siegel and his
colleagues to equip the capital city of Yerevan with the technological
and educational means needed to perform autologous transplantation
procedures in Armenia. This type of transplant harvests the patient's
own healthy hematopoietic cells before cancer treatments, and later
returns them to the patient in order to replace the bone marrow cells
damaged by chemotherapy and radiation.
With the assistance of Siegel, visiting physicians Andranik Mshetsyan,
MD, and Armond Mehdikhanian, MD, were taught necessary procedures that
would bring this essential treatment option to Armenia. Mshetsyan
received guidance from Robert Seeger, MD, director of the Cancer
Program at The Saban Research Institute, and trained in Kapoor's lab,
where he perfected the techniques of cell harvesting, processing
and freezing. At the conclusion of his stay at Children's Hospital,
Mshetsyan performed Armenia's first autologous stem cell transplant.
"Dr. Siegel was truly a mentor to us, providing a vision for this
most important work. We are also grateful to Dr. Neena Kapoor and her
team at Children's Hospital Los Angeles for helping us to implement
an autologous transplant program in Armenia," said Frieda Jordan,
PhD, President, Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
For more information about the event and Armenian Bone Marrow Donor
Registry, visit www.abmdr.am.
About Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital Los Angeles has been named the best children's
hospital in California and among the top five in the nation for
clinical excellence with its selection to the prestigious US News &
World Report Honor Roll. Children's Hospital is home to The Saban
Research Institute, one of the largest and most productive pediatric
research facilities in the United States, is one of America's premier
teaching hospitals and has been affiliated with the Keck School of
Medicine of the University of Southern California since 1932.
For more information, visit www.CHLA.org. Follow us on
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, or visit our blog:
www.WeAreChildrens.org.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:
http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130716006236/en/
CONTACT: Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Ellin Kavanagh, 323-361-8505
[email protected]
SOURCE: Children's Hospital Los Angeles
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130716-908543.html
Wall Street Journal, NY
July 16 2013
Award honors the hospital's commitment to saving Armenian children
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2013--
On July 14, the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) presented
Stuart Siegel, MD, of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, with the
"Establishment of the Year" award at their annual gala at the Hilton
Glendale. Siegel and his colleague, Neena Kapoor, MD, director of
the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Program, were instrumental
in helping to establish the first autologous transplant program in
Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
Stuart Siegel, MD, Children's Hospital Los Angeles (Photo: Business
Wire)
"I am honored to accept this award on behalf of Children's Hospital Los
Angeles. We have been pleased and grateful to share in this amazing
work that has come so far in meeting the needs of Armenian children
who need hematopoietic stem cell transplants," said Siegel, founding
director of the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases.
Children receiving intensive chemotherapy as well as children with
certain immunological or blood disorders, may require a stem cell
transplant. During the transplant, immature blood-forming cells,
called hematopoietic stem cells, are given to the child in order to
"rebuild" his or her immune system. The harvested cells travel into
the bone marrow, where they will mature and develop into healthy red
blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
Since transplants ideally require that both the donor and recipient
carry the same inherited tissue type, it can be difficult to identify
a donor outside a patient's immediate family. The most successful
alternative is to search for patient-donor compatibility in an
ethnically-similar population which shares these inherited tissue
types. With the goal of easing the emotional and physical burden placed
on critically-ill patients, Frieda Jordan, PhD, together with Sevak
Avagyan, MD, started the ABMDR in 1999 to identify genetic matches
for Armenians.
Siegel, Kapoor and the hematopoietic stem cell transplant team at
Children's Hospital began working with ABMDR in 2001 as they developed
the registry. In 2012, the ABMDR sought the help of Siegel and his
colleagues to equip the capital city of Yerevan with the technological
and educational means needed to perform autologous transplantation
procedures in Armenia. This type of transplant harvests the patient's
own healthy hematopoietic cells before cancer treatments, and later
returns them to the patient in order to replace the bone marrow cells
damaged by chemotherapy and radiation.
With the assistance of Siegel, visiting physicians Andranik Mshetsyan,
MD, and Armond Mehdikhanian, MD, were taught necessary procedures that
would bring this essential treatment option to Armenia. Mshetsyan
received guidance from Robert Seeger, MD, director of the Cancer
Program at The Saban Research Institute, and trained in Kapoor's lab,
where he perfected the techniques of cell harvesting, processing
and freezing. At the conclusion of his stay at Children's Hospital,
Mshetsyan performed Armenia's first autologous stem cell transplant.
"Dr. Siegel was truly a mentor to us, providing a vision for this
most important work. We are also grateful to Dr. Neena Kapoor and her
team at Children's Hospital Los Angeles for helping us to implement
an autologous transplant program in Armenia," said Frieda Jordan,
PhD, President, Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
For more information about the event and Armenian Bone Marrow Donor
Registry, visit www.abmdr.am.
About Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital Los Angeles has been named the best children's
hospital in California and among the top five in the nation for
clinical excellence with its selection to the prestigious US News &
World Report Honor Roll. Children's Hospital is home to The Saban
Research Institute, one of the largest and most productive pediatric
research facilities in the United States, is one of America's premier
teaching hospitals and has been affiliated with the Keck School of
Medicine of the University of Southern California since 1932.
For more information, visit www.CHLA.org. Follow us on
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, or visit our blog:
www.WeAreChildrens.org.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:
http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130716006236/en/
CONTACT: Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Ellin Kavanagh, 323-361-8505
[email protected]
SOURCE: Children's Hospital Los Angeles
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130716-908543.html