Jose Cancelas, MD, PhD is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and leader of the Stem Cell group of the Cancer & Blood Diseases Institute of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. He is also the Director and Academic Chairman of Hoxworth Blood Center and holds the Beatrice C. Lampkin Endowment for Stem Cell and Hematotherapy Research. Dr. Cancelas has published over 220 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the areas of hematopoiesis and transfusion/cell therapies. His laboratory is funded by the NIH, US DoD , BARDA and different private foundations and corporations. Dr. Cancelas has trained over 50 MD, PhD and MD, PhD professionals. His transfusion medicine group has identified novel methods to preserve red cell and platelet potency upon long-term storage and generate alternative blood products to cover unmet clinical needs. His basic biology laboratory has contributed to the elucidation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of hematopoietic stem cell, granulocyte progenitor activity and platelet survival through the Rho family of GTPases in health and leukemia and provided the basis for understanding the physiological cell-autonomous and microenvironment/cytokine dependent mechanisms that control HSC activity in the BM microenvironment. In normal and pathological hematopoiesis, his group defined the mechanisms that control oncogenic tyrosine kinase signals dependent transformation in leukemic progenitors through intrinsic and microenvironment-dependent signaling.