“I was fascinated by how the accessibility of the cells that form the blood system would then allow the field to continue to grow.” – Leslie Silberstein, MD
Back in the early 80s, as I was completing my residency in internal medicine, hematology drew my attention, because of the accessibility of the cells that form the blood system. I realized how little we knew about not only the structures on the surface of these cells, but also what happened molecularly inside the cells. I was fascinated by how that accessibility would then allow the field to continue to grow.
The reason I subspecialized even further in transfusion medicine was my interest in how the immune system was related to what was considered at that time the blood system. It’s fascinating that we now know that the immune system in fact originates from the hematapoietic stem cell, but one thing leads to another and my objective and long term goal in my career is to make the discipline of understanding how we could use live cells for therapeutic purposes come into its own.
Collectively, my co-authors and I are most proud of the fact that we each bring something to the table. We always aimed and I think succeeded in making each edition of Hematology different, and reflecting changing times. In this coming edition, not only do we always seem to bring together good experts in their individual fields, but we reflect the need for portability of the ever-increasing amount of data that science is generating. So I’m very excited about the portability of this edition and of the new Kindle version of this textbook.
Leslie Silberstein, MD received his baccalaureate and medical degree from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. After completing postgraduate training in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, MA, he joined the staff at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
Dr. Silberstein was then recruited to Harvard, where he currently serves as a Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and is the Director of the Joint Program in Transfusion Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Silberstein is also the Director of the Center for Human Cell Therapy in the Program for Molecular and Cellular Medicine- Boston Children’s Hospital and Head of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute’s Translational Research Program.
In addition to being an editor of Hematology, 6th Edition, Dr. Silberstein has authored over 150 contributions in peer reviewed journals and textbooks. His research laboratory is focused on the role of the bone marrow microenvironment on hematopoiesis. His long-term objective is to bring together Transfusion Medicine-related educational, research and clinical activities at the major Harvard Medical School affiliated institutions in Boston.
Related Authors: Ronald Hoffman, MD; Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD; Helen Heslop, MD; Jeffrey Weitz, MD; John Anastasi, MD
