Hal Broxmeyer

Hal E. Broxmeyer, PhD, was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Mary Margaret Walther Professor Emeritus of Microbiology and Immunology, Professor of Medicine, and Senior Advisor to the Director of the Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He earned a BS degree from Brooklyn College in 1966, an MS from Long Island University, and a PhD from New York University in 1973, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, completed in 1975. Broxmeyer's research career began at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he worked from 1976 to 1983. In 1983, he joined the Indiana University School of Medicine, serving as Scientific Director of the Walther Oncology Center from 1988 to 2009 and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. His laboratory received over $92 million in research grants and remained highly productive until his death on December 8, 2021, producing 68 peer-reviewed papers in his final five years alone, published in journals such as Cell, Nature, and Nature Medicine.

Broxmeyer's research focused on the regulation of hematopoiesis and hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, pioneering umbilical cord blood as a transplantable source. His seminal 1989 paper, 'Human umbilical cord blood as a potential source of transplantable hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells,' demonstrated its viability, enabling the first successful cord blood transplant in 1988 for a patient with Fanconi anemia. Innovations included expanding cord blood cells under hypoxic conditions to triple yields and elucidating roles of chemokines and cytokines in stem cell homing, engraftment, mobilization, and survival. He authored 838 peer-reviewed publications, cited over 73,000 times with an h-index of 127, including key works like 'Rapid mobilization of murine and human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells with AMD3100, a CXCR4 antagonist' (2005) and 'Umbilical cord blood transplantation: the first 25 years and beyond' (2013). Broxmeyer received major awards such as the E. Donnall Thomas Prize (2007), presidency of the American Society of Hematology (2010, first PhD president), Donald Metcalf Award (2011), IU President's Medal (2019), and Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cord Blood Association (2019). His contributions enabled over 40,000 cord blood transplants worldwide, transforming treatments for leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell disease, and other disorders. He mentored numerous investigators, served on NIH study sections, editorial boards, and led societies including the International Society for Experimental Hematology.

Professional Email: hbroxmey@iu.edu