Practicing Clinician at Fred Hutch, Founder and CSO at Deverra Therapeutics

Dr. Colleen Delaney is pioneering methods to make umbilical cord blood transplants more available and successful worldwide. Because it does not need to be as closely matched to the patient as bone marrow, cord blood offers an option to those thousands of blood cancer patients every year who can’t find a matched adult donor. Dr. Delaney developed a breakthrough method for multiplying the small number of stem and progenitor cells in each cord blood unit hundreds of times over in the lab. Her primary research focus is on developing these multiplied cells for use in the clinic. Her goal is to develop therapies that protect patients from severe side effects after cord blood transplant or intensive chemotherapy.