University of Minnesota Cancer Center
Research Program: Transplant Biology and Therapy
Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Hematology-Oncology
Section Chief, Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation
Director, Center for Translational Medicine
blaza001@umn.edu
612-626-1926 — office
Preferred method of contact: Phone
Dr. Blazar's clinical profile
(University of Minnesota Physicians Web site)
Dr. Blazar is a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Hematology-Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation and attends on the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) service. He is the director of the Center for Translational Medicine, created to bring innovative, early phase therapies into the clinic. He is the recipient of the Andersen Chair in Transplantation Immunology to recognize his pioneering work in the development of novel immune-based therapies.
Dr. Blazar has served as a past chair of the National Institutes of Health Cancer Immunopathology and Immunotherapy Study Section, Food and Drug Administration Biological Response Modifiers Advisory Committee, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Translational Research Award Committee. He is a member of the Immune Tolerance Network Executive Committee. Dr. Blazar is the recipient of an NIH MERIT Award and is the principal investigator of several other NIH-funded studies focusing on BMT and cancer immunobiology in preclinical model systems and in the clinic. He is the author of more than 360 manuscripts, which have appeared in premier peer-reviewed publications.
Steiner D, Brunicki N, Blazar BR, Bachar-Lustig E, Reisner Y. Tolerance Induction By Third Party "Off-The-Shelf" CD4+C25+ Treg Cells. Experimental Hematology 34:66-71, 2006.
Porter SB, Liu B, Rogosheske J, Levine B, June C, Wagner J, Miller JS, Blazar BR: Effects of graft-versus-host disease prophylactic agents on umbilical cord blood derived human CD4+CD25+ T-regulatory cells and CD4+25- T-cells expansion and function. Transplantation 82:23-29, 2006.
Barao I, Hanash AM, Welniak L, Sun K, Blazar BR, Levy R, Murphy WJ: Suppression of NK-cell mediated bone marrow rejection by regulatory T cells: Linking adaptive to innate responses. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (Track II) 103:5460-5, 2006.
Burchill MA, Yang J,Vogtenhuber C, Blazar BR, Farrar MA: Distinct roles for interleukin-2 and interleukin-15 in interleukin-2 receptor b dependent regulatory T cell development, homeostasis and function. J. Immunol 178:280-90, 2007.
Taylor PA, Ehrhardt MJ, Roforth MM, Swedin JM, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Serody JS, Blazar BR: Preformed Antibody, Not Primed T Cells, is the Initial and Major Barrier to Bone Marrow Engraftment in Allosensitized Recipients. Blood 109:1307-15, 2007
Min D, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Kuro-O M, Hollander GA, Blazar BR, Weinberg KI. Sustained thymopoiesis and improvement in functional immunity induced by exogenous KGF administration in murine models of aging. Blood. 2007 Mar 15;109(6):2529-37. Epub 2006 Nov 30.
Rossi S, Jeker L, Ueno T, Kuse S, Keller M, Zuklys S, Gudkov A, Takahama Y, Krenger W, Blazar BR, Holländer G. Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) enhances postnatal T cell development via improvement in proliferation and function of thymic epithelial cells. Blood [epub Jan 9], 2007
Sharma MD, Baban B, Chandler P, Hou D-Y, Singh N, Yagita H, Azuma M, Blazar BR, Mellor AL, Munn DH: Dendritic cells from tumor-draining lymph nodes directly activate regulatory T cells via indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. J. Clin. Invest. (in press), 2007
Taylor PA, Ehrhardt MJ, Lees CJ, Tolar J, Weigel BJ, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Serody JS, Brinkmann V, Blazar BR. Insights into the Mechanism of FTY720 and Compatibility with Regulatory T Cells for the Inhibition of Graft-versus-Host Disease (GVHD). Blood (in press), 2007.
Weigel BJ, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Diers M, Lees C, Krieg AM, Chen W, Blazar BR: Dendritic Cells Pulsed or Fused with AML Cellular Antigen Provide Comparable Anti-Tumor Protective Response. Experimental Hematol. 34:1403-12, 2006
Huang X, Wilber A, Bao L, Tuong D, Orchard PJ, McIvor RS, Blazar BR, Zhou X: Stable gene transfer and expression in human primary T lymphocytes by Sleeping Beauty transposon system. Blood 107:483-91, 2006.
Zayed H, McIvor RS, Wiest DL, Blazar BR: In Vitro Functional Correction of the Mutation Responsible for Murine Severe Combined Immune Deficiency by Short Fragment Homologous Recombination. Human Gene Therapy 17:158-66, 2006.
Zayed H, Xia L, Yerich A, Yant SR, Kay MA, Puttaraju M, Mansfield G, Wiest DL, McIvor RS, Tolar J, Blazar BR. Correction of severe combined immune deficiency in multipotent adult progenitor cells by spliceosome-mediated RNA trans-splicing and sleeping beauty transposon delivery. Molec. Therapy (in press), 2007.
Tolar J, O'Shaughnessy MJ, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, McElmurry RT, Bell S, Riddle M, McIvor RS, Yant SR, Kay MA, Krause D, Verfaillie CM, Blazar BR. Host Factors that Impact the Biodistribution and Persistence of Multipotent Adult Progenitor Cells. Blood. 2006 May 15;107(10):4182-8. Epub 2006 Jan 12.
Serafini M, Dylla SJ, Oki M, Heremans Y, Tolar J, Jiang J, Buckley SM, Pelacho B, Burns TC, Frommer S, Rossi DJ, Bryder D, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, O'Shaughnessy MJ, Nelson-Holte M, Fine GC, Weissman IL, Blazar BR, Verfaillie CM. Hematopoietic Reconstitution by Multipotent Adult Progenitor Cells: Precursors to Long-Term Hematopoietic Stem Cells that can be Expanded In Vitro. J. Exp. Med. 204:129-39, 2007
Tolar J, Nauta AJ, Osborn MJ, Panoskaltsis Mortari A, McElmurry RT, Bell S, Xia L, Zhou N, Riddle M, Schroeder TM, Westendorf JJ, McIvor RS, Hogendoorn PC, Szuhai K, Oseth L, Hirsch B, Yant SR, Kay MA, Peister A, Prockop DJ, Fibbe WE, Blazar BR. Sarcoma derived from cultured mesenchymal stem cells. Stem Cells. 2007 Feb;25(2):371-9. Epub 2006 Oct 12.