Mounzer
E. Agha, MD
Mounzer E. Agha, MD is the director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program, as well as a clinical assistant professor of medicine. Dr. Agha has proved himself to be a researcher of note, and also is recognized as an excellent caregiver by both patients and colleagues; he was the 2002 recipient of the Leo H. Criep, MD, Excellence in Patient Care Award.
Dr. Agha is widely renowned for his exceptional knowledge of the transplant field, and his dedication to building interpersonal relationships with his many transplant patients has made him a vital resource to the Stem Cell Transplantation program, and to the UPCI as a whole. Prior to his assuming directorship of the Stem Cell Transplantation program, Dr. Agha spent the past two years heading the UPMC outpatient stem cell transplant program. In addition to stem cell transplantation, areas of specialty include leukemia, lymphoma, and other hematological malignancies.
Dr. Agha earned his medical degree in 1983 from Aleppo University, and served clinical rotations in London, England, and Boston, MA. Dr. Agha served as a research fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of Harvard Medical School, where he worked with David M. Livingston, MD, on the SV40 virus prior to starting his internal medicine residency at Penn State University. Following an assistant professorship at Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Agha moved to Pittsburgh, where he has been involved in stem cell transplantation since 1995, and has established a large practice that covers the western Pennsylvania region.
Dr. Agha's current research interests include expanding non-myeloablative (mini) transplant applications, particularly in elderly patients, and developing immunotherapy models that can be combined with standard allogeneic transplant.
Markus Mapara, MD
Dr. Mapara is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. His major basic and clinical research is focused on studying the fundamental principles of bone marrow/blood stem cell transplantation in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and designing strategies to improve Graft-versus-Malignancy (GVM) Reactions associated with allogeneic stem cell transplantation while inhibiting Graft-versus-Host disease (GVHD). In this context, Dr. Mapara’s lab is interested in studying the mechanisms underlying these GVM reactions. Another focus of Dr. Mapara’s work is to inhibit on a molecular level the conditioning therapy-induced inflammatory reaction, which is critical for the development of GVHD. His research was recognized with the first German Chugai Science Award in Stem Cell Transplantation.
Dr. Mapara graduated from the University of Heidelberg Medical School, and received his post-graduate training in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology at the Universities of Heidelberg and the University Medical Center CharitŽ of the Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany. In addition, he completed a research fellowship at the Transplantation Biology Research Center of the Massachusetts General Hospital at the Harvard Medical School in Boston. Before joining the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine, headed the Hematologic Intensive Care Unit and served as deputy director of the Stem Cell Transplantation unit at the University Medical Center Charitè in Berlin/Germany. He is a member of numerous medical societies.
