Donald Lawrence Siegel, PhD, MD
Dissertation Title: Human Erythrocyte Band 4.9
PhD Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Daniel Branton, Dept. of Cell and Developmental Biology, Harvard University
Current & Past Activities:
After graduating from the Biophysics Program in 1983, I moved to Philadelphia to attend
medical school at the University of Pennsylvania where I have been for the past 42 years. After
medical school, I completed a residency in Clinical Pathology and fellowship in Blood
Banking/Transfusion Medicine, both at UPenn, and then joined UPenn’s faculty in the
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine.
My clinical interest in transfusion medicine had followed from my experience working with red
blood cells while a graduate school at Harvard. From a research viewpoint, I recognized that
just as the red cell had served as a great model system for understanding the plasma
membrane cytoskeleton on the inside of the red cell surface while in Dr. Branton’s lab, now
following my clinical training at UPenn, I appreciated the fact that red blood cells, through
transfusion, can serve as excellent model systems for studying human immunology by virtue of
all their extracellular polymorphic antigens that may immunize the transfusion recipient. Thus,
from when I completed my graduate studies in the Harvard Biophysics program in 1983 to when
I resumed my investigative work after med school, residency, and fellowship in 1992, my
research interests had moved about a distance of 10 nanometers outward from the inner
surface of the red blood cell membrane. To study human immune responses to transfusions, I
adapted methods of a then emerging field known as antibody phage display technology. This
technology and the broader area of antibody engineering has formed much of the basis for my
research career to date.
From a clinical standpoint, I have served as the founding director of UPenn’s Division of
Transfusion Medicine & Therapeutic Pathology and the medical director of the blood bank,
apheresis unit, hematopoietic stem cell lab, and an ACGME-accredited transfusion medicine
fellowship program. I also direct UPenn’s Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies which has
manufactured over 3000 engineered cellular products including the first genetically modified cell
therapy product approved by the FDA (tisagenlecleucel, Kymriah®) and first-in-human use of
CRISPR-edited cells.
My lab has been funded by the NIH in the areas of immunohematology, hemostasis/thrombosis,
autoimmunity, and oncology since 1992. I have used phage display to discover recombinant
antibodies relevant to transfusion medicine, benign hematology, infectious diseases, and
oncology, particularly for use in the design of targeted therapies such as Chimeric Antigen
Receptor T-cells (CAR-T) which we develop, produce, and infuse into patients in dozens of
clinical trials.
Since 2017, I have been honored to receive the RISE Award, the Dale E. Smith Memorial
Award, the Tibor Greenwalt Memorial Award and Lectureship, and election to the National
Blood Foundation Hall of Fame from the Association for the Advancement of Blood and
Biotherapies (AABB), and the Francis S. Morrison Award and the Lecturer Award from the
American Society for Apheresis. For contributions to the development of CAR T-cell therapy, I
shared the 2020 Robert de Villiers Spiral of Life Award from the Leukemia Lymphoma Society
and the 2020 Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer Team Science Award.
For contributions to clinical care, I was elected to the first class of Penn Medicine’s Academy of
Master Clinicians. In 2023, 2024,and 2025 our Apheresis Unit was recognized with the national
Press Ganey Pinnacle of Excellence Human Experience Award for Outpatient Practices. For
roles in education, I have received the Peter C. Nowell Teaching Award, the Leonard Berwick
Memorial Teaching Award, and the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for
Distinguished Teaching.