Leona Holmberg, MD, PhD

Dr. Leona Holmberg is an immunologist and physician who specializes in bone marrow and blood stem cell transplantation and immunotherapy. She studies the relapse of cancer after an autologous transplant — one that uses a patient’s own stem cells. The weakness of a patient’s immune system immediately following a transplant may contribute to the high rate of relapse, and her research focuses on trying to augment the immune system after an autologous transplant. To test ways of reducing relapse, she is engaged in numerous clinical trials of drug combinations, including the use of immunotherapy drugs and vaccines, to bolster a patient’s post-transplant immune function.