Dr. Melody Smith is a board-certified, fellowship-trained medical oncologist and hematologist. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Blood & Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.
She is a physician-scientist who conducts extensive research. She completed a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Clinical Research Training (now, the Medical Research Scholars) Program and she was a post-doctoral researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her research focuses on studies evaluating strategies whereby donor T cells can be administered to improve outcomes following blood and marrow transplant. Specifically, she studies novel treatment strategies using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy.
Dr. Smith has been invited to present the findings of her research at regional, national, and international conferences. At the Insights in Hematology Conference, she focused on the use of CAR T cells for blood cancers, whereas she presented her investigations on the associations between CAR T cells and the intestinal microbiome at the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Further, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy, she addressed the importance of training scientists from underrepresented populations.
Dr. Smith has co-authored articles on topics within the field of cancer immunology, including cancer immunotherapy, stem cell transplantation, and CAR T cell therapy. Her work has appeared in journals, including Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Blood Advances, Leukemia, Nature, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, and elsewhere.
She serves a peer reviewer for publications in various journals, such as Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Haematologica, and ImmunoMedicine. She also has co-written chapters in books, including Pocket Oncology, Current Concepts and Controversies in Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, and Advanced Concepts in Human Immunology: Prospects for Disease Control.
Dr. Smith has also earned numerous honors. The American Society of Hematology, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, and many other professional societies and organizations have recognized her achievements as a clinician, researcher, and scholar.
She is a member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Subcommittee on Immunotherapy and the co-chair of the Committee on Trainees and Junior Faculty for the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT). Other positions in service to professional organizations include co-chairing committees and task forces dedicated to promoting diversity among hematology and cell therapy specialists.
