Medical & Scientific Team

Linda Kelley, Ph.D.

Linda Kelley

Linda Kelley, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized expert in the cellular therapy field. In her current role as chief scientific officer of Cryo-Cell, Dr. Kelley is responsible for Cryo-Cell’s state-of-the art laboratory, translational medicine initiatives and quality assurance program. She joined Cryo-Cell from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard where she was the director of the Connell O’Reilly Cell Manipulation Core Facility. Prior to that, she spent 17 years at the University of Utah where she was director of the Cell Therapy Facility. She established that state’s first umbilical cord blood collection program and was awarded a Center of Excellence in Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine for the State of Utah, which served as a cornerstone for a larger state initiative in Regenerative Medicine — the Utah Science & Technology Research Initiative. She completed her graduate and post-doctoral training in Immunology and Hematology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., where she served as assistant professor in the Dept. of Medicine.

Dr. Kelley has served on multiple boards and committees that advise on scientific policy and establish standards and regulations for the cellular therapy field in the U.S. and abroad, often in leadership roles. She served on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) and as Chair of its Standards Committee; Chair of the Cord Blood Standards Committee for the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP); Chair of the Legal and Regulatory Affairs Committee of the International Society for Cell Therapy; reviewer for the AABB Annual Meeting Abstract Review Committee, and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Duke Carolinas Cord Blood Bank. Dr. Kelley was one of 12 scientists selected by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science to advise Congress on how to allocate $80 million in funding to optimally structure a national cord blood stem cell program.

Dr. Kelley has been instrumental in expanding the scope of stem cell therapies from bone marrow transplantation to the treatment of heart, kidney, brain and other degenerative diseases through numerous research efforts.

Merri Buff Mair, M.D.

Merri Buff Mair

Buff Mair, M.D., is the Medical Director and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Florida Blood Services in St. Petersburg, Florida and is also the Medical Director for Cryo-Cell International in Oldsmar, Florida. Dr. Mair attended medical school at the University Of Miami School Of Medicine where she was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. She completed her residency training in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the University of South Florida and is Board Certified in Clinical Pathology and Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine. Dr. Mair is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University Of South Florida College Of Medicine and has been the author of numerous scientific articles published in transfusion medicine and clinical chemistry peer review journals. She serves on the transfusion committee at six of the major hospitals in the Tampa Bay Area and has also been a member of national committees including the Membership and Process Improvement Committee for the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and the Transfusion Medicine Resource Committee for the College of American Pathologists (CAP). Dr. Mair is a member of several international scientific and educational organizations involved in the fields of transfusion medicine, cellular therapies, and tissue transplant. These include the AABB, American Association of Tissue Banks, American Society for Bone Marrow Transplant, and International Society for Cellular Therapy.

Anthony Atala, M.D.

Anthony Atala

Anthony Atala, M.D., internationally acclaimed as one of the world’s top stem cell scientists involved in organ and tissue regeneration, serves as Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the W.H. Boyce Professor and Chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest University.   Dr. Atala currently serves as a Trustee to Allegacy Federal Credit Union, and a Board of Directors member of Plureon, Inc.  Dr. Atala received a BA degree from the University of Miami, and an MD degree from the University of Louisville. He completed his surgical internship and urology residency at the University of Louisville, and a pediatric urology surgery fellowship at Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Jonathan H. Wheeler, M.D.

Jonathan H. Wheeler

Jonathan H. Wheeler, M.D., is a licensed physician specializing in the fields of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has practiced in these fields in Newport Beach, California since 1992. Dr. Wheeler received his B.A. in Biology from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. He completed his medical degree at Cornell University Medical College in 1986. His Obstetrics and Gynecology training was received at UCLA Medical Center in a combined internship and residency program. Dr. Wheeler is Board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists, the Orange County Obstetrics and Gynecology Society and is a Diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In the past Dr. Wheeler has served as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hoag Hospital and has served on numerous committees including education, surgery and advancement of Women’s Health Services.

Julie G. Allickson, Ph.D., MS, MT(ASCP)

Julie G. Allickson

Julie Allickson, Ph.D., is well known in the field of cellular therapy and lends her considerable expertise to Cryo-Cell as an adviser. She is employed by the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) where she leads the translational research team. Prior to joining WFIRM, Dr. Allickson spent eight years with Cryo-Cell, most recently as vice president of laboratory operations and research.

Dr. Allickson’s past experience includes serving in several managerial capacities at the University of Miami where she was a member of the team that performed the first bone marrow transplant. Prior to joining the University of Miami, Dr. Allickson worked for the American Red Cross managing the Hematopoietic Cell Processing and Platelet Serology Laboratory. During her tenure, she served as a member of the National Stem Cell Task Force and participated in the preparation of national protocols for hematopoietic cell processing laboratories.

Dr. Allickson is a founding member of the International Society of Cellular Therapy and member of the American Association of Blood Banks. She has made presentations on adult stem cell therapy at national and international meetings and is an inspector for ISCT and AABB. Dr. Allickson co-chairs the AABB Standards Committee for Cell Therapy Product Services.

Michael Boeckh, M.D., Ph.D.

Michael Boeckh

Michael Boeckh, M.D., Ph.D., is a member of University of Washington Physicians , a not-for-profit group practice of physician specialists caring for patients at various sites in Seattle, including the University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC) and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.  Dr. Boeckh's clinical area of expertise is infections in the immunocompromised host. Areas of particular interest include diagnosis, prevention and treatment of CMV, VZV, BK virus, adenovirus and respiratory virus infections. 

Gerald J. Elfenbein, M.D.

Gerald J. Elfenbein

Gerald J. Elfenbein, M.D., is Professor of Medicine at Boston (MA) University (BU), retired. He has chaired the Blood and Marrow Transplant Programs at Roger Williams Medical Center (BU affiliate), Providence, RI, and the H. Lee Moffit Cancer Center and Research Institute (of the University of South Florida), Tampa, FL.  He was the founding Medical Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at the University of Florida (Gainesville) and a member of the Bone Marrow Transplant team at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (Baltimore, MD) starting in 1974. His first stem cell transplant experience was as an extern at Johns Hopkins in 1969.

Richard Kahn, Ph.D.

Richard Kahn

Richard Kahn, Ph.D., is an independent consultant/researcher and is a Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine since mid-2009.

Prior to his retirement from the American Diabetes Association in June 2009, Dr. Kahn was responsible for the scientific and medical affairs of the Association for nearly 25 years. He provided senior management oversight for all professional education activities, which consisted of all clinical and research conferences and symposia, and the largest diabetes-related clinical and scientific meeting in the world---the annual ADA Scientific Sessions. Dr. Kahn also oversaw the development of clinical practice guidelines and consensus statements, and he provided senior staff direction for the professional books and journals produced by the Association.

Under his leadership, the Association defined for the first time Standards for the medical care for persons with diabetes, introduced the concept of diabetes performance measures, redefined the diagnosis and classification of diabetes, started two major professional certification programs, introduced a new test for the diagnosis of diabetes, and produced dozens of guidelines and statements that have had a major impact on how diabetes and its complications are defined and treated.

Prior to joining the American Diabetes Association in 1985, Dr. Kahn was Chief of Scientific Affairs for the American Red Cross in St. Louis, Missouri, and an Associate Professor of Pathology at Washington University. In these positions he established the first Tissue Bank in the Red Cross System and directed a large research laboratory concerned with the pathophysiology of blood cells and the prevention of transfusion-transmitted diseases.

Dr. Kahn received his doctorate in physiology from Georgetown University and has published over 65 papers as well as numerous book chapters. He has received many awards and honors, including the 2009 Charles H. Best Medal for Distinguished Service from the American Diabetes Association and the 2009 Albert Renold Medal from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

Naynesh Kamani, M.D.

Naynesh Kamani

Naynesh Kamani, M.D., is a Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant physician and currently at Children's National Medical Center in the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research. He specializes in Allogeneic Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Autologous Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Bone Marrow Harvests, Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes, Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases and Sickle Cell Disease.  Dr. Kamani has been a transplant physician for over two decades and has been actively involved with numerous national committees dealing with pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Marrow Donor Program and the Executive Committee of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research.   He is nationally recognized for his contributions to the field of pediatric stem cell transplantation and currently serves as the chair of the Non-metabolic Diseases Strategy Group of the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium.  His interests include the study of stem cell transplantation for immunodeficiencies and other non-malignant pediatric diseases and immune reconstitution following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Stephen J. Noga, M.D., Ph.D.

Stephen J. Noga

Stephen J. Noga, M.D., Ph.D., is Director of Medical Oncology and Hematology at the Weinberg Cancer Institute at Franklin Square Hospital Center, a Division of MedStar Health Systems, Baltimore, Maryland. He is also a Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland also in Baltimore. Dr Noga received his Ph.D. in experimental pathology from the University of Florida in Gainesville. He then received his MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he completed both a postdoctoral fellowship in oncology in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and a clinical fellowship also in medical oncology, as well as a residency in internal medicine.

Dr. Noga is a member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the Bone Marrow Transplant Scientists of Australasia Association (BMTSAA), the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), The Transplantation Society and the European Hematology Association (EHA). Dr. Noga is a past President of the International Society of Cellular Therapy (ISCT). He previously chaired the initial steering committee for the NHLBI Production Assistance for Cellular Therapy (PACT) initiative and was a member of the Cellular Therapy Steering Committee for the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). He is currently a special consultant for FDA, CBER Cellular, Tissues and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee. Furthermore, he has chaired and organized numerous conferences and scientific sessions, and is the author or co-author of over 200 articles, abstracts, and book chapters.