Colleagues and Friends,

Many of you know that I come from Liverpool, England. How could I not be a Beatles fan? I was thinking of their song, “Here Comes the Sun” – one of my favorites – a song about hope and life.

In many ways, that’s exactly what our science works toward – hope and life.

At ASTCT, we’re always looking for new ways to put science at the forefront of everything we do. We have so many exciting developments on the science front – read on!

In April, we held our first Twitter chat, hosted by the Pharmacy Shared Interest Group (SIG), followed by our May Twitter chat hosted by the Content Committee. Each month, a SIG will select an article from our Transplantation and Cellular Therapy journal and host a chat around several questions related to the article. These chats have been incredibly successful so far – garnering tens of thousands of impressions and significant engagement – and are a great way to dive deep into the research and learn from your peers. Keep your eye out for information on future chats, and join in the conversation using #ASTCTChat.

We also launched a new online publication focused on all-things CAR T, with new articles posted weekly on the latest insights and research on emerging CAR T therapies and more. We’re gearing up to launch a new way for you to more easily access and share the amazing science fueling our Transplantation and Cellular Therapy journal articles. Keep an eye out for more on that soon.

Speaking of our journal, don’t forget that we changed the name to Transplantation and Cellular Therapy in order to better represent our field. Be sure to follow our Twitter account, @ASTCT_Journal, for the latest updates, and help us spread the word of the trailblazing research our community is conducting.

We can’t talk about science without discussing our educational events. Registration opens next week for the Joint ASTCT-EBMT Basic and Translational Scientific Retreat, a two-and-a-half-day conference focused on cutting-edge basic and translational biology in the field. (Attendance is limited to 100 attendees, so register early!) Our upcoming Clinical Research Training Course is aimed at developing the next generation of researchers to advance the science of transplantation and cellular therapy. And finally, to help celebrate the CIBMTR’s 50th Anniversary year and the rich history of our meetings, ASTCT and CIBMTR will return our meetings’ name to Tandem Meetings | Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR. We look forward to bringing our community together in February to benefit from the latest scientific updates, new technologies, and innovative products to help healthcare professionals save and improve the lives of patients with blood-related disorders.

Your ASTCT community is here for you in many ways, but science will always be at the heart of what we do. To reference another Beatles classic, we’re “Getting Better All the Time” – through you, our community, and, of course, through our science.

Stella Davies, MBBS, PhD

Tags: astct, committee, Twitter, President, EBMT, Retreat, Abstracts, Change, Landscape, Content, journal, Tandem, CRTC, Science