Donald Branch
PhD
Senior scientist
Other Titles/Affiliations:
Professor, Medicine and Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto
Research areas
- red blood cell biology and hemolysis
- autoimmune diseases phagocytosis
- red blood cell allo- and autoantibodies
- immunotherapy
- infectious diseases (HIV, Ebola, Coronaviruses)
Related Links
Brief biography
Dr. Donald R. Branch has a PhD in Immunology from the University of Alberta and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto. He discovered mixed hematopoietic chimerism following marrow ablative bone marrow transplant and was a pioneer in the development and use of the monocyte-macrophage assay in transfusion medicine. He’s published more than 200 research papers and received awards of distinction for his work in transfusion and transplantation medicine from the American Society of Hematology; awards from the Association for Blood and Blood Therapeutics; the Ortho Award from the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine; the Kay Beattie Lecture Award from the Michigan Association of Blood Banks; and the Helen I. Battle Award from the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Branch is currently a Professor in both Medicine and Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, and a Senior Scientist at Canadian Blood Services.
Research interests
Dr. Donald R. Branch’s research interests include using the monocyte-macrophage assay to determine optimal donor blood for transfusion into patients having potentially clinically significant auto- or alloantibodies, development of a small molecule (drug) approach to blocking phagocytosis for use in all immune cytopenias, examining the role of macrophage-mediated removal of red blood cells in sickle cell disease, developing a surrogate coronavirus assay that can be used in a containment level 2 environment for the study of SARS-CoV-2, and investigating a role for ABO isoagglutinins in the inhibition of COVID viruses.
Other appointments
- Member, AABB Awards Committee for the Tibor Greenwalt Memorial Award and Lectureship, 2024.
- Member, AABB Awards Committee for the Sally Frank Memorial Award and Lectureship, 2024.
- Consultant for QuidelOrtho company, 2024.
- Member, editorial board, Annals in Blood, 2020.
- Member, editorial board, Transfusion, 2010.
- Director, Comprehensive Research Experience for Medical Students (CREMS) Programs, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 2005–current.
Awards
- Nominated for the Bernard Fantus Lifetime Achievement Medal, Association for the Advancement of Blood and Blood Biotherapeutics, 2024
- Dale A. Smith Memorial Award, Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapeutics, 2022
- Tibor Greenwalt Memorial Award and Lectureship, American Association of Blood Banks, 2019
- Sally Frank Memorial Award and Lectureship, American Association of Blood Banks, 2014
- Helen I. Battle Lectureship, Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario. Lecture title: “The Changing Paradigm of HIV Pathogenesis, 2007
- Morten Grove-Rasmussen Memorial Award, American Association of Blood Banks, 2003
- Ortho Award in Transfusion Medicine, Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine, 2003
- Special Member Acknowledgement, American Society of Hematology, 2001