Webinar: RBC and Immune Response

George Garratty, PhD, FRCPath
Scientific Director, American Red Cross Blood Services
Southern California Region
Pomona, CA, USA

George Garratty, PhD, FRCPath., is Scientific Director of the American Red Cross Blood Services, Southern California Region in Pomona, CA, and Clinical Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.  He received his training in hematology/immunohematology in England, at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School of London, under Professor Sir John Dacie and Professor P.L. Mollison.  In 1978 he was recruited to start a research program at the American Red Cross Blood Services in Los Angeles where he also directs the Red Cell Reference, HLA/Platelet Serology laboratories, and Community Education Program (including the SBB school). His research is mainly concerned with immune red cell and platelet destruction.  He has published more than 300 (260 in peer-reviewed journals) papers, is co-author of three textbooks, and editor of six textbooks.

Anne North, PhD.
Principal Scientist
Cerus Corporation
Concord, Ca, USA

Anne K North Ph.D. is a Principal Scientist at Cerus Corporation and has been actively involved in the Red Blood Cell program since 2005.  She has more than 22 years of combined microbiology, discovery research and managerial experience in both business and academia and has worked on oncology Drug Discovery programs at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Tularik Corporation, AGY Therapeutics and the Listeria Vaccine program at Cerus.  Dr. North’s academic career includes a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Leeds University in the UK and she completed a postdoctoral fellowship followed by a position of Research Scientist at UC Berkeley in the laboratory of Prof. Sydney Kustu studying bacterial transcriptional activators.  Dr North’s experience in multiple therapeutic areas such as oncology, immunology and blood transfusion combined with her industry and academic positions provide a broad perspective of the drug development field in transfusion research.