About Robert Peter Gale
Leukemia and other bone marrow disorders (such as aplastic anemia) have been the central theme of Dr. Gale�s basic scientific and clinical research for over 35 years.
He and his colleagues have contributed to understanding the molecular biology and immunology of leukemia. While at the Weizmann Institute of Science, he and Eli Canaani molecularly cloned the gene responsible for chronic myelogenous leukemia. Dr. Gale has also extensively studied the immunology of leukemia in animals and humans (with Kenneth Foon). While at Rockefeller University he unraveled genetic aspects of leukemia-risk in Fanconi anemia. His interest and expertise in radiation biology stems from its causality of leukemia in humans and parallels between radiation-induced bone marrow failure and aplastic anemia. In the clinical research forum, Dr. Gale and his colleagues developed new drug-based therapies for acute myelogenous leukemia and studied efficacy of supportive care interventions (with Drew Winston and Winston Ho) including antibiotics, anti-fungals, granulocyte transfusions and molecularly-cloned hematopoietic growth factors. He has also extensively analyzed treatment strategies in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (with Dieter Hoelzer) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (with Kenneth Foon and Kanti Rai). Dr. Gale has also been active in aplastic anemia research and the relationship between bone marrow failure and leukemia in human models of this relationship (like Fanconi anemia) and in leukemia epidemiology.
Dr. Gale has contributed greatly to basic science and clinical research in bone marrow transplantation where he made central contributions to understanding the immune-mediated anti-leukemia effects of transplants (graft-versus-leukemia). He has also helped understand other complex immune effects of transplants in humans, like graft-versus-host disease and post-transplant immune deficiency. He has worked extensively on alternate sources of hematopoietic stem cells including fetal liver transplants (with Richard Champlin). Increasingly, Dr. Gale has focused on issues of clinical trials design, implementation and analysis and in the use of observational databases and group consensus processes (with Ed Park and Robert Dubois) to determine effective cancer treatments. Read More »