For over 25 years Mitchell S. Cairo, M.D., Chief of the Division of Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine and Pathology of Columbia University has been leading internationally groundbreaking research in childhood cancer, blood disorders and immune deficiencies.

Dr. Cairo received his M.D. from UC San Francisco, trained in pediatrics at UCLA/Harbor General Hospital was Chief Resident in pediatrics at UCSF and completed a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at Indiana University.  He then joined the hematology/oncology faculty of Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) in 1982 and established the BMT/Stem Cell Transplant program there in 1985.  He was also the CHOC Principal Investigator for Children’s Cancer Group and the Principal Investigator of the Cord Blood Collection Center and Cord Blood Transplant Center under an NHLBI award.  From December 1997 to February 2000, Dr. Cairo was a member of the faculty at Georgetown University where he was a Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine and Pathology, Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Cellular and Gene Therapy, Director of Adult and Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation at the Lombardi Cancer Center, and Medical Director of the NHLBI Cord Blood Collection Center at Georgetown University Medical Center. 

Now on faculty in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York City since March 2000, Dr. Cairo continues his pioneering efforts as the Director of the Phase I Pediatric Cancer Therapeutics Program and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Training Program.  Dr. Cairo has over 200 peer-reviewed publications and over 600 national and international presentations.  He is an international leader in childhood lymphomas and leukemias, stem cell transplantation, pediatric cancer developmental therapeutics, unrelated donor stem cell transplantation and experimental hematopoiesis.  His major research interests and expertise include blood and marrow transplantation, experimental and developmental immunology, molecular genetics of lymphoma, developmental therapeutics and clinical leukemia and lymphoma investigation.