Dr. Donna Wall wins lifetime achievement award

With a medical career spanning almost 40 years, Dr. Donna Wall has made significant contributions to the evolution of blood and marrow transplantation across North America.

After completing paediatric and paediatric hematology/oncology training in the U.S., Dr. Wall went on to establish blood and marrow transplantation and public cord blood programs in cities including St. Louis and San Antonio. Among her many other collaborations, Dr. Wall has contributed to the transplant community upon her return to Canada. She helped launch Canadian Blood Services’ Cord Blood Bank and served on the organization’s stem cell expert advisory committee for several years.

Despite recent advances in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, there is still a great need for improvement at the pre- and post-transplant stages. Dr. Wall’s research focuses on better understanding the immune system, with the hope of improving patient outcomes — particularly children undergoing transplant. She has also worked on early phase clinical trials exploring gene therapy for treating childhood acute leukemia.

In recognition of her achievements, Dr. Wall received Canadian Blood Services' Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Honouring Canada's Lifeline event in Ottawa on Sept. 23. 

• Learn more about the other honourees

Dr. Wall joined The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University of Toronto in 2016 as section head of the blood and marrow transplant/cellular therapy program. She has also chaired the hematopoietic stem cell transplant discipline in the Children’s Oncology Group and holds leadership positions in the Paediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Group, the Canadian Blood and Marrow Transplant Group, and the CIHR-funded Canadian National Transplant Research program.

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The opinions reflected in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Canadian Blood Services nor do they reflect the views of Health Canada or any other funding agency.