Professor emerita honored for mentoring trainees, colleagues

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Judy Gasson is former director of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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Judith Gasson, PhD, professor emerita and senior advisor to the David Geffen School of Medicine for Research and Innovation at UCLA, has been awarded the 2020 American Society of Hematology Basic Science Mentor Award for her contributions to mentoring numerous hematology trainees throughout her career.

The award recognizes Gasson for her positive impact on her mentee’s careers, who have gone on to advance research and patient care in the field of hematology.

“Mentorship to me is the ultimate investment in the future. I believe in the power of science to teach and to heal,” said Gasson. “It is an extraordinary honor for me to be recognized in this way. I am most grateful.”

Gasson previously served as director of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center for two decades and was also the senior associate dean for research, and co-director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. She has devoted her career to the study of cytokine biology and signaling pathways in normal and malignant hematopoiesis. She was instrumental in purifying a hormone-like substance (GM-CSF) that increases the speed of bone marrow cell reproduction.