Overview

A sweeping biography of the visionary behind bone marrow transplantation and the story of the diseases cured by Don Thomas's discovery. In the last half of the twentieth century, Thomas himself discovered a cure for every marrow-based disease-like leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle-cell anemia-forever changing treatment for some of the deadliest illnesses. His feats were extraordinary, earning him a Nobel Prize, and the cascade of treatments he inspired have reshaped and will continue to reshape the practice of clinical medicine. Yet no one has ever written Thomas's courageous story. Dr. Frederick R. Appelbaum, a member of Thomas's research team, does so for the first time in Living Medicine: Don Thomas, Marrow Transplantation, and the Cell Therapy Revolution. Bone marrow transplantation has now saved over a million lives, but when Thomas first had the idea, he was met with disbelief by the scientific community. Appelbaum, informed by decades in the field and personal connection with Thomas, tells us the secrets to Thomas's success: his unique characteristics, how he created an effective team of researchers, and how he overcame the technical obstacles of marrow transplantation. Appelbaum tells a bigger story, too, of the scientific and societal implications of this achievement, which are critical for scientific and lay readers alike so that we all might be better informed of how far our medical progress has come and will go.

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Reviews

This is the story of pioneers, foremost among them Don Thomas. While most explorations into the unknown venture to new lands, here we journey with Thomas and his colleagues deep into our bodies where they overcame daunting obstacles to make life saving discoveries. Fred Appelbaum skillfully weaves biography, science and patient stories into an inspiring tapestry of hopes fulfilled. --Jerome Groopman, M.D., Recanati Professor, Harvard University, and author How Doctors Think and Your Medical Mind Anyone interested in medical science will want to read Living Medicine. It describes the ideas, experiments, surprises, failures, and successes of decades of research with a clarity that makes it one of the best science books that I have ever read. Chapters read like roller coaster rides with the painstaking attempts of treating a few patients, the slow progress of adapting to results, and the final success leading to rapid global adoption of therapeutic advances. It will be my graduation gift to each of my aspiring medical school students. --Leland Hartwell, Nobel Prize winner

Fred Appelbaum provides a vital and touching history. As a witness to (and a participant in) the birth of one of medicine's most inventive procedures -- bone marrow transplantation -- Appelbaum gives us a story rich with details, excitement and wonder. His writing sparkles as he describes the early years in Seattle and the subsequent successes, and this book is essential reading for doctors, patients and medical historians alike. -Siddhartha Mukherjee This is the story of pioneers, foremost among them Don Thomas. While most explorations into the unknown venture to new lands, here we journey with Thomas and his colleagues deep into our bodies where they overcame daunting obstacles to make life saving discoveries. Fred Appelbaum skillfully weaves biography, science and patient stories into an inspiring tapestry of hopes fulfilled. --Jerome Groopman, M.D., Recanati Professor, Harvard University, and author How Doctors Think and, with Dr. Pamela Hartzband, of Your Medical Mind Anyone interested in medical science will want to read Living Medicine. It describes the ideas, experiments, surprises, failures, and successes of decades of research with a clarity that makes it one of the best science books that I have ever read. Chapters read like roller coaster rides with the painstaking attempts of treating a few patients, the slow progress of adapting to results, and the final success leading to rapid global adoption of therapeutic advances. It will be my graduation gift to each of my aspiring medical school students. -Leland Hartwell, Nobel Prize winner Living Medicine is a captivating and inspirational narrative that charts the challenges, breakthroughs and ultimate ascent of bone marrow transplantation, as well as the critical contributions of E. Donnall Thomas. At a time when we are on the brink of realizing long-held hopes for application of stem cells to treat and cure diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, and myriad other conditions, Appelbaum deftly illuminates critical milestones in medical history and tracks that progress to the most cutting-edge therapies of the modern day. --Daylon James, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Weill Cornell Medicine, and host of the Stem Cell Podcast The biotech revolution is one of the big stories of the 21st century. Cell and gene therapies with potential to cure many terrible diseases are coming in the near future, whether we're ready or not. Fred Appelbaum tells the fascinating, untold story of how this transformation of medicine got started. Living Medicine is a tour de force of medical science history. Appelbaum has the intimate knowledge of an insider but takes great care to tell an accessible story. This book is easy to read and hard to put down. Anyone who wants to know about where breakthroughs come from and how medicine will change over the next 20 years should read it. --Luke Timmerman, founder of the leading biotech newsletter, Timmerman Report

Anyone interested in medical science will want to read Living Medicine. It describes the ideas, experiments, surprises, failures, and successes of decades of research with a clarity that makes it one of the best science books that I have ever read. Chapters read like roller coaster rides with the painstaking attempts of treating a few patients, the slow progress of adapting to results, and the final success leading to rapid global adoption of therapeutic advances. It will be my graduation gift to each of my aspiring medical school students. --Leland Hartwell, Nobel Prize winner

Author Information

Fred Appelbaum, M.D., is the Metcalfe Family Professor at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Center. His work has ranged from studying basic molecular abnormalities of the disease to conducting national and international studies of its treatment. He's the past chair of the National Cancer Institute's Board of Scientific Advisors and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association of Cancer Research, and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.He is currently on the scientific advisory boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering (which he chairs), Johns Hopkins, MD Anderson, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California San Francisco. Appelbaum has authored or co-authored over 800 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and hundreds of chapters, invited reviews, and editorials.

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