{{Infobox academic | name = Rainer F. Storb | image = Storb Rainer.jpg }}
'''Rainer Friedrich Storb''' (born 26 June 1935 in Essen, Germany) is a German-American hematologist, oncologist, and researcher in the field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |date=2025-09-05 |title=Rainer Storb: Six decades of bone marrow transplant breakthroughs "His CV has more pages than almost any of you have papers." |url=https://cancerletter.com/in-the-archives/20250905_8/ |access-date=2025-11-04 |website=The Cancer Letter |language=en-US}}</ref> He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Printz |first=Carrie |date=2017-08-01 |title=First person: Rainer Storb, MD: The pioneer in bone marrow transplantation continues to push the innovation envelope while inspiring a new generation of researchers |journal=Cancer |volume=123 |issue=15 |pages=2793 |doi=10.1002/cncr.30876 |issn=1097-0142 |pmid=28722793}}</ref> His work includes research contributions to allogeneic‐transplantation biology, prevention of graft-versus-host disease, conditioning regimen innovation, using the graft-versus-tumor effect as an early form of immunotherapy.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Sandmaier |first=Brenda M. |date=2025-09-01 |title=Profile of a Pioneer: Rainer F. Storb |url=https://www.astctjournal.org/article/S2666-6367(25)01343-0/abstract |journal=Transplantation and Cellular Therapy |language=English |volume=31 |issue=9 |pages=599–604 |doi=10.1016/j.jtct.2025.08.001 |issn=2666-6367 |pmid=40876913|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
== Biography == Storb was born in Essen, Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Keown |first=Susan |date=2015-12-21 |title=From building toys to developing cures |url=https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2015/12/rainer-storb-transplant-building-toys-developing-cures.html |access-date=2025-11-04 |website=Fred Hutch |language=en}}</ref> After attending Gymnasium Essen-Borbeck, he began his medical studies in 1955 at the University of Munich and the University of Freiburg, earning his M.D. degree in 1960 from Freiburg.<ref>https://apps.winshipcancer.emory.edu/admin/Media/Download/2496 Rainer Storb, MD Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Clinical Research Division; Head, Transplantation Biology Program</ref>
He underwent clinical training in Germany (surgery, internal medicine, gynecology), and later held fellowships in Paris<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Printz |first=Carrie |date=2017 |title=First person: Rainer Storb, MD |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cncr.30876 |journal=Cancer |language=en |volume=123 |issue=15 |pages=2793 |doi=10.1002/cncr.30876 |pmid=28722793 |issn=1097-0142}}</ref> under eminent hematology researchers including Jean Bernard<ref>{{Citation |last1=Gale |first1=Robert Peter |title=A Brief History of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation |date=2000 |work=Hematopoietic Cell Transplants: Concepts, Controversies and Future Directions |pages=1–7 |editor-last=Bacigalupo |editor-first=Andrea |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hematopoietic-cell-transplants/brief-history-of-hematopoietic-cell-transplantation/0EF7C9DFA93FD3DC7D846660930CF5A7 |access-date=2025-11-04 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-33572-7 |last2=McCann |first2=Shaun |editor2-last=Keating |editor2-first=Armand |editor3-last=Lazarus |editor3-first=Hillard M. |editor4-last=Atkinson |editor4-first=Kerry}}</ref> and Marcel Bessis, supported by NATO Science Fellowships and in Seattle supported by a Fulbright Fellowship.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Mohty |first1=Mohamad |last2=Storb |first2=Rainer |date=2022 |title='Standing on the Shoulders of the Giants': Dr Rainer Storb |journal=Clinical Hematology International |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=121–126 |doi=10.1007/s44228-022-00018-2 |issn=2590-0048 |pmc=9763516 |pmid=36038803}}</ref>
== Academic and clinical career == In 1965, Storb joined the University of Washington in Seattle under a Fulbright Scholarship, working in the Division of Hematology and with E. Donnall Thomas, a future Nobel Laureate, to help develop early marrow transplantation methodologies.<ref name=":02"/>
He rose through academic ranks: Instructor of Medicine, then Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and in 1977 became a full Professor of Medicine in the Division of Oncology at University of Washington<ref name=":32">{{Cite web |title=Rainer Storb receives Lifetime Achievement in Hematology award {{!}} Department of Medicine News |url=https://mednews.uw.edu/news/storb-lifetime-achievement-award |access-date=2025-11-04 |website=mednews.uw.edu}}</ref> and Professor in Transplantation Biology at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The latter was founded in 1975.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=ASH Announces 2025 Hematologists Honored With Highest Distinctions - Hematology.org |url=https://www.hematology.org/newsroom/press-releases/2025/ash-announces-2025-hematologists-honored-with-highest-distinctions |access-date=2025-11-04 |website=www.hematology.org |language=en}}</ref>
As of 2025, Storb has authored more than 1,600 scientific papers with approximately 130,000 citations.<ref name=":2" /> He received funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health since his early years in Seattle. In June 2025, Fred Hutch Cancer Center organized a symposium to mark his 90th birthday and retirement, highlighting both his scientific impact and his role in training successive generations of transplantation researchers.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Richards |first=Sabrina |date=2025-08-14 |title=Two lifetimes' worth of bone marrow transplant breakthroughs |url=https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2025/08/rainer-storb-retirement.html |access-date=2025-11-04 |website=Fred Hutch |language=en}}</ref>
== Research == Storb came to Seattle in 1965 on a Fulbright scholarship after medical training in Germany and postdoctoral work with Marcel Bessis in Paris,<ref name=":2" /> where he used laser microbeam irradiation to study function and morphology of subcellular organelles. Seeking to return to more patient-centered research, he joined E. Donnall Thomas’s team in Seattle, then a group of three investigators including besides Thomas, Storb and Robert Epstein, an instructor in Medicine, working on the feasibility of bone marrow transplantation.<ref name=":02"/> At the time, early clinical attempts had failed, Storb and colleagues carried out under highly experimental conditions, laid the groundwork for bone marrow and blood stem cell transplantation in humans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Storb |first=Rainer |date=2016-07-01 |title=Program Genealogies: Bone Marrow Transplantation at Fred Hutch |url=https://ashpublications.org/thehematologist/article/doi/10.1182/hem.V13.4.5664/462755/Program-Genealogies-Bone-Marrow-Transplantation-at |journal=The Hematologist |language=en |volume=13 |issue=4 |doi=10.1182/hem.V13.4.5664 |issn=1551-8779|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Over the course of six decades, Storb’s research contributed to advances that helped transform hematopoietic cell transplantation from an experimental approach into a widely used treatment for blood cancers and other bone marrow-based and immune disorders.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Baron |first1=Frédéric |last2=Storb |first2=Rainer |last3=Little |first3=Marie-Térèse |date=2003 |title=Hematopoietic cell transplantation: five decades of progress |journal=Archives of Medical Research |volume=34 |issue=6 |pages=528–544 |doi=10.1016/j.arcmed.2003.09.010 |issn=0188-4409 |pmid=14734093 |hdl=2268/151258 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
His research addressed graft-versus-host disease, donor compatibility, conditioning regimens, and the immunobiology of transplantation, among other areas.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Storb |first1=Rainer |last2=Gyurkocza |first2=Boglarka |last3=Storer |first3=Barry E. |last4=Sorror |first4=Mohamed L. |last5=Blume |first5=Karl |last6=Niederwieser |first6=Dietger |last7=Chauncey |first7=Thomas R. |last8=Pulsipher |first8=Michael A. |last9=Petersen |first9=Finn B. |last10=Sahebi |first10=Firoozeh |last11=Agura |first11=Edward D. |last12=Hari |first12=Parameswaran |last13=Bruno |first13=Benedetto |last14=McSweeney |first14=Peter A. |last15=Maris |first15=Michael B. |date=2013-04-20 |title=Graft-versus-host disease and graft-versus-tumor effects after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation |journal=Journal of Clinical Oncology|volume=31 |issue=12 |pages=1530–1538 |doi=10.1200/JCO.2012.45.0247 |issn=1527-7755 |pmc=3625710 |pmid=23478054}}</ref> Together with a mentee, Paul Weiden, he provided the first description of graft-versus-leukemia (tumor) effects, in which transplanted immune cells eradicate the patient’s underlying malignancy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Weiden |first1=Paul L. |last2=Sullivan |first2=Keith M. |last3=Flournoy |first3=Nancy |last4=Storb |first4=Rainer |last5=Thomas |first5=E. Donnall |last6=null |first6=null |date=1981-06-18 |title=Antileukemic Effect of Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease |url=https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198106183042507 |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |volume=304 |issue=25 |pages=1529–1533 |doi=10.1056/NEJM198106183042507 |pmid=7015133 |issn=0028-4793|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Storb’s research has focused on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and its clinical applications.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Granot |first1=Noa |last2=Storb |first2=Rainer |date=2020-10-09 |title=History of hematopoietic cell transplantation: challenges and progress |url=https://haematologica.org/article/view/haematol.2019.245688 |journal=Haematologica |language=en |volume=105 |issue=12 |pages=2716–2729 |doi=10.3324/haematol.2019.245688 |pmid=33054108 |issn=1592-8721|pmc=7716373 }}</ref>
Working initially in canine models including pet dogs with spontaneous lymphoma and other blood disorders referred by veterinarians, he helped establish the principles of histocompatibility typing, conditioning regimens, and prevrention of graft-versus-host disease prevention, many of which later translated into clinical practice.<ref name=":2" /> He contributed to the development of immunosuppressive protocols that reduced the incidence and severity of graft-versus-host disease, enabling safer transplants.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Storb |first1=Rainer |last2=Antin |first2=Joseph H. |last3=Cutler |first3=Corey |date=January 2010 |title=Should methotrexate plus calcineurin inhibitors be considered standard of care for prophylaxis of acute graft-versus-host disease? |journal=Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation: Journal of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation |volume=16 |issue=1 Suppl |pages=S18–27 |doi=10.1016/j.bbmt.2009.10.016 |issn=1523-6536 |pmc=2832712 |pmid=19857584}}</ref>
In later years, he was instrumental in pioneering nonmyeloablative or “mini-transplant” conditioning regimens, which expanded access to transplantation for older patients and those with comorbidities.<ref name=":42">{{Cite web |title=ASH Announces 2025 Hematologists Honored With Highest Distinctions - Hematology.org |url=https://www.hematology.org/newsroom/press-releases/2025/ash-announces-2025-hematologists-honored-with-highest-distinctions |access-date=2025-11-04 |website=www.hematology.org |language=en}}</ref>
== Awards and recognition == He received the Henry M. Stratton Medal from the American Society of Hematology in 1997,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Henry M. Stratton Medal Recipients (Formerly Lecture) |url=https://www.hematology.org/awards/award-recipients/henry-stratton-medal-recipients |access-date=2025-11-04 |website=www.hematology.org |language=en}}</ref> the Society’s E. Donnall Thomas Prize in 2005, and its mentorship in Basic Sciences Award in 2012.<ref name=":1" />
He received the Burchenal Award from the American Association for Cancer Research.
He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2014 and has been honored internationally with awards such as the Alexander von Humboldt Award, the Gustav Carus Prize of the German Academy of Natural Sciences, the Steiner Prize, and the Meyenburg Prize.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |date=2014-11-26 |title=Fred Hutch researcher Rainer Storb named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science |url=https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/releases/2014/11/fred-hutch-rainer-storb-named-aaas-fellow.html |access-date=2025-11-04 |website=Fred Hutch |language=en}}</ref> In addition, he has delivered named lectures and received lifetime achievement awards from professional societies, including the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.<ref name=":6" /> In 2025, the American Society of Hematology presented him with the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology, recognizing his decades of contributions to transplantation biology and mentorship.<ref name=":32"/>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Storb, Rainer F.}} Category:1935 births Category:American hematologists Category:Living people Category:20th-century German scientists Category:21st-century German scientists Category:20th-century American scientists Category:21st-century American scientists Category:German oncologists Category:American oncologists Category:Stem cell researchers Category:People from Essen Category:Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center people Category:University of Washington faculty Category:Hematologists