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Applications open now through 17 January 2025

BEST is seeking applications for up to eight Dana Devine Fellowship positions from individuals that are early-mid career. As a guide, this would typically be less than 5 years from completion of PhD for scientists or 5 years from the completion of specialty training for physicians, but applications outside of these bounds from individuals that demonstrate potential will also be considered. Each fellow will be assigned at least one mentor who is a current scientific or honorary member of BEST. Successful candidate positions will commence with the Edinburgh, Scotland meeting in May 2025, and will run through the Fall 2026 meeting,  at which time one can apply to be a Scientific Member.

The Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion (BEST) Collaborative is an international research organization with a vision to lead the field of transfusion medicine and cellular therapies toward the best products and practices for donors and patients. As part of its mission, BEST believes it brings to the community thoughtful consideration to identify important questions in Transfusion Medicine, design and execute studies to address these questions, and provide critical thought and synthesis of the available evidence. We currently operate in teams covering 4 areas: Cellular Therapy, Conventional Blood Components, Clinical Transfusion Studies, and Donor Studies. Scientific Members are elected every four years, representing a prestigious group of clinicians, researchers, and opinion leaders from across the globe. Th Dana Devine Fellowship positions offer a unique opportunity to be partnered with one or more of these members as your mentor, with the ability to co-lead a study in BEST likely to have a significant impact in the field, being published and cited.

  • Cell Therapy: Key objectives of this team are to survey current practice in the preparation, assessment, storage and distribution of cellular therapy products and to perform detailed laboratory studies in selected areas of interest. They are committed to expanding interests further into the fields of immunotherapy and regenerative medicine as these are developed for clinical study and subsequent routine application in specific patient groups.
  • Conventional Components: This team coordinates individual efforts and conducts collaborative international studies that address developmental and regulatory issues regarding the composition and validation of the conventional blood components: red cells, platelets and plasma. They perform pilot exploratory studies, inter-laboratory comparisons, and small randomized trials.
  • Clinical Transfusion Studies: This BEST team seeks to conduct collaborative international studies that address questions regarding the safety, efficacy, or efficient use of transfused blood and components. They perform pilot exploratory studies, definitive large-scale studies, randomized trials, surveys, laboratory-based investigation and qualitative research.
  • Donor Studies: This team addresses issues of donor safety and reaction mitigation, donor demographic trends, donor-related product variability, eligibility criteria and health screening, donor incentives and communications, and differences between volunteer, autologous, directed and replacement donors. A wide variety of expertise in donor motivation, recruitment, care, and hemovigilance underpins the team's surveys, observational studies, randomized trials, and epidemiologic investigations.

The requirements for each fellowship member include:

  • In-person attendance at each twice annual meeting for the period of the appointment. The next meeting will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 2-3, 2025, with the next planned for Singapore in November 14-15, 2025. Usually, one of the meetings is located in the USA, depending on the schedule of AABB and ISBT Meetings that occur in the fall. BEST provides travel reimbursements based on the location of one’s home. Receipts are required for reimbursement.
    • For meetings occurring on the continent in which the member is a resident, the maximum reimbursement is $1,250 USD.
    • For meetings occurring on a continent other than the one in which the member is a resident, the maximum reimbursement is $2,500 USD.
    • For members from Australia, New Zealand and Asia the maximum reimbursement is $3,000 USD.
    • The BEST board may consider additional reimbursement maximums if a meeting location has unusually high travel costs.
  •  Attendance at the monthly team calls of one or more BEST teams.
  • Conduct at least one substantial piece of work under the auspices of BEST; a few ideas may be included in your application.

Applications must be submitted to include the following:

    • A description of how you believe you would make a valuable contribution to BEST, including which team and type of studies in which you are interested. Any idea(s) on your proposed work should be included here
    • Your current CV* demonstrating your academic potential and interest in Transfusion Medicine 

*Upload files in PDF or MSWord format only and include your last name within the file name.

Please use this online application only, and do not submit applications by email or postal mail.

Applications will be accepted through January 17, 2025 at 5:00 pm North American Pacific Time. Notifications to begin the first week of February 2025.

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