Don Diamond | Professor, Department Of Hematology And Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Diamond received his A.B. from Harvard University and published a seminal paper on RNA as an undergraduate that has over 3500 citations. A graduate of Harvard Medical School with a Ph.D, was followed by a 2-year fellowship with Dr. Susumu Tonegawa (Nobel Laureate, 1987). He obtained an LLS fellowship that was carried out at the DFCI, and he moved to City of Hope where he started his career as a PI in 1989. His studies of cytomegalovirus infection, a transplant-related complication, resulted in a fruitful career that has included >35 patents, >170 academic publications, multiple clinical programs including 6 INDs, domestic and international speaking engagements, and over $200 million in NIH and foundation funding. Dr. Diamond is considered a leading expert in vaccines for infectious disease, including HIV, CMV, HCV, influenza, and emerging pandemic pathogens such as corona viruses He often served as chair or member for the Division of AIDS Phase 1 and 2 clinical trial applications, vaccine and infectious disease applications of the NIAID including past Chairman of the Vaccines for Microbial Diseases study section (2009-2011), and NCI special emphasis panels as needed. His discovery of immunologic recognition elements of CMV led to multiple corporate licenses and development of two vaccines that are both being evaluated in Phase 2 multi-center trials as a partnership with the National Cancer Institute and a company he co-founded named Helocyte Inc. Dr. Diamond is currently a Professor in the Department of Hematology and former Chair of the Department of Experimental Therapeutics, and he runs a multidisciplinary laboratory comprised of 25 research professors, staff scientists, fellows, technicians, and graduate students. The Diamond laboratory continues to clinically evaluate vaccines to combat hematologic malignancies, solid tumors, and infectious pathogens such as the herpes virus, CMV. Most recently, his team has been engaged in a substantial two-year effort to reinvent a poxvirus platform derived solely from synthetic components and apply it to the COVID-19 pandemic, for which multiple in-human clinical trials (Phase 2 booster in HCW, Phase 2 in cell therapy patients and Phase 2 in CLL patients) are underway at multiple sites. The vaccine named GEO-CM04S1 has been licensed to Geovax Laboratories (GOVX; NASDAQ Symbol).