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Health Humanities Grand Rounds – Race and Stem Cell Transplantation
Health Humanities Grand Rounds hosts Dr. Mike Winstead, an assistant professor of pediatrics at UNC.
“The Transplanted Self: Genetics, Race and Pragmatism in Stem Cell Transplantation”
Medicine describes the immune system’s distinction between normal and diseased cells as an immunological “self.” Receiving a stem cell or bone marrow transplant combines the immunological “selves” of donor and recipient, which can lead to life-threatening complications. Safely navigating this process involves genetic matching of the donor and recipient immune systems, a process that roughly tracks with the social construct of race. Stem cell transplants (and their complications) occur at a nexus of genetics, ancestry, race and “selfhood” that medicine has not explored, due to a pragmatic focus on tangible problems and concrete solutions.
Mike Winstead, MD, is an assistant professor of pediatrics specializing in pediatric hematology-oncology and bone marrow transplantation. He is interested in the immune system as an intellectual development of the mid-20th century and in the social interactions of immunity, health and illness.
Join via Zoom on October 6 at 3:30 pm.
Contact Kym Weed with questions.
