Aaron Gerds, MD, MS

Dr. Aaron Gerds completed his undergraduate degree with honors (B.A. in biology and chemistry) at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He then obtained his M.D. from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Dr. Gerds stayed at Loyola University Hospital for his Internal Medicine residency training where he also served as chief resident. This is when he first became interested in hematology while analyzing the results of clinical trials clinical trials: Clinical research is at the heart of all medical advances, identifying new ways to prevent, detect or treat disease. If you have a bone marrow failure disease, you may want to consider taking part in a clinical trial, also called a research study. Understanding Clinical Trials Clinical… under the mentorship of Dr. Patrick Stiff. This experience led him to pursue a master’s degree in clinical research clinical research: A type of research that involves individual persons or a group of people. There are three types of clinical research. Patient-oriented research includes clinical trials which test how a drug, medical device, or treatment approach works in people. Epidemiology or behavioral studies look at the… methods and epidemiology epidemiology: The study of patterns and causes of disease in groups of people. Epidemiology researchers study how many people have a disease, how many new cases are diagnosed each year, where patients are located, and environmental or other factors that influence disease. during residency. Dr. Gerds then went to Seattle where he completed his hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. During his fellowship, he was awarded the ASBMT’s New Investigator Award. Under the mentorship of Drs. Joachim Deeg and Bart Scott, Dr. Gerds subspecialized in treating patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) such as polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET), myelofibrosis (MF), as well as myelodsyplastic syndromes (MDS) and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML), with a special emphasis on allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Dr. Gerds is also an active member of the American Society of Hematology, participating in both the Advocacy Leadership Institute and Clinical Research Training Institute, as well as serving on the Test Materials Development Committee. As Assistant Professor in Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, Dr. Gerds serves as the principle investigator for a number of clinical trials for the treatment of MPNs, and is focused on developing novel therapies for these patients.