Michael R. Savona, MD

Professor Savona is currently the Head of Hematology, Cellular Therapy and Stem Cell Transplant after service as Acting Chief of Hematology, Cellular Therapy and Stem Cell Transplant since 2019. He is also Director of Hematologic Malignancies Research and the Early Therapy Program, and Professor of Internal Medicine and Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt University.

He is a physician scientist specializing in myeloid malignancies, Chair of the MDS/MPN International Working Group, and a leader in development of novel therapies for these patients. He has led development and approval of several novel therapies targeting the proteosome, BCL2 family proteins, PI3 kinase delta, the JAK/STAT pathway, and various epigenetic agents. He has been involved medical research for over 20 years, and has published over 100 manuscripts in major academic journals including: Cancer Discovery, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Medicine, Nature Cancer, Blood, Cell Stem Cell, Lancet Oncology, Lancet Haematology, JAMA, and Nature Cancer Reviews.

Dr. Savona founded the Clonal Hematopoiesis Clinic in 2018, and related Vanderilbt collaborative venture, CHIVE: Clonal Hematopoiesis and Inflammation in the VasculaturE, in 2020. CHIVE is a registry, biorepository, and thinktank of experts from multiple medical specialties, genetics, data science and molecular biology focusing on the how clonal hematopoiesis contributes to pathology, in order to develop new therapies to block disease before it starts.

He is a board certified hematologist, an elected fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Clinical Scholar. Dr. Savona obtained his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Davidson College and medical degree at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He did post graduate clinical and research training at the University of California (Davis and San Francisco), and the University of Michigan. He also served as physician in the United States Air Force and is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom.