Cynthia E. Dunbar

Cynthia Dunbar is an American scientist and hematologist at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is the Branch Chief of the Translational Stem Cell Biology Branch.

She was the Editor-in-Chief of Blood, the flagship publication of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), from 2007 to 2012. She is currently (2025) Vice-President of ASH and will become President in 2027. In 2020, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for "leading pioneering genetic marking and therapy trials targeting hematopoietic stem cells, and developing uniquely predictive non-human primate models to successfully improve the safety and efficiency of various gene therapies as well as gain insights into hematopoiesis and immunology".

Early life

Dr. Dunbar was born in Syracuse, New York. She moved to Westport, Connecticut, at a young age and attended Staples High School. During her sophomore year, a close friend developed Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer stemming from white blood cells lymphocytes. While he underwent treatment at Yale New Haven Hospital, she visited him frequently. She decided to pursue a career in medicine after he died during their senior year.

Dunbar earned a B.A. magna cum laude in History and Science from Harvard University in 1980. She received an M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1984. She completed an internal medicine internship and residency at Boston City Hospital, and did a hematology fellowship at University of California, San Francisco. She, along with Ezekiel Emanuel, revived the NIH Assembly of Scientists to advise NIH leadership and represent the concerns of NIH's scientific and clinical staff in top-level decision-making.

Personal life

Dunbar resides in Washington, D.C., with her husband, whom she met singing in the Choral Arts Society of Washington. She has two children.

Awards

Dunbar has received numerous awards for teaching, mentorship, and research, including:

NIH Clinical Center Distinguished Clinical Teacher Award John Decker Memorial Lectureship Brigham and Women's Hospital Moloney Award and Lectureship