Dr. Horwitz attended the Medical Scientist Program at the Indiana University School of Medicine (1981-1988) and simultaneously earned his Ph.D. degree in biological chemistry and his M.D. degree. He completed his training in pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. At the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cell and Gene Therapy Program of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, he began his translational research program focused on the clinically relevant biology and therapeutic applications of bone marrow (adult) stem cells. In 1999, Nature Medicine published the results of the first clinical trial demonstrating that bone marrow stem cells can be successfully transplanted into children with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Science named this study as one of the important achievements of the year and, in 2004, Nature Medicine recognized it as one of the most significant papers published in their journal over the preceding decade.
Currently, Dr. Horwitz is on the faculty of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and The University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in the Division of Oncology/Blood and Marrow Transplantation in Philadelphia. He continues to investigate novel adult stem cell therapy strategies in the laboratory and in clinical trials with the goal of developing a broadly applicable protocol that will ameliorate the symptoms of severe OI in children.
Dr. Horwitz serves as the associate editor of Cytotherapy and associate editor of Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He has authored more than 130 research papers, reviews, and chapters and is internationally recognized as an expert on adult stem cells and blood and marrow transplantation. He is the immediate past president of the International Society for Cellular Therapy For his early research he was named the Outstanding Young Investigator in Hematology by the American Society for Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. In addition to his NIH funding, he has received a Doris Duke Foundation Clinical Scientist Award and has been elected a member of the honorific American Society of Clinical Investigation.