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Thomas Graf (born 28. September 1944) is a biologist at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, Spain. He is a pioneer in cell reprogramming, showing that blood cells can be transdifferentiated by transcription factors. He is also known for his early work on oncogenes carried by retroviruses and oncogene cooperation in leukemia formation.

Biography
Thomas Graf is a German national born in Vienna. He grew up in Caracas, studied biology in Muenchen and Tuebingen and earned his PhD at the University of Tuebingen in 1969. After a postdoc at Duke University he became a Junior Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Virus Research in Tuebingen from where he moved in 1977 to Heidelberg as a Division Head at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). In 1983 he was appointed by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) as a Coordinator of the newly created Differentiation Programme. In 1998 he moved to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a Professor of Developmental and Molecular Biology. Since 2006 he is at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, where he served as a Programme Coordinator until 2015, when he became a Senior Scientist. Graf has 5 children and 4 grandchildren.

He is member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (elected 1985), the Academia Europaea (elected 1997), Board of Directors of the International Society of Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) (2008-2014), and EuroStemCell (2009- present).

He has been editor of several scientific journals including: Journal of General Virology (1977-1987), Cell (1984-1991), International Journal of Cancer (1985-2000), Leukemia Research (1986-1988), Oncogene Research (1987-1992), Leukemia (1988-1990), Progress in Growth Factor Research (1988-1992), Genes & Development (1988-1996), Journal of Cell Regulation (1989-1992), Cancer Cells (1989-1992), Molecular Biology of the Cell (1992-1994), BBA Reviews of Cancer (1990-1995), Genes to Cells (1995-2004), Faculty 1000 (2002-2010), Cell Stem Cell (2007-present), Stem Cell Research (2009-present), and Stem Cell Reports (2012-present).

Research
In the late 70s Graf co-discovered several cell-derived oncogenes acquired by avian retroviruses, designated Mac (later changed into Myc), Erb and Myb. He found that several naturally occurring virus strains have acquired various pairwise combinations of oncogenes and that these cooperate to cause acute leukemia, an early example for the multigenic origin of cancers. He also showed that the transcription factor Myb can reversibly block the differentiation of white blood cells, one of the first demonstrations of induced cell fate changes. In his more recent research he showed that different types of specialized blood cells can be induced to convert into each other by forced transcription factor expression. In 1995 he pioneered this technique permitting the transdifferentiation of white blood cells into red blood cell precursors and viceversa induced by Gata1 and PU.1, respectively. Later (2004) he managed to convert B lymphocytes into functional macrophages, using C/EBPa as a driver. Using the same approach he was also first to induce a conversion of more distantly related cells, namely that of non-blood cells into macrophages. Finally, he found that forced C/EBPa expression in malignant  lymphocyte precursors leads to the formation of macrophages and loss of tumorigenicity, suggesting transdifferentiation as an alternative avenue for therapeutic interventions.

Awards

 * 1983 Wilhelm-Warner-Foundation Award
 * 1983 Main Award, German Society for Microbiology and Hygiene
 * 1983 Kind-Philipp-Foundation Leukemia Research Award
 * 1988 Josef-Steiner-Foundation Prize
 * 1988 Theodor Boveri Lecture and Award
 * 1989 Paul Ehrlich-Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize