Dr. Michael Shapira was born in Jerusalem in 1966. During his medical studies he married Anat and has today 4 children.

In the year 1990 he graduated from the Hebrew university medical school. After volunteering to the IDF, he specialized in internal medicine in the internal medicine wing at the Hadassah medical center in Ein Kerem. Dr. Shapira graduated with honor on 1999 and immediately joined the Bone Marrow Transplantation department in Hadassah as a senior physician. In parallel to his work as a physician, researcher and teacher in the Bone Marrow Transplantation department, he specialized in hematology.

During his work in the Bone Marrow Transplantation department, Dr. Shapira developed the therapeutic and research fields of the department including stem cell transplantation in elderlies, the use of stem cells for organ repair (for example improvement of myocardial damage in congestive heart failure by infusion of autologus bone marrow cells) and treatment of graft vs. host disease (GVHD) using innovative methods including new agents, special procedures and local therapy.

As a senior physician in the Bone Marrow Transplantation department, Dr. Shapira is serving as a principle investigator in several clinical studies.

The treatment with stem cell transplantation in elderlies is a major breakthrough in the world of transplantation since until recently; old age (for some procedures above 50 years!) was a contraindication for transplantation. The problem is further augmented as most of the patients in need for transplant suffer from malignant diseases (such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), multiple myeloma (MM) etc.) that are much more common as age increase.

Thus, most of the patients in need for stem cell transplantation are excluded from this life saving procedure merely because of age. By the work of Dr. Shapira and his colleagues, it was shown that it is improper to evaluate the patient’s ability to benefit from transplant by chronological age and that other parameters such as performance status, active clinical problems, past medical and surgical history and nutritional state should be used. In this manner, many elderly patients including patients above the age of 70 years underwent allogeneic stem cell transplantation. for this purpose, several innovative treatment protocols were designed that are used for transplantation in elderly patients or other high risk patients.

For his performance as a researcher and teacher, Dr. Shapira received several prizes of excellence.

Dr. Shapira invests his spare time in Jewish studies, practicing Chinese medicine and riding his bicycle.