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Magali J. Fontaine, MD, PhD

Professor of Pathology, Director, Division of Transfusion Medicine and Cellular Therapy, Director of Transfusion Services and Reference Laboratories at Vitalant Pittsburgh, Professor, Department of Immunology

Magali Fontaine MD PhD, was recruited in the Department of Pathology in 2026, from the University of Maryland School of Medicine where she served as Professor of Pathology and Medicine and Medical Director of Transfusion Services. Previously, she served as Assistant Professor and Associate Medical Director of the Transfusion Service at Stanford University Medical Center.

Clinical Expertise

Dr Fontaine’s clinical expertise is at the frontier of Transfusion Medicine and organ transplantation. Her focus is on the safety and the availability of the blood supply as well as on platelet and red cell antigen matching for patients chronically transfused and highly alloimmunized. She also focuses on addressing national shortages of organs for transplantation, through organ ex vivo red blood cell perfusion and with immunomodulatory cells such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), also referred to as mesenchymal stromal cells. Establishing standards and benchmarks in novel immune cell therapies has been one of her recent goals.

Education & Training
Fellowship, Transfusion Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester
Residency, Pathology, University of Illinois at Chicago
Post Doctoral Fellowship, Harvard Medical School
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago
M.D., University of Paris V, Renee Descartes
Awards
1989 MD Degree, Summa Cum Laude
2008 Excellence in Teaching, Stanford University School of Medicine
2009 Faculty Mentor Award for Postdoctoral Fellows in Immunology, Stanford University
2010 Chair of National Committee on Standards for Cellular Therapies for the American Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB) (Nominated)
2010 Stanford Leadership Development Program (nominated)
2011 President of the Association of Clinical Scientists
2011 Excellence in Teaching, Stanford University School of Medicine
2012 Stanford Leadership Development Advanced Program (nominated)
2020 AABB Board Member (nominated)
2026 BEST Collaborative for Excellence in Transfusion, Board Member (nominated)
Research Interests

Dr. Fontaine research laboratory studies the immunomodulatory significance of sialoglycoproteins present on the red blood cell surface. Her work is novel as it highlights an important role of circulating RBC beyond oxygen carrying capacity, that is regulating vascular inflammation. Her Lab is embarked on several interdisciplinary collaborative efforts to understand the role of red blood cell interaction with innate immune cells specifically in patients with inflammation in their intravascular space, such as patients with sickle cell disease and end stage renal disease.

Representative Publications
  1. Beillevaire D, Paré I, Fournier MJ, Lampron MC, Dieudé M, Girard and Fontaine MJ. Hematocrit of granulocyte concentrates regulates neutrophils’ function and viability. Transfusion 2026 66(8):1562-1574.
  2. Kogler V, Pagano MB, Fontaine MJ, Azimi V, Brancamp R, Cataife G, Covington M, Delaney M, Eichbaum Q, Jacquot C, Kutner JM, Lu W, Saifee NH, Shan H, Thibodeaux SR, Wali JA, Yeh A, Yokoyama APH, Yunce M, Ziman A; Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion Collaborative. Serologic Characteristics and Clinical Significance of Non-ABO Red Blood Cell Antibodies in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: The BESTCollaborative Study. Transplant Cell Ther. 2026 Feb;32(2):179.e1-179.e10.
  3. Fontaine MJ. Evaluating Perfusate Composition in Ex vivo Normothermic Heart Perfusion: Red Blood cells or Plasma? J. Heart Lung Transplant 2025 44(11):1821-1822.
  4. Fontaine MJ, Lasola  JM, Martinez-Hernandez A, Marshall JN, Bentzen S, Zahn M, Lokhandwala P, Tanaka K, Carlos H, Villa CH, Jones A, Atreya CD, and Reney A. Henderson RA. A prospective non-inferiority trial of pathogen reduced platelets compared to non-pathogen reduced platelets for correction of viscoelastic platelet function testing in cardiac surgery. Transfusion 2025 65(7):1293-1306.
  5. Marshall JN, Klein MN, Karki P, Promnares K, Setua S, Fan X, Buehler PW, Birukov K, Vasta GR, Fontaine MJ. Aberrant GPA expression and regulatory function of red blood cells in sickle cell disease. Blood Adv. 2024 9;8(7):1687-1697.

Dr Fontaine’s publications can be reviewed at the National Library of Medicine’s public database:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1ncHtM7O0ry/bibliography/public/