David Allan

David Allan

MD FRCPC

Scientist, Cancer Research

Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Associate Professor, Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry

Microbiology & Immunology

Medical Director, Stem Cells

Canadian Blood Services

Bio

Dr. Allan is a clinician-researcher with the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at TOH, the University of Ottawa and in the Regenerative Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology Programs at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He is a graduate of Queen's University and completed residency in Internal Medicine and Hematology and the University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario. As a post-MD research fellow, he studied the regenerative function of hematopoietic stem cells and he completed a clinical fellowship in blood and marrow transplantation at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal.

Research Goals and Interests

Ongoing research addresses the optimization of stem cell products used in hematopopietic stem cell transplantation and the translation of cell-based regenerative therapy into clinical practice. This includes analysis of how donor and stem cell product issues impact patients in Canada and research in knowledge synthesis of pre-clinical and clinical studies addressing the use of vascular progenitor cells, mesenchymal stromal cells, and extracellular vesicles in regenerative therapy.  Research in Dr. Allan’s program has been supported by CIHR, NSERC, Canadian Blood Services, The Ottawa Hospital Foundation and the Department of Medicine.

Research activities focus on hematopoietic stem cell donation, transplantation and biology and on translational research in cell-based regenerative therapy. My program has attracted medical trainees at all levels, graduate students and postgraduate fellows. We are working to bridge the gap between discoveries in the lab and making a difference for patients. 


News


Publications

A systematic review of published clinical studies using cell-derived extracellular vesicles: A focus on efficacy in COVID-19 and wound healing

2026-01-01 Go to publication

CAR-NK cells to treat patients with cancer: a systematic scoping review of published studies and registered clinical trials

2025-10-01 Go to publication

The emerging promise of induced pluripotent stem cells in clinical studies: a systematic scoping review of the literature and registered clinical trials

2025-09-01 Go to publication

Real-World Selection of Patients for Allogeneic HCT at a Single Centre: Lack of a Suitable Donor and Other Reasons for Not Proceeding

2025-08-01 Go to publication

Use of non‐qualifying umbilical cord blood units to support research and quality assurance by the Canadian Blood Services Cord Blood Bank

2025-05-01 Go to publication

Related Research at The Ottawa Hospital