Dennis A. Gastineau ’74 has significantly contributed to the advancement of bone marrow transplants and cell therapy through his leadership
at the Mayo Clinic.
After graduating from Carleton as an economics major, Gastineau earned his MD at the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education and went on to work as a physician in the Department of Hematology and Oncology at Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota, providing medical care to thousands of patients. Gastineau served as chair of the hematology division at Mayo for eight years. He was a founding member of Mayo’s Bone Marrow Transplant Program and helped develop standard operating procedures that are still used today. Gastineau is a global expert in disorders leading to recurring blood clots and miscarriages and has contributed to more than 150 research publications. Additionally, he has taught classes with the Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences and provided mentorship to many colleagues.
For more than 20 years, Gastineau served as the medical director of Mayo’s Human Cellular Therapy Laboratory. He directed laboratory functions to support the Bone Marrow Transplant Program as well as the investigational applications of new cell therapy-based treatments. Gastineau was also responsible for the certification of other cellular manufacturing facilities. In 2014, he started the Nyberg Human Cellular Therapy Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, traveling between Minnesota and Arizona several times a month for three years to ensure that both laboratories were benefiting from his guidance.
Outside of Mayo, Gastineau has served as president of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy, the body that accredits Bone Marrow Transplant programs, as well as president for the Board of Directors of the Patient Advocate Foundation, an organization committed to helping patients overcome barriers to care. Gastineau and his wife, Alice Ann Rice Gastineau ’74, live in El Prado, New Mexico, where he provided medical guidance to local communities during the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic and remains committed to impacting social change through volunteering.