Announcing the winner of the 2025 Canadian Blood Services Dana Devine Award

Dr. Yoelys Cruz-Leal is the winner of the 2025 Canadian Blood Services Dana Devine Award. Dr. Cruz-Leal has been working in the blood transfusion field in Canada for nine years now and is a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Canadian Blood Services senior scientist, Dr. Alan Lazarus.

“I think with the Dana Devine name attached to the award, someone who has contributed a lot, there is a responsibility that comes with it,” Dr. Cruz-Leal says. “You need to try and be at that level. To be a model and inspiration for other students, to be someone that people respect, and to make your contribution to the field.”

The focus of Dr. Cruz-Leal’s work is the mechanism of how antibodies can avoid the immune response to a foreign antigen, specifically in a pregnant woman who has a different set of antigens than her unborn child. This incompatibility can trigger an antibody immune response which could negatively affect the fetus in future pregnancies. The current treatment relies on blood from donors, but Dr. Cruz-Leal is working to discover exactly how this works so that a synthetic therapy could be developed.

“Working in Dr. Alan Lazarus’ lab has been one of the best things to happen to me. Alan is always happy to help, always happy to support me and everyone that works with him. His door is always open,” Dr. Cruz-Leal says. “I wouldn’t have reached this point in my career without his support.”

Winning this award was particularly meaningful for Dr. Cruz-Leal because it showed that her Canadian colleagues and peers recognized the work she has been doing after having left Cuba to pursue her career in Canada. 

“For me, it was like I had to start from the beginning. I already had a career in my home country. I had been working on different projects in the industry and in academia,” Dr. Cruz-Leal says. “But when you move you have to start from the beginning. I had to demonstrate that I was able to do the work in Canada.” 

Dr. Cruz-Leal hopes this award will provide her with opportunities to continue doing the work that she is passionate about. 

“I would love to stay at Canadian Blood Services and continue my career as a scientist because the research is always focused on improving the quality and efficiency of the important products that Canadian Blood Services distributes.” 

Dr. Cruz-Leal has also received research funding through Canadian Blood Services Postdoctoral Fellowship Program from January 2018 to July 2022 to support this research. 

Canadian Blood Services – Driving world-class innovation 

Through discovery, development and applied research, Canadian Blood Services drives world-class innovation in blood transfusion, cellular therapy and transplantation—bringing clarity and insight to an increasingly complex healthcare future. Our dedicated research team and extended network of partners engage in exploratory and applied research to create new knowledge, inform and enhance best practices, contribute to the development of new services and technologies, and build capacity through training and collaboration. Find out more about our research impact.  

The opinions reflected in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Canadian Blood Services nor do they reflect the views of Health Canada or any other funding agency.