Maria Themeli PhD- CCA

Dr. Themeli studies cancer-fighting T cells, which may be genetically engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or otherwise modified to augment their potency and persistence. She obtained her MD and PhD degrees from the University of Patras Medical School in Greece. During her postdoctoral studies, at MSKCC in Dr. Michel Sadelain’s lab, she focused her efforts on the use of induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) to obtain mature, functional, antigen-specific T cells for cancer immunotherapy. She now runs her own research group at VUmc Cancer Center Amsterdam focusing on developing CAR-T cell therapies for hematologic malignancies and further improving the generation of “off the shelf”, antigen-specific stem cell-derived T lymphocytes with optimized features.

Dr Katy Rezvani, MD

Dr. Katy Rezvani was recruited to MD Anderson in 2012 as Professor of Medicine, Director of Translational Research and Medical Director of the GMP Facility. She was appointed Chief of the Section for Cellular Therapy in the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation in 2017. She is the Principal Investigator on numerous grants and trials. Dr. Rezvani is Specialty Chief Editor for the section of Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy for Frontiers in Immunology and an Associate Editor for Cytotherapy.  She has over 150 peer-reviewed publications related to Immunotherapy, Cellular Therapy and Hematology/Oncology and hematopoietic transplantation. She is on the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant (CIBMTR) clinical trials advisory committee, a member of the BMT CTN Cell and Gene Therapy and is on the organizing committees of the International Society of Cellular Therapy meeting and the Society for Natural Immunity NK 2018 meeting. Dr. Rezvani has served on the ZRG1 F10A (Physiology and Pathobiology of Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems) NIH Study Section and is an ad hoc reviewer for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, Cancer research UK, The Medical Research Council UK, the Dutch Cancer Society and the Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund. Dr. Rezvani has an active research laboratory program in transplantation immunology where the focus of her research group is to study the role of natural killer cells (NK) cells in mediating immunity against hematologic disorders such as acute leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes as well as solid tumors, and to understand the mechanisms of tumor-induced NK cell dysfunction. The goal of these studies is to develop strategies to enhance NK cell effector function against tumors by genetically engineering the cells to enhance their in vivo antileukemic activity and persistence. Dr. Rezvani’s research interests also involve using cytotoxic T cells (CTL) to treat viral and malignant diseases. She is the recipient of multiple grants and awards, including two RO1s from the National Cancer Institute, two Leukemia Lymphoma Society Translational Research Program, a Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society and a number of foundation awards. Her laboratory program in transplant immunology has led to the approval and funding of a number of Phase I/II studies of immunotherapy in patients with hematologic malignancies as well as solid tumors such as glioblastoma. 

Luis Álvarez-Vallina

Luis Álvarez-Vallina attended Medical School at Oviedo University and completed a residency in Immunology at the Clínica Puerta de Hierro (Madrid). Luis earned a PhD in Immunology from the Autónoma University of Madrid and spent four years at the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering (Cambridge, UK). His work contributed to the first generation of CARs with costimulatory domains. Currently, he is Associate Professor at Aarhus University (Denmark) where he leads the Immunotherapy and Cell Engineering group. He is also heading the Cancer Immunotherapy Unit at Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, and Director Immunology Chair Merck- Francisco de Vitoria University (Spain). His experience includes generation of multispecific antibodies, and the development of cancer immunotherapy strategies based on the adoptive transfer of genetically engineered cells secreting bispecific antibodies.

Peter Emtage

Dr. Emtage currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer at Cell Design Labs, Inc. (CDL). Prior to joining CDL, he was Vice President of Synthetic Immunology at Intrexon Corporation and was Vice President of Immune Mediated Therapy in the Oncology Innovative Medicines group at Medimmune. At Medimmune, Dr. Emtage designed and implemented a comprehensive immune therapy cancer strategy. He has over sixteen years of biologics development experience in the fields of oncology, autoimmunity, infectious diseases, and inflammation. Dr. Emtage holds a B.S. and M.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Guelph and received his Ph.D. in Molecular Virology, Immunology and Inflammation at McMaster University. At the beginning of his career, he also was a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health and held roles at Aventis Pasteur and Harvard Medical School.

Stefano Baila

Stefano Baila received his PhD in 2007 based upon translational research and development of gene therapies for hemophilia at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  Since that time he has been actively involved in the process development and manufacturing of advanced therapeutic medicinal products through business development and strategic marketing roles at Areta International, a CDMO, and by leading field implementation and commercialization activities for the cell processing unit of Terumo BCT. Stefano also worked as Industrialization Manager at Celyad where he led process development and automation efforts for CAR-T therapeutics. Now he serves as Director of Operation and Business Development for Anemocyte.

Professor Elmar Jaeckel

Dr Ignacio Anegon

Francois Meyer

Dr Sophie Papa

Sophie Papa is a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Medical Oncologist at King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Sophie undertook her medical training at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. She completed a PhD in cancer immunotherapy from King’s College London in 2011. She is a clinical academic with research interests in the field of immune-oncology. Her research interests include developing approaches to optimise personalised cell based immune therapies for solid tumour oncology and understanding adverse immune reactions triggered by checkpoint inhibitor therapy. She is also interested in the delivery of complex cell therapy trials for solid tumour indications. Sophie is a medical oncologist with a practice in malignant melanoma and is the lead for skin cancer research at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. 

Lynsey Whilding

Dr Lynsey Whilding is a postdoctoral research associate with nearly 10 years experience in cell and gene therapy. She currently works in the “CAR Mechanics” research group at King’s College London and is a consultant for the biotechnology company Leucid Bio. Lynsey undertook a PhD in viral gene therapy at the Barts Cancer Institute within Queen Mary University from 2008-2012. She then started a research position at Imperial College and moved to King’s College London in 2014 to continue developing chimeric antigen receptor T-cells for the treatment of solid tumours. Research has included pre-clinical testing of T4 CAR T-cells that target the extended ErbB family and a CAR targeting the integrin alpha v beta 6. A particular focus is on pancreatic cancer although the group investigates a number of CAR target antigens across multiple diseases and is running a Phase I clinical trial in patients with head and neck cancer, involving the intra-tumoural delivery of ErbB-targeted “T4” autologous T-cells.