Scientific Advisory Board

Malcolm K Brenner is the Founding Director, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital and the Fayez Sarofim Distinguished Service Professor at BCM.

Dr. Brenner obtained his medical degrees and his PhD from the University of Cambridge, England. He moved to the USA in 1990, to head the Cell and Gene Therapy Program at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where his group performed the first human gene transfer studies outside of the NIH and the first anywhere to use marrow stem cells as the target. In 1998 he moved to his current position. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Brenner has devoted his career as a physician-scientist to the field of stem cell transplantation through the therapeutic use of T cell immunologic approaches and genetic engineering strategies, particularly in the treatment of cancer. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Therapy and as former President of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) and of the International Society for Cell Therapy. Dr. Brenner has earned widespread recognition for his scientific achievements and leadership in the field, including the ASGCT Outstanding Achievement Award, Human Gene Therapy’s Pioneer Award, the American Society of Hematology Mentor Award and the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Outstanding Achievement award.

For his contributions to the field, Dr. Brenner has been elected a member of the American Association of Physicians and of the National Academy of Medicine

Dr. Heimfeld is recently retired. Previously he was a founder and Executive Vice President responsible for Manufacturing and Research at Nohla Therapeutics, a Full Faculty Member at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Scientific Director for the Hutchís cGMP Cell Processing Facility at the Fred Hutch where all extensively manipulated experimental cell therapies were produced, and the Laboratory Director for the Cellular Therapy Laboratory at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance where all minimally manipulated cell components for treatment of patients at the Center are processed. His primary responsibilities were to ensure safety, quality, and effectiveness of each cell product, along with implementation of new technologies, translation of basic procedures into compliant clinical protocols, product development, process improvement, and regulatory compliance.

Dr. Heimfeld received his Ph.D. from UC Irvine, completed postdoctoral studies with Dr. Irv Weissman at Stanford before going into industry as a founding scientist at SyStemix and later at CellPro, Inc, the first company to develop an FDA approved device for CD34+ cell enrichment. Dr. Heimfeld is a Past-President of ISCT and continues to work with granting, regulatory, and other organizations to facilitate exchange of ideas and best practices in the rapidly evolving area of Cell Therapy.

Mitchell Kronenberg received a B.A. from Columbia University, a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (1983), and served on the faculty of the UCLA School of Medicine from 1986-1997. He joined the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in 1997, and has been the President there since 2003. The Institute has grown in accomplishment and reputation under his leadership. Dr. Kronenberg’s research interests include natural killer T cells, other innate lymphocytes such as MAIT cells and ILC, regulation of mucosal immunology and the microbiome and pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. In the NKT cell field, his laboratory has defined the unique differentiation steps these cells take in the thymus for differentiation and in the periphery for their homeostasis, how lipid antigens are presented by CD1d, the biochemical basis for NKT cell antigen recognition, the transcriptomic and epigenetic basis for NKT cell functions, and the role of NKT cells in anti-microbial responses. He has co-authored more than 350 publications, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists, recipient of an NIH MERIT award and is an Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Highly Cited Scientist. He is an advisor to a number of organizations including service as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for Basic Science, National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Sattva S Neelapu is a tenured Professor and Deputy Chair in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA. After graduating from medical school at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry, India, he moved to the United States for Internal Medicine residency at the Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, where he also served as a Chief Medical Resident. He completed his clinical fellowship in Medical Oncology and postdoctoral fellowship in tumor immunology and immunotherapy at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. As a physician-scientist at MD Anderson, his research is focused on clinical and translational development of novel immunotherapies for B-cell malignancies. His laboratory characterized some of the immunosuppressive mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment of B-cell malignancies, identified TCL1 as a novel shared tumor-associated antigen for B-cell lymphomas, and investigated novel targets for CAR T-cell therapy in lymphoma and myeloma. His laboratory research is supported by multiple peer-reviewed grants. His work on the pivotal clinical trial of axicabtagene ciloleucel CD19 CAR T-cell therapy in aggressive B-cell lymphomas led to its FDA approval as the first CAR T therapy for lymphoma. Dr. Neelapu has authored or co-authored over 200 publications. He is nationally and internationally recognized for his expertise on CAR T-cell therapy in lymphomas and management of toxicities associated with CAR T-cell therapy.

Robert Negrin is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Stanford University. His research work has focused on cellular immunology, in particular developing a more fundamental understanding of complex biological reactions such as graft versus host and graft versus tumor reactions in animal models and the clinic. He has authored over 250 original papers, 40 book chapters, and a book. He has received a number of awards, including a fellowship from the José Carreras Foundation. He is a recipient of the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award and is a member of the Association of American Physicians. Previously, he served as President of the International Society for Cellular Therapy and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He served as Associate Editor of the journal Blood and is the founding editor of Blood Advances. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and medical degree from Harvard University. He trained in medicine and hematology at Stanford University and joined the faculty in 1990.

Consultant Hematologist and Professor of Stem Cell Transplantation at King’s College Hospital and King’s College London

Antonio Pagliuca, Professor of Stem Cell Transplantation at King’s College London, is the Chief Medical and Scientific Adviser for the Anthony Nolan Charity and a trustee for Leukaemia UK. Past roles include President of BSBMT, Chair of the BMT CRG and National Clinical Lead for Regenerative Medicine, NHS England and most recently the Medical Director for King’s College Hospital, Networked Care Division.

As Transplant Director for 19 years to 2017, he lead King’s attainment to a Center of Excellence and one of the largest unrelated, cord, haplo-identical transplant and cellular therapy programs in the UK. In 2018, King’s became the first CAR-T center in the UK to treat both adult ALL and NHL. He has published widely on hematological malignancies, stem cell transplantation and infections in this patient group.