Trusted advisors with deep expertise

Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and a Staff Physician at Columbia University Medical Center. He is the author of “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,” winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction, “The Laws of Medicine,” and “The Gene: An Intimate History.” Siddhartha’s laboratory seeks to understand the biology of blood development, with a special interest in malignant and premalignant blood diseases, and a goal of developing novel therapeutic strategies. Siddhartha trained as a hematologist and oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of Harvard Medical School and was on the staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He obtained a DPhil in immunology from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and an MD from Harvard Medical School.

The research of Hans-Peter Kiem, MD, PhD has focused on stem cell and transplantation biology, cell and gene therapy, and the development and use of novel gene-editing technologies. The overall goal has been the development of improved treatment approaches for patients with genetic and infectious diseases and cancer, in particular, hematologic malignancies. He is a clinically active hematologist/oncologist seeing patients on the marrow transplant, immunotherapy, and MDS/AML service. Hans-Peter has extensive experience training students and postdoctoral fellows and has mentored more than 50 trainees in his lab over the past 20 years. Many of his trainees now hold tenured faculty positions in the U.S. and Germany. Hans-Peter has been the Sponsor of four clinical gene therapy studies (HIV, glioblastoma, and Fanconi anemia) and he is the PI or Co-PI of many R01 or Program Project grants. Hans-Peter has also served on the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) for five years, the last year as Chair, and served as the Chair of the Stem Cell Committees for both the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) and the American Society of Hematology.

Hans-Peter received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Ulm in Germany and then joined Dr. Karl Blume’s research group at Stanford University as a research fellow, working with Drs. Sklar and Cleary to study molecular abnormalities and minimal residual in patients with lymphoma (Oncogene 1990; Blood 1991) and with Drs. Weissman and Negrin on the use of a novel immunodeficient mouse model for lymphoma (J. Exp. Med. 1991). After a two-year fellowship at Stanford, Hans-Peter went on to complete his residency in Internal Medicine and his Physician/Scientist training at Vanderbilt University. He joined the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 1992, where he completed his clinical fellowship in Oncology.

Saar Gill, MD, PhD, is the Scientific Co-Director, Cell Therapy and Transplant Program and Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology-Oncology) at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Gill obtained his medical degree and PhD in immunology from the University of Melbourne, and trained in hematology at St Vincent’s Hospital, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. In 2008 he moved to the United States, first to pursue a post-doctoral fellowship in cellular therapy at Stanford University, and then in 2011 to the University of Pennsylvania where he is now an associate professor of medicine. Dr. Gill’s clinical practice is in leukaemia and bone marrow transplantation. He has led clinical trials of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells for chronic and acute leukemias. Dr. Gill’s research laboratory focuses on the interface between adoptive cellular therapy and genetic engineering, with a strong translational focus. Dr. Gill has authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers and is listed as an inventor on over 60 patents. He has spun out two biotechnology companies that currently employ over 100 people in Philadelphia. Dr. Gill’s past trainees hold independent academic appointments at the University of Melbourne, the Israel Institute of Technology, Mayo Clinic, Washington University, and at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Dr. Pietro Genovese, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Principal Investigator at the Gene Therapy Program of Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dr. Genovese was previously a Project Leader at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, having completed his post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Molecular and Cell Biology of Gene Transfer with Professor Luigi Naldini in Italy. In the last 15 years, his research has focused on developing genome editing tools that improve safety and efficacy of adoptive immunotherapy and promoting safer applications of human hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapy.

His current efforts are aimed to move these advanced genetic engineering strategies towards an effective therapeutic treatment for inherited and acquired hematologic diseases. Dr. Genovese is the author of several high-profile publications, coinventor of more than 10 patents on gene editing technology, and the recipient of several awards including the Young Investigator Award from the ESGCT society in 2016.

Malcolm K Brenner, MD, PhD 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.

Malcolm 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, Malcolm 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. His interests now include combining oncolytic virotherapy with cellular immunotherapy. 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 and Gene Therapy. Malcolm 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, Malcolm has been elected a member of the American Association of Physicians and of the National Academy of Medicine