Immunotherapy Experts and Information for Media

Stephen Gottschalk, MD, St. Jude Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy chair, focuses his research on cancer immunotherapy, cell therapy and stem cell transplantation. He leads a team of clinical and scientific researchers conducting clinical studies with T cells engineered to target cancer cells, improving those that have been successful for patients with blood cancers, while also developing novel approaches for brain and solid tumors, which have yet to be treated effectively by cellular therapy.

Giedre Krenciute, PhD, St. Jude Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy is a leading investigator in the field of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells.  Her research focuses on understanding T-cell regulation to improve immunotherapeutic approaches for patient populations. Krenciute’s recent work has focused on developing and characterizing CARs specific to brain tumors, and she has made several key contributions to improving the understanding of CAR T cell function. By re-educating the immune system, this work may help improve tumor detection along with the persistence, efficacy and safety of immune effector cells to optimize immunotherapy for patients. 

Swati Naik, MBBS, Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy, studies cellular therapies for hematological malignancies and haplo-identical transplants for high-risk hematological malignancy patients. Naik also studies graft manipulation and incorporation of cellular therapies in the transplant platform to maximize the graft’s anti-leukemia effect and minimize infections.

Aimee Talleur, MD, St. Jude Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy, translates and implements cellular- and immuno-therapies as early phase clinical trials. Talleur’s research interests include cancer immunotherapy, adoptive cell therapy and clinical investigation of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies.

Brandon Triplett, MD, St. Jude deputy clinical director and Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy member, directs clinical trials that study blood cancers. Triplett’s research interests revolve around the use of hematopoietic cell transplant for high-risk leukemia patients, and the use of alternative mismatched donors (such as parents) in patients who lack a fully matched donor.

Paulina Velasquez, MD, St. Jude Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy, develops novel T-cell therapy platforms for pediatric hematological malignancies. Her team is pursuing projects that address antigen discovery, tumor immune evasion, persistence and efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and cell-cell interaction within the tumor microenvironment.