Malcolm K. Brenner is a British clinical scientist working mostly in the field of gene therapy and immunotherapy applied to malignancy. In 2016, Dr. Brenner was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, [1] part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
He was educated at Forest School, Walthamstow and Emmanuel College, Cambridge England. He received his medical degree and subsequent Ph.D. from Cambridge University, England. In the 1980s, he was a Lecturer in Hematology at Royal Free Hospital in London. In 1990, he left the UK to work in St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis as the director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Division.
There, he conducted one of the first human gene therapy studies when he transduced bone marrow stem cells with a retroviral vector with the intention of marking them to study their survival and fate. This seminal study demonstrated that engrafted bone marrow stem cells contribute to long-term hematopoiesis and also that contaminating tumor cells in autografts can cause relapse. In 1994, he became the director of St. Jude's Cell and Gene Therapy Program.
The move in 1994 reflected his growing interest in the genetic-modification of T-cells for cancer therapy, cancer vaccines and monoclonal antibodies. [2]
He was President of the International Society for Cellular Therapy and President of the American Society of Gene Therapy in 2002–2003. He was appointed Editor in Chief of the journal Molecular Therapy in 2009. [3]
Dr. Brenner was appointed Director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy. Dr. Brenner's is a full-time faculty member for the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Texas Children's Cancer Center and the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. [4] In 2017, Dr. Brenner was awarded the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Outstanding Achievement Award, [5] and in 2020 the Career Achievement Award in Cell & Gene Therapy from the International Society of Cell and Gene Therapy. [6]
Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood in order to replicate inside of a patient and to produce additional normal blood cells. It may be autologous, allogeneic or syngeneic.
Edward Donnall "Don" Thomas was an American physician, professor emeritus at the University of Washington, and director emeritus of the clinical research division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. In 1990 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joseph E. Murray for the development of cell and organ transplantation. Thomas and his wife and research partner Dottie Thomas developed bone marrow transplantation as a treatment for leukemia.
Cell therapy is a therapy in which viable cells are injected, grafted or implanted into a patient in order to effectuate a medicinal effect, for example, by transplanting T-cells capable of fighting cancer cells via cell-mediated immunity in the course of immunotherapy, or grafting stem cells to regenerate diseased tissues.
Donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) or buffy coat infusion is a form of adoptive immunotherapy used after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Hans Dieter Ochs, is an immunologist and pediatrician. He is Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle.
Childhood leukemia is leukemia that occurs in a child and is a type of childhood cancer. Childhood leukemia is the most common childhood cancer, accounting for 29% of cancers in children aged 0–14 in 2018. There are multiple forms of leukemia that occur in children, the most common being acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) followed by acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Survival rates vary depending on the type of leukemia, but may be as high as 90% in ALL.
Larry Kwak is an American cancer researcher who works at City of Hope in Duarte, California and is the Director of the Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center at City of Hope. Dr. Kwak formerly worked at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was included on Time's list of 2010's most influential people.
Georges Mathé was a French oncologist and immunologist. In November 1958, he performed the first successful allogeneic bone marrow transplant ever performed on unrelated human beings.
Molecular oncology is an interdisciplinary medical specialty at the interface of medicinal chemistry and oncology that refers to the investigation of the chemistry of cancer and tumors at the molecular scale. Also the development and application of molecularly targeted therapies.
King Fahad Specialist Hospital-Dammam (KFSHD) is a district general hospital in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia.
Marcel R.M. van den Brink is a Dutch oncologist and researcher known for his research in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for cancer patients.
The Center for Cell and Gene Therapy is a translational research institute within Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital and Houston Methodist Hospital, all of which are located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. The center's mission is to develop novel therapies for a range of diseases through collaboration between basic research laboratories and clinical departments. The center was founded by Dr. Malcolm K. Brenner in 1998 and includes six major parts. The current director is Dr. Helen E. Heslop, physician-scientist who specializes in translational research.
Helen Elisabeth Heslop is a physician-scientist from New Zealand whose clinical interests are in hematopoietic stem cell transplants. Heslop’s research focuses on immunotherapy to treat viral infections, post transplant and hematologic malignancies. She is a professor in the Department of Medicine and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and the director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital and Houston Methodist Hospital. She is also the Dan L. Duncan Chair and the associate director of clinical research at the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center.
Steven Z. Pavletic is a Croatian-American physician and researcher in hematology and oncology known for his role in developing consensus guidelines for clinical trials in chronic Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).
Roland Mertelsmann is a German hematologist and oncologist. He was a professor at the Freiburg University Medical Center, Department of Internal Medicine I (Oncology/Hematology). Mertelsmann is known for his scientific works in the fields of hematology, oncology, gene therapy and stem cell transplantation.
David G. Maloney is an oncologist and researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington who specializes in developing targeted immunotherapies for the treatment of blood cancers.
Carl H. June is an American immunologist and oncologist. He is currently the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. He is most well known for his research on T cell therapies for the treatment of several forms of cancers. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
Shimon Slavin is an Israeli professor of medicine. Slavin pioneered the use of immunotherapy mediated by allogeneic donor lymphocytes and innovative methods for stem cell transplantation for the cure of hematological malignancies and solid tumors, and using hematopoietic stem cells for induction of transplantation tolerance to bone marrow and donor allografts.
Martin Körbling is a German-American internist and hematologist, university professor, medical researcher and pioneer of blood stem cell transplantation.
Maria Grazia Roncarolo is an Italian pediatrician who is currently George D. Smith Professor in Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. She is also the Director of the Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine along with Irving Weissman and Michael Longaker and the Director for Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine at Stanford.