Dean Lee

Company: Nationwide Children's Hospital

Job title: Director, Cellular Therapy and Cancer Immunotherapy

Bio:

Dr. Lee is Professor of Pediatrics and DiMarco Family Endowed Chair in Cell Based Therapy. He is the founding Director of the Cellular Therapy and Cancer Immunotherapy Program, a joint program between Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital. Dr. Lee’s clinical and translational research centers around the development of NK cell therapy for cancer, enabled by observations which identified a crucial role for IL-21 and STAT3 signaling in NK cell function and proliferation. This in turn led to a field-leading approach for generating NK cells as a cancer therapeutic. NK cells expanded with this approach have been infused into adult and pediatric patients with leukemia, brain tumors, and solid tumors in investigator-initiated Phase I trials under Investigational New Drug approval by the FDA. Dr. Lee is chair of the Cellular Therapy Strategy Group for the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium, member of the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, and member of the Cell Therapy Steering Committee for the Children’s Oncology Group. His work in immunotherapy and cellular therapy has led to numerous government and foundation research grants, patents, and commercial licenses. Dr. Lee practices clinically in the area of bone marrow transplantation, with a particular interest in haplotransplantation and graft engineering for myeloid malignancies.