Katy Rezvani | AIChE

Katy Rezvani

Chair, Professor, Chief, Director
MD Anderson Cancer Center

 

Katy Rezvani, MD, PhD is Sally Cooper Murray Chair in Cancer Research, Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Section for Cellular Therapy, Director of Translational Research and Medical Director of the GMP Facility at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She has over 170 peer-reviewed publications related to immunotherapy, cellular therapy, and hematopoietic transplantation and is Specialty Chief Editor for cancer immunity and immunotherapy for Frontiers in Immunology. She is on the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant (CIBMTR) clinical trials advisory committee, a member of the BMT CTN Cell and Gene Therapy, a member of the Hematologic and Immunologic Gene & Cell Therapy Committee and serves on the ASH Task Force on Immunotherapies. Dr. Rezvani has served on the organizing committees of the Society for Natural Immunity, International Society of Cell Therapy, and Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASBMT and CIBMTR. Dr. Rezvani’s lab studies the role of natural killer (NK) cells in mediating immunity against hematologic malignancies as well as solid tumors, and seeks to understand the mechanisms of tumor-induced NK cell dysfunction. The goal of this research is to develop strategies to genetically engineer NK cells to enhance their in vivo anti-tumor activity and persistence. Findings from her lab have led to the approval and funding of Phase I/II studies of immunotherapy in patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, as well as the first-in-human clinical trial of off-the-shelf CAR-transduced cord blood NK cells in patients with relapsed/refractory lymphoid malignancies. Dr. Rezvani’s work is supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the American Cancer Society, and the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). She serves as Co-Leader of the Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Program of the MD Anderson Cancer Center Support Grant.