ACGT Summit 2023 brings scientific community together with focus on collaboration.

Greg Simon (Simonovation, LLC); Ira Mellman, PhD (Genetech); George Yancopoulos, MD, PhD (Regeneron)

Last month, Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy held its first in-person, day-long scientific gathering to bring together top scientists in the field of cancer cell and gene therapy. ACGT Summit 2023 was an invitation-only event that featured ACGT Research Fellows, ACGT Scientific Advisory Council members, biotech leaders, and other thought-leaders.

A curated agenda of speakers allowed the scientists to share ideas among their peers to help advance cell and gene therapy research and development – ultimately, to benefit patients diagnosed with difficult-to-treat cancers, especially those with solid tumors.

“The talent that was here was amazing,” said ACGT Research Fellow Brian Brown, PhD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “There were people who I looked up to my entire career. It was an intimate environment. The way they structured the event where it was light on presenting the science and heavy on conversation and interaction, it’s a great forum. ACGT is great.”

The ACGT Summit 2023 was viewed by everyone in attendance as a much-needed event, especially after three years without in-person gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This feels like being back to normal finally. It helps the science. It helps the exchange of ideas and collaboration,” said ACGT Research Fellow and Scientific Advisory Council member E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Everyone who attended the summit is committed to uncovering cures for cancer through cell and gene therapy science. It is thanks to ACGT that many of these scientists have funding to conduct crucial research. Please go to our site to donate and support these experts as they continue to research ways to empower our immune system to fight cancer.

Awards Luncheon honors Dr. Crystal Mackall, features award-winning author Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee.

Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy hosted the ACGT Awards Luncheon during the intermission of the ACGT Summit 2023. The Awards Luncheon offered attendees – donors and scientists – an opportunity to honor Crystal Mackall, MD, with The Edward Netter Leadership Award and hear from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, the keynote speaker.

Crystal Mackall, MD (Stanford University); Barbara Netter (ACGT Co-Founder); Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD (Keynote speaker)

The ACGT Awards Luncheon celebrated the non-profit organization’s 20th anniversary and ushered in a new decade. Dr. Mackall was recognized for her achievements in advancing cell and gene therapy, which include leading numerous groundbreaking clinical trials to treat children with sarcomas and brain cancers. Named for ACGT co-founder, Edward Netter, the award recognizes a researcher who has made unparalleled and groundbreaking contributions to the field of cell and gene therapy for cancer.

Read more about Dr. Mackall’s research on the ACGT website.

Dr. Mukherjee is a pioneering physician, oncologist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has redefined our public discourse on human health, medicine and science. He told the audience how cell and gene therapy is “crossing borders” and reaching cancer patients internationally, including a young boy in India who became the country’s first CAR T-cell therapy patient.

“This is India’s Emily Whitehead,” Dr. Mukherjee said, referencing the first child ever to receive CAR T-cell therapy and an 11-year survivor of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia thanks to CAR T-cell treatment.

ACGT funded the research that led to the CAR T-cell therapy given to Emily. Go to our website to read more about her story and how supporting ACGT can help others like Emily beat their cancer.

Donate today because a cancer-free future depends on it.

It’s not too late to join other heroes investing in ACGT’s research fellows. Your gift today supports the next class of ground-breaking scientists whose work will be funded by ACGT beginning this summer.

For more than 20 years, ACGT has led the way as the first public charity to fund research in cell and gene therapy for cancer – a woefully underfunded area with great potential for changing the way cancer is treated and cured. We are proud to have made significant contributions to the field through the early funding of the research that was instrumental in the FDA approving the first CAR T-cell therapy for blood cancer.

By making a gift today, you can join the next generation of scientists changing outcomes and redefining what is possible in the fight against cancer.

Make your donation by April 30 to ensure your gift counts as we fund our next grantees in brain and solid tumor research.

In the news

The latest from around the cancer cell and gene therapy research world.

• Crystal Mackall, MD, of Stanford University receives the ACGT Edward Netter Leadership Award.

• A new study from ACGT Scientific Advisory Council member Dr. Carl June’s lab offers a potential strategy to improve T-cell therapies in solid tumors.

• Iovance files first TIL therapy biologics license application (BLA) submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Lifileucel is a tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy to treat melanoma.

• St. Jude scientists, led by ACGT Research Fellow Stephen Gottschalk, MD, create more efficient CAR immunotherapies using a molecular anchor.