Katy Rezvani

Katy is the Sally Cooper Murray Chair in Cancer Research, Professor of Medicine, Chief of Section for Cellular Therapy, Director of Translational Research, and Director of the GMP Facility at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She also serves as Executive Director of MD Anderson’s Adoptive Cell Therapy Platform. Her research laboratory focuses on the role of natural killer (NK) cells in mediating immunity against hematologic and solid tumors. The goal of this research is to understand mechanisms of tumor-induced NK cell dysfunction and to develop strategies to genetically engineer NK cells to enhance their in vivo anti-tumor activity and persistence. Findings from Katy’s lab have led to the approval and funding of several investigator-initiated clinical trials of NK cell 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. Katy completed her medical training at University College London, followed by Fellowships of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathologists of the United Kingdom, a Ph.D. in Immunology from Imperial College London, and postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health.