Carl H. June

Carl H. June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy ,Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He maintains a research laboratory that studies various mechanisms of lymphocyte activation that relate to immune tolerance and adoptive immunotherapy for cancer and chronic infection. In 2011, his research team published findings detailing a new therapy in which patients with refractory and relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia were treated with genetically engineered versions of their own T cells. The June laboratory has been highly productive with >500 publications, and a google scholar h-index of 161 with >104,000 citations.

The impact of this work has become widely recognized as a major turning point that is delivering on the long-held promise of cancer gene therapy. The CAR T cells invented in the June laboratory were awarded “Breakthrough Therapy” status by the FDA for acute leukemia in children and adults in 2014 and for adults with lymphoma in 2018. The CAR T cells invented in the June laboratory were approved by the FDA for acute leukemia in 2017 and afterwards, for diffuse large B cell lymphoma. These accomplishments have been recognized by the White House on several occasions.

June has published more than 500 manuscripts and is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He has been awared the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (shared w J. Allison), the Novartis Prize in Immunology (shared w Z. Eshhar and S. Rosenberg), the Karl Landsteiner Memorial award, the Karnofsky Prize from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Albany Medical Prize, a lifetime achievement award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, The Lorraine Cross Sanford Health Award for life-changing breakthroughs and innovations in medical science and The Dan David Prize.