Raj K. Puri

Dr. Puri joined Iovance in March 2022. He has decades of experience with the evaluation and regulation of advanced therapies, including cell and gene therapy, cancer vaccines and cellular immunotherapy. Dr. Puri previously spent 33 years working at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including more than 19 years as the Director of the Division of Cellular and Gene Therapies (DCGT) in the Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). He also participated and supervised development of FDA policies and guidance documents for advanced therapies. Dr. Puri was also a Chief of the Tumor Vaccines and Biotechnology Branch within DCGT and oversaw research programs of 13 principal investigators. As a Principal Investigator and throughout his career, Dr. Puri has led cancer research and discovery of novel immunotherapies. He has published more than 300 research and review articles, and participated in more than 220 speaking engagements at scientific, government, industry and professional societies. Dr. Puri has been granted numerous patents on his discoveries and many of his patents are licensed for further developments. He has established seven Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) with different companies to develop his discoveries for cancer therapy. He has received numerous awards including the FDA Award of Merit, FDA CBER’s Scientific Achievement Award, FDA Commissioner’s Special Citations and the SITC Collaborator Award. Dr. Puri trained at the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Rosenberg on adoptive immunotherapy approaches for cancer. Dr. Puri was also trained at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He received an M.D. from the University of Juarez Medical School Institute of Biosciences and a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India.