Cassian Yee

Cassian Yee is a Professor in the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Immunology, Co-Director of the Adoptive Cellular Therapy Platform and Director of Solid Tumor Cell Therapy at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. He received his medical training in Canada, residency at Stanford, and fellowship at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigators, recipient of the Clinical Translational Scientist Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, CPRIT Clinical Investigator award, Co-Leader of the Stand Up to Cancer- American Association for Cancer Research / Cancer Research Institute Immunotherapy Dream Team, and Member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Over the last 20+ years, Dr. Yee has pioneered a form of adoptive cell therapy, known as Endogenous T Cell (ETC) therapy, using peripheral blood to generate antigen-specific memory T cells for the treatment of patients with cancer. His lab has performed several seminal first-in-human studies using a well-defined, uniform population of ex vivo expanded antigen-specific T cells to delineate the requirements for effective immune-based therapies He is the author of publications in top-tier journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Science, Nature Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology and Journal of Experimental Medicine. He holds international patents and seeks to extend immunotherapy-based cancer treatments globally with collaborators. His work converges multidisciplinary approaches in bioengineering, metabolism, molecular immunology, and cellular biology to develop effective immunotherapy strategies and adoptive cellular therapy, in particular, as a treatment modality for patients with malignant diseases.