David M. Barrett

Dr. Barrett directs Translational Research at Tmunity, joining in 2020 after more than a decade in cell therapy research and clinical care at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Barrett first began collaborating with Tmunity founder Carl June in 2008 on the mouse models of CAR T cell endodomains, helping provide pre-clinical support for the construct that became known as Kymriah. As a physician-scientist, he cared for the first pediatric CAR T cell patients at CHOP while running an independent research lab. He has more than 60 publications on the preclinical development of CAR T cells (including diverse targets like GPC2 and CD38) and translational studies on clinical trial samples investigating toxicity and efficacy. Landmark studies include the first clinical report of two children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated with CAR T cells (NEJM), the first report of antigen escape from CAR T cells (NEJM, Cancer Discovery), the first report of the role of macrophages in CRS (Cytotherapy) and the character of quality starting material for manufacture (Science Translational Medicine).

Dr. Barrett first completed a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering in 1997 before going on to complete his combined MD/PhD (Molecular Biology and Genetics) at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2004. He moved to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for his residency in pediatrics, completed in 2007, and his fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology, which he finished in 2010. He was an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and an attending physician in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Division of Oncology, Transplant and Cellular Therapy Section until 2020.