Catapult Award Project Details
PHOTO CREDIT: ELENA ZHUKOVA –
LUCILE PACKARD FOUNDATION FOR CHILDREN’S HEALTH
Dr. Crystal Mackall – Stanford University
CureSearch Catapult Award: 2019-2022
Focus: Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma
Project Title: GD2-CAR T-cells for H3K27M diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas
Project Overview: Crystal Mackall, MD, will lead a novel trial examining GD2 CAR T-cell therapy as an approach to treat diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a highly aggressive brain tumor in children that has a 5-year survival rate of less than 1%.
Mackall is a professor of pediatrics and of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where she leads the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program, serves as associate director of the Stanford Cancer Institute and is the director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) at Stanford.
Project Update: As of May 2020, Dr. Mackall has made significant progress in bringing her GD2 CAR T-cell therapy trial forward to patients with DIPG. Dr. Mackall’s team has optimized the process for manufacturing the CAR T-cells and received approval from the FDA to proceed with the trial.