Michel Sadelain, director of the Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy at Columbia University, has been awarded a Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science "for the discovery and development of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies, which have revolutionized treatment for blood cancers and solid tumors." Sadelain shares the prize with two other leading scientists in the field of cellular immunotherapy, Steven A. Rosenberg and Carl H. June.
CAR-T cell therapies modify a patient's own T cells to seek and destroy cancer cells. Since the FDA approved the first CAR-T therapy in 2017, such therapies have treated over 30,000 patients with blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphomas, and myelomas, leading to remission for many.
First envisioned in the early 1990s, CAR T-cell therapies targeting CD19, a protein expressed in leukemias and lymphomas, showed early promise in laboratory and preclinical studies conducted by Sadelain. In 2013, his team (then at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) reported the first significant therapeutic responses to CD19 CAR-T cells in adults with relapsed and refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
At Columbia, Sadelain and others at CICET are working to adapt CAR-T cell therapy for the treatment of a variety of solid tumors, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders.
The Tang Prize was established by Samuel Yin, chairman of the Ruentex Group, in 2012. Tang Prize laureates have made substantive contributions and generated a far-reaching impact on the world.
