SEMINAR ; Dr Maria THEMELI - Generation of functionally mature TCR/CAR-T cells from engineered induced pluripotent stem cells

Dr Themeli studied Medicine in the University of Patras in Greece. After graduating, she did her PhD at the Bone Marrow Transplantation laboratory in the University of Patras Medical School under the supervision of Prof. Alexandros Spyridonidis. During this period she studied the long-term biological consequences of GvHD in epithelial tissues after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. After completing her PhD training Themeli joined the lab of Dr Michel Sadelain at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. There she trained in the design and development of chimeric antigen receptor-engineered T cells (CAR T) and reported for the first time the use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) as an off-the-shelf source of therapeutic CAR T cells. In 2015 Themeli received a Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship from the European Commission and joined the department of Hematology at Amsterdam UMC-location VUmc, where in 2017 she became Assistant Professor. Themeli has received several prestigious fellowships and awards such as: Clinical Scholars in Biomedical Research Fellowship at MSKCC, NYSCF Druckenmiller fellowship, ASH/EHA TRTH Career development award, Marie Curie individual fellowship from the European Commission and Innovation award from Argo-the Brussels Hellenic Network.