Christine Brown

Christine Brown, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Departments of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Immuno-Oncology at City of Hope. As Deputy Director of the T Cell Therapeutics Research Laboratory and holder of the Heritage Provider Network Professor in Immunotherapy chair, she leads preclinical and clinical programs in CAR T-cell therapy for hematological and solid tumors.

• Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Biology (UC Berkeley, 1998)
• B.Sc., Combined Science with Biochemistry emphasis (Santa Clara University, 1990)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Leukemia & Lymphoma Scholar (Pennsylvania State University)

Her research focuses on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for cancer, particularly brain tumors like glioblastoma. Key areas include CAR design optimization, T cell manufacturing, immunological assays, and animal models. She investigates L1-CAM and IL13Rα2 as tumor antigens while addressing challenges in T cell persistence, antigen specificity, and tumor microenvironment interactions.

Recent publications highlight CAR T-cell applications in ovarian cancer, gliomas, and breast cancer brain metastasis, with emphasis on co-stimulatory signaling, mechanoporation delivery, and mathematical modeling of T cell dynamics. Her work is supported by grants including R01 FD005129 and California Institute for Regenerative Medicine funding.

• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship (1998)
• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar (2000)
• City of Hope Values in Action Award (2012)
• Lymphoma SPORE Developmental Research Award (2013)

She leads multifunctional teams translating immunotherapies to clinical trials, participates in regulatory processes, and contributes to consortia like the Caltech/UCLA/CHLA/COH Engineered Immunity group. Her lab's work spans basic discovery, preclinical validation, and first-in-human trials.