معرفی
Cliona M Rooney is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics-Hem-Onc Cell & Gene at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. She holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Cambridge and has conducted postdoctoral work at the University of Birmingham and Yale University. Her research focuses on virus-specific T-cell therapies for viral diseases and EBV-associated malignancies. She has pioneered strategies to enhance T-cell efficacy in immunocompromised patients, including engineering T cells resistant to tumor microenvironment suppression and developing a suicide gene for safety. She directs the Translational Research Laboratories at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy and the BCM graduate program in Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine.
- Education: Ph.D. (Immunology, University of Cambridge, 1981), B.Sc. (University of East Anglia, 1978)
- Advanced Training: Yale University School of Medicine (1987), University of Birmingham (1985), University of Bristol (1984)
Her research interests include cellular immunotherapy, adoptive T-cell transfer, and overcoming immunosuppression in cancer and post-transplant settings. Over 50+ publications highlight her work on EBV-specific T cells, cytokine engineering, and oncolytic virotherapy. She has trained 14 graduate students, 29 postdoctoral fellows, and 13 clinical fellows. Current projects focus on CAR T-cell engineering, regulatory T-cell biology, and clinical trials of immunotherapies.
Key contributions include the inducible caspase 9 suicide gene for T-cell safety and the development of multivirus-specific T-cell therapies. Her lab operates in a GMP facility for cell therapy manufacturing, emphasizing translational research from bench to bedside.
