Crystal Mackall

Crystal Mackall is the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor at Stanford University, holding dual appointments as Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine. She serves as Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford, and Leader of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program at the Stanford Cancer Institute.

• Member, Bio-X
• Member, Maternal & Child Health Research Institute
• Member, National Academy of Medicine

Her research focuses on advancing T cell-based immunotherapies for pediatric and adult cancers through:

• Basic immunology studies of T cell exhaustion
• Development of novel CAR T-cell platforms
• Targeting tumor microenvironment barriers
• Synthetic biology applications for cell engineering

Key clinical trials include GD2-CAR for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (NCT04196413) and CD22-CAR as salvage therapy for CAR19-resistant leukemias. Her work has demonstrated regional CNS delivery superiority and developed inducible CAR platforms.

Scientific honors include:

• Lloyd Old Award (2025)
• Edward Netter Leadership Award (2023)
• Nobility in Science Award (2022)
• Richard V. Smalley Award (2021)

She has advised numerous doctoral and postdoctoral researchers while leading industry partnerships with co-founded companies like Lyell Immunopharma and ACCESSforKIDS, a nonprofit for pediatric cell therapy commercialization.