Session Chair Profile

Jeffrey Bluestone

Biography

Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD is CEO and President, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor at UCSF. A leading researcher in immune tolerance and T-cell activation, he has developed multiple immunotherapies including the first FDA-approved drug targeting T-cell co-stimulation in autoimmune disease and organ transplantation, and CTLA-4 antagonist drugs approved to treat metastatic melanoma. As an academic leader on a national and international scale he was founding director of the Immune Tolerance Network, the largest NIH-funded multicenter clinical immunology research program testing novel immunotherapies in transplantation, autoimmunity, and asthma/allergy. As former UCSF Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, and former Director of the UCSF Diabetes Center, he has authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications and received numerous awards including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and as member of Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel.

Speaker Profile

Hyam “Hy” Levitsky

Biography

Hyam (“Hy”) Levitsky is our Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and joined Juno in May 2015. Prior to joining Juno, Dr. Levitsky held the position of Head of Cancer Immunology Experimental Medicine at Roche Pharma Research and Development in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to that, Levitsky served as a Professor of Oncology, Medicine and Urology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and was also an active staff member in Oncology and Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Levitsky received a B.S. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science and an M.D. from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He trained in Medical Oncology as a Senior Clinical Fellow at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, rising to full Professor in 2001, and taught in the School of Medicine until 2011. His areas of expertise include Oncology, Immunology, Hematologic Malignances / Bone Marrow Transplantation (serving as Scientific Director of the George Santos Bone Marrow Transplant Program), Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and Pathobiology. Dr. Levitsky is also a founding Executive Committee member of the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium of the Cancer Research Institute. He was a Stohlman Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America (LLS) and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). He was a founding member of MIATA (Minimal Information About T cell Assays), advises the FDA on cancer immunotherapy issues and serves on the External Scientific Advisory Board of the Pasteur Institute’s Center for Human Immunology, has consulted on a number of industry scientific advisory boards and contributes and provides editorial support to several prestigious cancer, immunology, scientific and medical publications. Dr. Levitsky holds several patents.

Speaker Profile

Crystal L. Mackall

Biography

Crystal L Mackall MD is Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at Stanford University. She serves as Associate Director of Stanford Cancer Institute, Leader of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford. Her group was among the first to demonstrate impressive activity of CD19-CAR in pediatric leukemia and her laboratory identified T cell exhaustion as a major factor limiting the efficacy of this novel class of therapeutics. During a 26 year tenure at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Mackall led numerous cutting edge clinical trials that were characterized by incorporation of deep biologic endpoints that furthered our understanding of fundamental principles of human immunology. She has published over 150 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and serves in numerous leadership positions, including co-Leader of the StandUp2Cancer Pediatric Dream Team. She is Board Certified in Pediatrics and Internal Medicine.