Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has announced that investigator Isabelle Rivière has been appointed Director of the newly created Cell Therapy and Cell Engineering Facility (CTCEF).
CTCEF will merge the cell and vaccine production activities currently handled by the Adoptive Immune Cell Therapy Facility, the Immunobiology Facility, and the Gene Transfer and Somatic Cell Engineering Facility, which Dr. Rivière has led as co-director since joining the Memorial Sloan-Kettering faculty in 1998.
The new laboratory was created to provide support to Memorial Sloan-Kettering investigators who are conducting early-stage clinical trials that require biological materials for immunotherapies, vaccines, and stem-cell-based therapies. Activities to be conducted within CTCEF include the handling of genetically engineered and nongenetically engineered cells from both patients and donors, the manufacture of a variety of vectors (tiny molecules that are used to carry genetic material inside cells), and the purification of cell cultures. The facility is designed to meet all manufacturing standards required by the US Food and Drug Administration to ensure patient safety.
"The establishment of this multifaceted, state-of-the-art laboratory will expand the Center's ability to conduct innovative translational research and will place Memorial Sloan-Kettering among the leading cell therapy and cell engineering centers in the country," Dr. Rivière said.
Dr. Rivière received her PhD degree in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Paris, in France. She completed postdoctoral research fellowships at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine.
