Carl H. June | |
|---|---|
_(June_cropped).JPG) June in 2015 | |
| Born | 1953 (age 70–71) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
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| Awards | Time 100 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Immunology |
| Institutions | |
Carl H. June (born 1953) is an American immunologist and oncologist. He is currently the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania.[1] He is most well known for his research on T cell therapies for the treatment of several forms of cancers. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[2]
June graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1975 and earned his medical degree in from the Baylor College of Medicine in 1979.[3] He spent his fourth year of medical school at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, studying immunology and malaria with Dr. Paul Henri-Lambert, and completed clinical training in internal medicine and medical oncology from 1979 to 1983 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. June conducted postdoctoral research in transplantation biology with E. Donnall Thomas and John Hansen at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle from 1983 to 1986. After completing his training, he returned to Bethesda, where he founded the Immune Cell Biology Program at the Naval Medical Research Center and was head of the department of immunology from 1990 to 1995. He was also a professor of medicine and of cell and molecular biology at the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences. In 1999 June joined the University of Pennsylvania as a professor of molecular and cellular engineering at the University of Pennsylvania's school of medicine and investigator at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, where he remains today. He is board-certified in internal medicine and oncology.[4]
June has been a pioneer in the field of immunotherapy, most widely known for the development of T-cell therapy for cancer.[5] In the 1980s, his lab supported research for the CD28 molecule as the major control switch for T cells.[6] A few years later, tested the ability to culture genetically modified CAR-Ts in humans, discovering the cells could engraft and persist in patients with HIV/AIDS for years.[5] His work led to the development and commercialization of tisagenlecleucel, the first FDA-approved cell therapy.
