Michel Sadelain Awarded Tang Prize

Michel Sadelain, director of the Columbia Institute for Cell Engineering and Therapy (CICET) at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, has been awarded the Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science “for the discovery and development of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies, which have revolutionized treatment for blood cancers and solid tumors.” Sadelain shares the prize with two other leading scientists in the field of cellular immunotherapy, Steven A. Rosenberg of the National Cancer Institute and Carl H. June of the University of Pennsylvania. The three scientists received the prize Sept. 18 at a ceremony in Taipei, Taiwan.

CAR-T cell therapies modify a patient’s own T cells to seek and destroy cancer cells. Since the FDA approved the first CAR-T therapy in 2017,  such therapies have treated over 30,000 patients with blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphomas, and myelomas, leading to remission for many.

First envisioned in the early 1990s, CAR T-cell therapies targeting CD19, a protein expressed in leukemias and lymphomas, showed early promise in laboratory and preclinical studies conducted by Sadelain. In 2013, his team (then at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) reported the first significant therapeutic responses to CD19 CAR-T cells in adults with relapsed and refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

During his acceptance speech, Sadelain recalled that the idea of targeting CD19 with CAR T cells in the 1990s was rejected by most in academia and industry and that the only way to advance the concept was to “do it yourself.” He expressed gratitude to the brave researchers who "risked their careers when this work was labelled ‘science fiction.'”

At Columbia, Sadelain and others at CICET are working to adapt CAR-T cell therapy for the treatment of a variety of solid tumors, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders.