Emory
Muna Qayed
Dr. Qayed is Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University, and Director of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Dr. Qayed specializes in transplantation and cellular therapy for leukemia and in the treatment of graft versus host disease. Her clinical research focus is on the prevention and treatment of GVHD and developing cell-based therapies for application in oncology and BMT. She is currently co-chair of several trials including the use of mismatched unrelated donor options in transplantation for leukemia, the application of biomarkers to guide treatment of acute GVHD, and the use of blood biomarkers to risk stratify patients post-CART therapy and identify patients at high-risk for relapse who may benefit from consolidative transplantation.
Sunil Raikar
Sunil S. Raikar, MD, is a physician-scientist at Emory University with a training background in pediatric hematology/oncology. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Division of Hematology/Oncology/BMT at Emory University School of Medicine. His research focus is in cellular immunotherapy, with a primary interest in developing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) against hematological malignancies. He is a member of both the Leukemia/Lymphoma Program and Cell & Gene Therapy Program at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University. Dr. Raikar received his MD from Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 2009, where he also did his pediatric internship and residency. He completed his fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine in 2016. During his fellowship, he created novel chimeric antigen receptors using lamprey-derived variable lymphocyte receptors to target T-cell malignancies under the mentorship of H. Trent Spencer, Ph.D., Director of the Cell and Gene Therapy Program at Emory University. The overall goal of Dr. Raikar’s research is to develop novel cellular therapeutics for children with blood cancers by utilizing and enhancing the inherent anti-tumor properties of our own immune system. His research is centered on adapting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology to T-ALL and AML. He is exploring several different approaches to achieve his aims including the use of unique immune cells such as natural killer cells and gamma delta T cells. In 2020, he was awarded a prestigious NIH Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (K08) through the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Raikar also serves as a member of the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Research Program at the Winship Cancer Institute and is a faculty member in the Cancer Biology Graduate Program at Laney Graduate School of Emory University.
