St. Jude
Swati Naik
Dr. Naik is a hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and cellular therapy physician at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where she co-directs the clinical cell therapy program. Her research interests include evaluating novel cellular therapies in early phase clinical trials, with a focus on AML. She also has expertise in graft engineering with incorporation of novel immune effectors in the transplant platform for patients with high-risk hematological malignancies . She has experience in leading several early and later phase clinical trials, as PI and has led and been a part of multi-institutional collaborations.
Amy Talleur
Dr. Aimee Talleur is an Assistant Member in the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (BMTCT) at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, specializing in the clinical investigation of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of high-risk malignant disorders. As a clinician scientist, Dr. Talleur focuses on the advancement of novel cellular therapies through early-phase clinical trials, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T -cell therapy.
Rebecca Epperly
Dr. Rebecca Epperly is a clinician scientist in the department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (BMTCT) at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Her goal is to improve outcomes for pediatric patients with high-risk malignancies using cellular-based immunotherapy. She joined the St. Jude faculty in the department of BMTCT in July 2021. Her experience includes the preclinical development of novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies, design and implementation of early-phase clinical studies, evaluation of allogeneic transplant outcomes for high-risk pediatric malignancies, and clinical management of patients receiving cellular therapies. Her research focus includes translating novel cellular therapies to clinical applications aimed at improving the durability of CAR T cell responses, expanding the application of CAR T cell therapy to include pediatric solid tumors, and integrating cellular immune therapy with other treatment modalities. In parallel with these clinical evaluations, she collaborates to integrate informative correlative studies and systematically monitor for emerging toxicities of novel therapies.