Director, Haploidentical Donor Transplantation Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Rizwan Romee is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and leads NK Cell Therapeutics Initiative at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The research focus of his laboratory is genetic manipulation of human Natural Killer (NK) cells to enhance their anti-tumor function and simultaneously modulate the immune suppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). His work at Washington University helped describe human memory-like NK cells with enhanced anti-tumor activity and he led a first-in-human clinical trial of these cells in patients with advanced AML demonstrating safety and promising activity. He is currently leading translational NK cell program at DF/Harvard Cancer Center evaluating memory-like NK cells in combination with immune-modulatory agents including an IL-15 super-agonist and CTLA4 inhibitor in patients with advanced malignancies including AML and MDS relapsed after stem cell transplantation, multiple myeloma and head and neck cancer. His lab is also collaborating with Prof. Mooney’s group at the Wyss Institute to develop novel biomaterials for high efficiency expansion of the NK cells.