Christian Capitini
Credentials: Pediatrics Department
Position title: Adoptive cell therapies (NK cell and CAR T cell infusions), Bone marrow transplant, GVHD
Email: ccapitini@pediatrics.wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-2415
Address:
Wi Institute Medical Research
1111 Highland Ave
Madison, WI 53705
LAB WEBSITE:
FOCUS GROUPS:
Immunology; Cancer Biology
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
I joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an Assistant Professor in 2011, and lead an NIH and NSF funded laboratory in transplant immunology with a focus on immunotherapy of pediatric cancers. The goal of my research group is to improve graft-versus-tumor (GVT) effects against pediatric solid tumors, and treat any associated graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) using cell-based therapies in models of allogeneic bone marrow transplant (alloBMT). To improve GVT, we are using ex vivo activated NK cells against several GD2+ pediatric tumors in the alloBMT setting. My group was the first to track NK cells in vivo by fluorine-19 MRI. In addition, we are improving the biomanufacturing of CAR T cells against GD2+ solid tumors, and I am a site Principal Investigator for CAR T cell clinical trials for leukemia and lymphoma. To treat GVHD, we are educating macrophages ex vivo with mesenchymal stromal cells (called MEMs) to make them anti-inflammatory, and we are developing MEMs for clinical testing.
ALSO A TRAINER IN THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS: Cellular and Molecular Pathology (CMP), ICTR, Comparative Biomedical Sciences (CBMS)