John Lee

Dr. Lee is an accomplished CAR-T immunobiologist with over 20 years of cancer cell biology expertise spanning small and large molecules, as well as cell-based therapeutics. He possesses more than 15 years of clinical research and cell therapy experience including positions at The Wistar Institute, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Lee previously built the Cell Therapy Platform team at Janssen Pharmaceuticals. The group led and supported end-to-end therapy discovery and development across nearly a dozen CAR-T programs, including the recently approved cilta-cel (Carvykti). During his subsequent tenure as Vice President, Head of Oncology Cell Therapy at GlaxoSmithKline, Dr. Lee’s team operated within a heavily matrixed organization to support an array of activities establishing multiple preclinical assets and several clinical-stage lete-cel programs targeting the NY-ESO cancer-testis antigen. Dr. Lee holds a Ph.D from the Brody School of Medicine, an MBA from Penn State University, and a Bachelors of Science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania