Karin Straathof graduated with both a medical degree and BSc from Leiden University, the Netherlands. Her PhD at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, USA) was on adoptive T cell immunotherapy for Epstein-Barr virus associated malignancies. She trained in paediatrics and subsequent subspecialty paediatric oncology in London and now is an honorary consultant paediatric oncologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital. With award of her Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist Fellowship she has established her own research group at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and the UCL Cancer Institute. Her research interest is T cell-based immunotherapy for childhood solid tumours. Her work led to one of the first phase I clinical studies of CAR-T cell therapy for children with relapsed or refractory neuroblastoma. Her research group now develops cellular therapies incorporating advanced engineering approaches to achieve sustained activity against childhood solid tumours with further clinical studies due to open in 2022.
Dr Karin Straathof
UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, CRUK City of London Centre, London, UK