Karin Straathof PhD

Karin Straathof is the Principal Investigator in the Department of the Developmental Biology and Cancer program at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. Karin Straathof graduated with both a medical degree and a BSc from Leiden University, the Netherlands. Her Ph.D. at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, USA) was on adoptive T cell immunotherapy for Epstein-Barr virus-associated malignancies. She trained in pediatrics and subsequent subspecialty pediatric oncology in London and now is an honorary consultant pediatric oncologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Her research interest is T cell-based immunotherapy for childhood solid tumors. Her work led to one of the first phases 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 tumors with further clinical studies due to open in 2022.