Lekha Mikkilineni MD

Dr. Lekha Mikkilineni, MD is an Assistant Research Physician at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Mikkilineni received a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science from the University of California, San Diego, and a Masters of Art from Boston University. She received her M.D. from the Tulane University School of Medicine and completed her internship and internal medicine residency training at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals. She then completed fellowship training in medical oncology and hematology through a joint program sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. During this fellowship, she joined Dr. Kochenderfer’s research group and began to focus on bringing novel CAR T-cell therapies from the lab to the phase 1 clinical trial. As a result of her work, she received the ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award in 2019. Dr. Mikkilineni was selected as a Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Fellow before joining as full-time faculty with the research group of Dr. James Kochenderfer in the Surgery Branch.