James Kochenderfer, M.D. is a Tenured Senior Investigator in the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Kochenderfer received his M.D. from West Virginia University and then completed Internal medicine training at Vanderbilt University, a Medical Oncology Fellowship at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and a Hematology Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. He then undertook a period of postdoctoral research training in T-cell immunotherapy at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Kochenderfer’s career has focused on a full range of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) research from designing and constructing new CARs to conducting clinical trials. Dr. Kochenderfer designed a novel anti-CD19 CAR and then participated in a clinical trial of this CAR. This clinical trial was the first to demonstrate antigen-specific activity of anti-CD19 CARs in humans. This work in anti-CD19 CAR T cells led to the first Food and Drug Administration-approved CAR T-cell therapy for lymphoma. Dr. Kochenderfer designed the first chimeric antigen receptor targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA). He then led the first clinical trial of T cells expressing an anti-BCMA CAR. Dr. Kochenderfer is currently Principle Investigator of CAR T-cell clinical trials targeting lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma. He leads a lab that designs new CARs and studies CAR T-cell biology. He has recently initiated studies of genetically-engineered T-cell therapies for T-cell malignancies and myeloid malignancies.