Michel Sadelain is the founding director of the Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy at Columbia University, where he is Herbert and Florence Irving Professor of Medicine. He previously founded and directed the Center for Cell Engineering at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he held the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair. He received his M.D. from the University of Paris, his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute at MIT.

Sadelain has made numerous key contributions to the emergence and success of CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy. His research contributed to all its facets from concept to implementation, including T cell engineering technologies, the design of CARs, the identification of CD19 as an effective CAR target, T cell manufacturing processes, and the clinical translation of CD19 CAR therapy for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Sadelain is the recipient of the Coley Award (Cancer Research Institute), Passano Award (Johns Hopkins), Pasteur-Weizmann/Servier International Prize, French Academy of Sciences Medal, Gabbay Award (Brandeis University), INSERM International Prize, Léopold Griffuel Award, ASGCT Outstanding Achievement Award, Breakthrough Prize, Gairdner International Award, Warren Alpert Prize (Harvard), VinFuture, Meyenburg Award and King Faisal Prize.