Oncology

Gates Institute is part of some of the most innovative and promising developments in the treatment and elimination of cancer, long the goal of top academic research institutions around the world.

Gates Institute Director Terry Fry, MD, one of the nation’s leading cancer researchers, was named co-director of the Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Initiative on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in February 2019.

Fry was among the first scientists to investigate the potential to insert modified genes into a child’s own T-cells to combat lymphoblastic leukemia. Approved by the FDA for pediatric use in August 2017, the therapy achieved an astonishing 80 percent remission rate in kids with otherwise unresponsive cases of the leukemia. Fry is now working to develop targeted treatments to decrease resistance and increase durability of remission. He’s also working to apply CAR-T technology to other types of cancer.

A key element in Fry’s move to bring CAR-T research to the Anschutz Medical Campus was the development of the Gates Biomanufacturing Facility (GBF) into one of the premier GMP producers in the nation. The GBF is one of six combined cell therapy and protein manufacturing facilities in the United States and the only one of its kind within an 800-mile radius. The facility has been a key element in the recruitment and retention of some of the nation’s top regenerative medicine researchers for the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.