Cliona Rooney

Cliona Rooney has been a milestone figure in developing antigen-specific T cell therapy for virus-associated cancers at Baylor College of Medicine, creating EBV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte products that have achieved durable complete remissions in EBV-positive lymphomas and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Her work on third-party partially HLA-matched virus-specific T cell banks has enabled rapid off-the-shelf access to antigen-specific cell therapy products, establishing the model for banked allogeneic cell therapy. She has advanced the understanding of how tumor immune evasion mechanisms limit T cell therapy efficacy and developed strategies to overcome these barriers.