By Heather Clower
The Parsons Advocate
In 1987, Tucker County High School had a graduate walk across the stage that would later become a leader in lymphoma therapy. James “Jim” Kochenderfer, son of Jim and Hilda of Blackman Flatts, after graduating from TCHS continued his education at West Virginia University where he received his undergrad in Chemistry and continued onto medical school.
From there, he completed an internal medicine residency at Vanderbilt in Nashville, a medical oncology fellowship at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, followed by a hematology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. Kochenderfer then partook in postdoctoral research training in T-cell immunotherapy at the National Cancer Institute.
In 2002, he joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda Maryland. From 2010 to 2013, Kochenderfer served as assistant clinical investigator with the experimental transplantation and immunology branch at NCI. In 2013, he was named tenure-track investigator and this year (to present) became tenure track investigator of the surgery branch. Dr. Kochenderfer is also principal investigator CAR T-Cell clinical trials targeting lylmphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma. He leads the lab that designs new CARs and studies CAR T-cell biology. NCI is where he has dedicated numerous years to chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) research where he has designed and constructed new options for clinical trials. One of the clinical trials was the first to demonstrate antigen specific activity of anti-CD19 CARs in humans. This resulted in the first Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved CAR T-Cell therapy for lymphoma. To date, there are only two FDA approved options.
“T cells are a part of the immune system that help us fight infection. Using gene therapy, they can be modified to target and attack a specific cancer. Dr. Kochenderfer was the first to design and demonstrate the effectiveness of anti-CD19 CAR T cells in humans, leading to the first approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of a CAR T-cell therapy for lymphoma. He also led the first clinical trials focused on the anti-B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) CAR for the treatment of multiple myeloma. He currently has open trials investigating novel CAR T cell therapies for both diseases and is developing new methods to improve the cancer fighting ability of CAR T cells.” Kochenderfer allowed, “There’s a lot of people involved,” as he explained the multitude of individuals involved in the research and implementation process.
Because of his numerous achievements, Dr. Kochenderfer was nominated into the national competition known as The Trailblazers Prize, presented by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FINH). The Trailblazer Prize recognizes the outstanding contributions of early career clinician-scientists whose work has the potential to or has led to innovations in patient care and seeks to raise awareness of the critical role the clinician-scientist plays in biomedical research and clinical care. He explained they narrowed the field to four worthy nominees, which also included Dr. Ami Batt from Stanford University, Dr. Evan Macosko from the Broad Institute, and Dr. Giovanni Traverso from Harvard Medical School.
These four finalists were asked to speak on Capitol Hill to share the importance of their research with policy makers and show the need for future scientists, researchers, and physicians. Each of the finalists received $5,000 for laboratory use to further their research and studies. To narrow the field to one, a group of distinguished biomedical research leaders were assigned to select the winner.
Dr. Kochenderfer, in addition to the $5,000 awarded to his lab, was the recipient of a $10,000 honorarium and a stunning trophy to acknowledge his achievement. At the award ceremony in October, Dr. Steven Paul, Chairman of the FNIH Board, was quoted saying, “It is our pleasure to bestow the 2019 Trailblazer Prize to Dr. Kochenderfer for his revolutionary research and clinical work that is changing how we treat blood cancers.”
“I’m not intending on going anywhere anytime soon,” replied Dr. Kochenderfer when asked if he intended to remain at NCI. It is fortunate to have people such as him dedicated to a cause to increase quality of life and more hope for those stricken with these diseases. Having someone of this caliber trace his roots back to Tucker County is just an added bonus.
Congratulations Dr. James “Jim” Kochenderfer on your recent honor.
