About

The Consortium for Pediatric Cellular Immunotherapy (CPCI) is a collaboration between five leading US children’s hospitals and their partner Clinical and Translational Science Institutes (CTSIs). Together, we are working to solve the translational challenges of bringing immune-directed cellular therapies to pediatric patients. The Consortium members represent expert clinical pediatric hospitals aligned with cGMP cell manufacturing facilities and possess the required clinical research infrastructure and reference correlative endpoints laboratories. Consortium members have led dozens of novel cellular immunotherapy multi-institutional trials.

Launched in 2018, the Consortium is funded through a 5-year U01 grant with a project title “Accelerate cellular immunotherapy development for treatment of life-threatening childhood disorders” (5U01TR002487) from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, a part of the  National Institute of Health. In September, 2020, the Consortium was awarded a supplemental grant with the project title “Prospective evaluation of barriers to patient referral and enrollment in emerging cellular therapy trials: determining methods and structure to improve equity in future trial design” (3U01TR002487-03S1).

Governed by a Steering Committee composed of renowned scientific and clinical immunotherapeutics leaders, the Consortium carries out its work through multiple Committees and Working Groups. Membership reflects participation from across the Consortium’s sites and represents significant subject matter expertise from both inside and outside the sites. With insights shared across the Consortium, these groups are developing best practice and disseminating this information in the form of publications and other educational tools. By meeting regularly, these groups are also building a strong, national networks in their area of expertise.

Committees and Working Groups hold monthly working sessions and convene in person annually to present our work to the three-member External Advisory Board and the NIH Program Officer.

The Consortium also hosts a quarterly meeting series dedicated to cell and gene therapy scientific or infrastructure topics. The scientific talks provide an opportunity for young investigators to share their work with an interested and supportive audience. Click HERE to see a list of past topics.