Malcolm K. Brenner is a British clinical scientist working mostly in the field of

gene therapy Gene therapy is a medical field which focuses on the genetic modification of cells to produce a therapeutic effect or the treatment of disease by repairing or reconstructing defective genetic material. The first attempt at modifying human DN ...

and immunotherapy applied to malignancy. In 2016, Dr. Brenner was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, part of the

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...

. He was educated at Forest School, Walthamstow and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

England. He received his medical degree and subsequent Ph.D. from

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In the 1980s, he was a Lecturer in Hematology at

Royal Free Hospital The Royal Free Hospital (also known simply as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barn ...

in London. In 1990, he left the UK to work in

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is a pediatric treatment and research facility located in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1962, it is a 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit medical corporation which focuses on children's catastrophic diseases, pa ...

in Memphis as the director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Division. There, he conducted one of the first human gene therapy studies when he transduced

bone marrow Bone marrow is a semi-solid tissue found within the spongy (also known as cancellous) portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production (or haematopoiesis). It is composed of hematopoietic ce ...

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...

s with a retroviral vector with the intention of marking them to study their survival and fate. This seminal study demonstrated that engrafted bone marrow stem cells contribute to long-term hematopoiesis and also that contaminating tumor cells in autografts can cause

relapse In internal medicine, relapse or recidivism is a recurrence of a past (typically medical) condition. For example, multiple sclerosis and malaria often exhibit peaks of activity and sometimes very long periods of dormancy, followed by relapse or r ...

. In 1994, he became the director of St. Jude's Cell and Gene Therapy Program. The move in 1994 reflected his growing interest in the genetic-modification of

T-cells A T cell is a type of lymphocyte. T cells are one of the important white blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell rec ...

for

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

therapy,

cancer vaccine A cancer vaccine is a vaccine that either treats existing cancer or prevents development of cancer. Vaccines that treat existing cancer are known as ''therapeutic'' cancer vaccines or tumor antigen vaccines. Some of the vaccines are "autologous", ...

s and

monoclonal antibodies A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a cell Lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodies ca ...

. He was President of the International Society for Cellular Therapy and President of the American Society of Gene Therapy in 2002–2003. He was appointed Editor in Chief of the journal Molecular Therapy in 2009. Dr. Brenner was appointed Director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy. Dr. Brenner's is a full-time faculty member for the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy,

Texas Children's Cancer Center Texas Children's Hospital is a nationally ranked, freestanding 973-bed, acute care women's and children's hospital located in Houston, Texas. It is the primary pediatric teaching hospital affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and is located wit ...

and the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate Sc ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. In 2017, Dr. Brenner was awarded the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy ''Outstanding Achievement Award'', and in 2020 the ''Career Achievement Award in Cell & Gene Therapy'' from the International Society of Cell and Gene Therapy.

External links

Center for Cell and Gene Therapy (CAGT)

International Society for Cellular Therapy

American Society of Gene & Cellular Therapy

Molecular Therapy

References

# # # Living people Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge British immunologists 1951 births {{UK-scientist-stub