Helen Heslop, MD, DSC, is Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, and Texas Children’s Hospital. She is the Dan L. Duncan Chair and the Associate Director of Clinical Research at the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center. Trained as a physician-scientist, Dr. Heslop is a prominent figure engaged in translational research focusing on adoptive T cell immunotherapy to improve hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cancer therapy. In collaboration with Drs. Brenner and Rooney, her initial studies were the first to demonstrate the feasibility of using EBV-specific T cells to prevent and treat EBV-associated malignancy in stem cell transplant patients, thereby validating the safety and efficacy of adoptive T cell transfer as a therapeutic modality.
Dr. Heslop was a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Research Scientist and serves as the current President elect of the American Society for Cell and Gene Therapy and a past President of the Foundation for Accreditation of Cell Therapy (FACT) and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. She received her MBChB, MD and DSc (Hon) in Hematology from the University of Otago in New Zealand. Dr. Heslop is a co-founder of ViraCyte, LLC.
