Keisuke Watanabe, MD, PhD, is a Senior Staff Scientist in the Division of Cancer Immunology at the National Cancer Center Japan. He had dedicated over a decade to patient care, specializing in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Parallel to his clinical practice, he has spearheaded clinical research and translational research (TR) in cell therapy.

In 2015-2019, Dr. Watanabe was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Carl H. June at the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the University of Pennsylvania. There, he advanced the development of CAR-T cell therapies for T-cell malignancies and solid tumors, including combinatorial approaches with oncolytic viruses.

Since joining the National Cancer Center Japan in 2019, Dr. Watanabe has led various immunology programs. His current research focuses on developing CAR-T cells for non-B-cell malignancies, with a particular emphasis on AI-designed CARs to address the tonic signaling, CARs for T-cell tumors, and strategies to overcome metabolic checkpoints in the tumor microenvironment.

Webinar Highlight:

• Metabolic barriers limiting CAR-T cell performance in solid tumors
• The potential of GLUT3 to improve CAR-T cell fitness and persistence
• Novel engineering strategies to enhance antitumor efficacy in glioblastoma models
• Future directions for next-generation CAR-T therapies in non-B-cell malignancies
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