Christian Capitini, MD

Dr. Christian Capitini is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He is presently the Director of Clinical Innovation for the UW Forward BIO Institute. He is an American Cancer Society Research Scholar and a Young Investigator on a Pediatric Cancer Dream Team sponsored by the St. Baldrick’s Foundation and Stand up to Cancer. 

Dr. Capitini leads an NIH and NSF-supported laboratory focusing on development of cell-based therapies, including NK cells and CAR T-cells, for the treatment of childhood cancers like neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma. The laboratory also manufactures alternatively activated macrophages for complications of bone marrow transplant, like graft-versus-host-disease and acute radiation syndrome. In the clinic, Dr. Capitini was a site Principal Investigator for the first multi-center CAR T-cell trial, which led to FDA approval of tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) for the treatment of recurrent/refractory B cell leukemia in children. He remains a site PI for trials testing Kymriah as upfront therapy for high risk B cell leukemias and for treatment of relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma.