This is a blended research (25%) and clinical (75% supervised) fellowship focused on immune cell (IEC) therapy, primarily in hematologic malignancies. The successful applicant will develop expertise in dealing with patients undergoing IEC therapy and all aspects of their care, including leukapheresis, bridging therapies, conditioning regimens, and post-IEC followup. The trainee will learn to manage acute complications of IEC therapy, including cytokine release syndrome, neurotoxicity syndromes and cytopenias in both inpatient and outpatient settings. The trainee should have prior experience in hematologic malignancy (lymphoma, leukemia and/or myeloma) or stem cell transplantation, extending these skills to IEC therapy and will become part of a multidisciplinary, multi-disease site team. The IEC fellowship will provide experience in managing the rigorous regulatory stipulations for safely conducting cellular therapy (FACT and Health Canada accreditation amongst others) and will gain exposure to niche areas such as apheresis and the cell processing laboratory. The successful applicant will participate in in-house committees (such as the Cell Therapy Review Committee) to recognize different aspects of building an effective program. The trainee will also actively participate in research, participating in clinical trials and retrospective chart reviews.
Research time will be dedicated to 2 projects: 1) a clinical research project with expectations of presentation at a national/international meeting and 2) an IEC-related quality project, focusing on implementation or process development. At the end of this fellowship, the trainee is anticipated to have completed or be enroute to completion of at least one peer-reviewed publication.
