Rate My Professor Ann Leen

Ann Marie Leen, Ph.D., serves as Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, and the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She is also a member of the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Leen earned a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom in 2002 and a second Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in 2005, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. Her professional interests center on T cell immunotherapy for viruses and cancer. Dr. Leen’s research focuses on the use of cytotoxic T cells for the treatment of viral and malignant diseases. She has served as co-principal investigator on clinical trials evaluating the safety of adoptively transferred donor-derived virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes for the prophylaxis and treatment of adenoviral infections following allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Additional work includes the development and optimization of methods to generate tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes directed against cancer testis antigens such as SSX2 and SSX4, which are expressed in various tumors including Hodgkin Reed-Sternberg cells, with the goal of advancing immunotherapy protocols for patients with relapsed EBV-negative Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Dr. Leen maintains an active research program in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy and has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed publications on topics including adenoviral infections in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, adoptive immunotherapy for post-transplantation viral infections, and antigen-specific T cell therapies. Her work supports the broader application of T cell-based approaches in clinical settings for immunocompromised patients and those with cancer.