Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair of Canada in Next-Generation Translational T-Cell Immunotherapies

Government of Canada priority area: Health, including biotechnology

Led by Dr. Cassian Yee, the research program will build a Canadian-led pipeline of next-generation T cell therapies that use a patient’s own immune cells to find and destroy cancer. It will bring together proven platforms to discover new cancer targets, design highly precise T-cell receptors (TCRs), and move the most promising therapies into clinical trials.

The innovative program starts with an advanced technology that identifies the molecular markers, or antigens, that cancer tumours display to the immune system. This technology, called IPD-STAR, will create a reliable catalogue of real tumour antigens across common and rare cancers. These targets will then feed into an AI-guided platform that designs TCRs to recognize cancer cells precisely while limiting harmful off-target effects.

The research program will also use Endogenous T Cell (ETC) therapy, a clinically proven approach developed by Dr. Yee. ETC therapy creates long-lasting, resilient T cells from a simple blood draw, avoiding the intensive chemotherapy and hospitalization required by many other cell therapies. This allows new therapies to be tested quickly and safely in early clinical trials and combined with targeted or immune-based treatments. Clinical-grade manufacturing will support the entire process from discovery to patient treatment. And a national digital immunotherapy hub will give researchers across Canada access to shared data, analytics, and computational tools. 

Together, these capabilities will accelerate the development of safer, more effective, and more personalized cancer treatments, bolster Canada’s biotherapeutics sector, and advance Canada’s position as an innovative leader in next-generation cellular immunotherapy.

Dr. Cassian Yee is a physician-scientist who is an internationally recognized leader in cellular therapy and tumor immunotherapy. His research has focused on harnessing the immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer, with a particular emphasis on T-cell therapies and T-cell receptor (TCR) engineering.

A defining contribution of his career has been the development of antigen-specific T-cell therapies. In a landmark 2008 New England Journal of Medicine study, Yee and his colleagues reported the first in-vitro isolation and expansion of NY-ESO-1-specific CD4+ T-cell clones. Treatment of a patient with refractory metastatic melanoma produced a durable complete remission lasting 22 months, providing important evidence that CD4+ T cells could directly attack cancer and stimulate broader immune responses.

Subsequent research from Yee’s group demonstrated the importance of immune memory and “antigen spreading,” in which an immune response initially directed against one tumor target can expand to recognize additional targets. His work also linked the persistence of transferred memory T cells with clinical outcomes and informed strategies for developing more durable, exhaustion-resistant cellular therapies. 

Today, his research spans the translational pipeline from antigen discovery and immunopeptidomics to AI-guided TCR engineering, epigenetic programming, manufacturing, regulatory approval, and first-in-human clinical testing. He has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on more than 15 Investigational New Drug applications and currently leads or contributes to 14 early-phase clinical protocols involving melanoma, uveal melanoma, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, sarcoma, thyroid cancer, and Merkel cell carcinoma. 

Yee has authored 144 peer-reviewed publications, including papers in Nature, Nature Medicine, and NEJM, with more than 21,700 citations and an h-index of 69. He has co-founded biotechnology ventures that have translated foundational discoveries into clinical development programs. Yee is particularly motivated to contribute to Canadian leadership in tumour immunology, T-cell engineering, and biotechnology while mentoring the next generation of scientists and innovators. His career reflects a consistent goal: turning advances in fundamental science into safe, durable, and clinically impactful cancer therapies.