Dr. Dahiya is a cancer specialist with board certification in internal medicine, hematology, and medical oncology. He is an Associate Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and Clinical Director of Cancer Cell Therapy in the Stanford BMT and Cell Therapy division. Dr. Dahiya strives to support each patient with a personalized and compassionate care plan that optimizes healing and quality of life. Prior to joining Stanford, Dr. Dahiya was an associate professor of medicine at the Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he developed the Cellular Immunotherapy Program and served as the Director of Cellular Immunotherapy in leukemia and lymphoma. Dr. Dahiya’s research focuses on cellular immunotherapy for hematologic malignancies. He has led and participated in several investigator-initiated studies and sponsored clinical trials with cell therapies (CAR-T, CAR-NK, TCR-T) for hematologic malignancies. His research group is also involved in various translational research activities for the standard of care and research CAR-T therapy. Dr. Dahiya’s group was the first group to show the role of fibrinogen in Neurotoxicity associated with CAR-T therapy. They showed vascular injury as manifested by high fibrinogen levels is associated with higher Neurotoxicity in patients who receive CAR-T therapy. More recently his group led a novel study of assessing the immune response to COVID-19 disease. They evaluated the immune response in critically ill and non-critically ill patients hospitalized with COVID-19 disease and showed a differential immune response between the groups. Dr. Dahiya’s group also showed and established poor immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines in CART recipients. As such, passive immunity and other strategies to address the issues of immunogenicity are being explored. He has published more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blood, Blood Advances, Lancet, Leukemia Research, Neuro-Oncology, and many more. He reviews article submissions for the journals Critical Reviews in Oncology and Hematology, Thoracic Cancer, and Blood. He serves as the hematology lead editor for the journal Critical Reviews in Oncology and Hematology. He has presented his research findings at conferences such as the annual meetings of the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and American Society for Transplantation and Cell Therapy. Dr. Dahiya is a member of the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Transplantation and Cell Therapy.

Dr. Matthew Frank, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at Stanford University. Dr. Frank predominantly cares for patients with high-risk lymphoma and other blood cancers. He is a lead investigator of clinical trials evaluating the safety and effectiveness of cancer treatments called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR ) T therapy for patients with lymphomas and leukemias. Dr. Frank’s research focuses on developing methods to identify patients who are at high risk for relapse or developing side-effects after receiving CAR T therapy and to understand why these relapses and side-effects occur.

Dr. Sidana is a hematologist/oncologist who is fellowship trained in advanced hematology with an emphasis on myeloma, amyloidosis, and dysproteinemia disorders. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy, at Stanford University School of Medicine. She leads the Myeloma Cellular Immunotherapy program at Stanford. Her areas of expertise include transplantation and novel cellular immunotherapies such as CAR-T-cell therapy for patients with multiple myeloma. For each patient, Dr. Sidana develops a personalized care plan designed to optimize outcomes and quality of life. Dr. Sidana conducts extensive research. Currently, she is conducting clinical trials of CAR-T therapy and bispecific T-cell engagers for treatment of patients with myeloma. She is studying patients’ access to CAR-T cell therapy, the financial burden of the treatment, and its impact on patients’ quality of life and cognitive function. Dr Sidana has received a grant from the Stanford Medicine Cancer Institute and NIH funding through the Stanford KL2 program to study adverse events of CAR-T therapy on patients and monitoring of patients undergoing CAR-T therapy using wearable devices. In the past, Dr. Sidana received Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for her research on the impact of clinical trial participation on patients with multiple myeloma and lymphoma. She has also received grants from the Amyloidosis Foundation and International Waldenstrom’s Macrogloulinemia Foundation to understand AL amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by buildup of an abnormal protein. Dr. Sidana has given presentations at regional and national conferences and her work has been published in high-impact journals. Dr. Sidana has been recognized for her work with many honors, including an Outstanding Hematology/Oncology Fellow award and Outstanding Research Fellow award from the Mayo Clinic. She is a member of the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, International Myeloma Society, International Society of Amyloidosis, and American Society of Transplantation & Cellular Therapy. Dr. Sidana is often an invited speaker at patient support groups as well as symposia and workshops for her peers.

Dr. Smith is a board-certified, fellowship-trained medical oncologist and hematologist. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Blood & Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. She is a physician-scientist who conducts extensive research. She completed a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Clinical Research Training (now, the Medical Research Scholars) Program and she was a post-doctoral researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her research focuses on studies evaluating strategies whereby donor T cells can be administered to improve outcomes following blood and marrow transplant. Specifically, she studies novel treatment strategies using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. Dr. Smith has been invited to present the findings of her research at regional, national, and international conferences. At the Insights in Hematology Conference, she focused on the use of CAR T cells for blood cancers, whereas she presented her investigations on the associations between CAR T cells and the intestinal microbiome at the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Further, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy, she addressed the importance of training scientists from underrepresented populations. Dr. Smith has co-authored articles on topics within the field of cancer immunology, including cancer immunotherapy, stem cell transplantation, and CAR T cell therapy. Her work has appeared in journals, including Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Blood Advances, Leukemia, Nature, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, and elsewhere. She serves a peer reviewer for publications in various journals, such as Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Haematologica, and ImmunoMedicine. She also has co-written chapters in books, including Pocket Oncology, Current Concepts and Controversies in Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, and Advanced Concepts in Human Immunology: Prospects for Disease Control. Dr. Smith has also earned numerous honors. The American Society of Hematology, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, and many other professional societies and organizations have recognized her achievements as a clinician, researcher, and scholar. She is a member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Subcommittee on Immunotherapy and the co-chair of the Committee on Trainees and Junior Faculty for the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT). Other positions in service to professional organizations include co-chairing committees and task forces dedicated to promoting diversity among hematology and cell therapy specialists.