In its inaugural tranche of grants, the Fund for Science and Technology (FFST) supported Seattle Children’s Therapeutics (SCTx) and its groundbreaking research with potential application for kids with cancer or autoimmune diseases. We caught up with SCTx Vice President & Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Colleen Delaney, to learn more about how she and her team are accelerating the next wave of cell and gene therapies and blazing a new path toward cures for children.
Engineering Hope in the Fight Against Cancer
When she was in second grade, Dr. Colleen Delaney informed her family that she was going to be a doctor. Because no one in her family had graduated from college, her childhood announcement was met with lighthearted amusement, though it would later prove prescient.
“I didn’t declare myself a pre-med student when I started college because my childhood proclamation had become legendary, and I didn’t know whether that was driving my interest,” she recalled. “But I’ve always loved science and medicine, and I kept coming back to it. I consider myself fortunate that I am doing what I’ve always wanted to do. I wouldn’t change this path for anything.”
Now vice president and chief medical officer at Seattle Children’s Therapeutics (SCTx)—the center of Seattle Children’s pioneering cancer immunotherapy research program—Dr. Delaney leads an organization focused on bench-to-bedside translational science. The mission is singular: to develop transformative therapies for children and young adults with cancer and other life-threatening diseases and to give them a new path toward remission and lasting cure.
Dr. Delaney recently returned to Seattle Children’s with a clear purpose: to broaden SCTx’s portfolio by building upon its CAR-T success and to develop next-generation cell therapies and gene therapies. Her lab—along with collaborators across SCTx and Seattle Children’s Research Institute—is leading efforts to push cellular immunotherapy beyond its current limits, especially for solid tumors where effective therapies remain scarce.
Dr. Delaney’s passion for developing novel cell therapies began early in her career. During her fellowship, she witnessed firsthand the power of using cells to treat disease.
“Bone marrow transplant is immunotherapy,” she explained. “We use chemotherapy and radiation to eliminate the patient’s diseased blood and immune system, then rescue them with healthy donor blood and immune cells.”
But, as many patients lack a suitable donor match, umbilical cord blood offered an alternative. Dr. Delaney and her team developed the first clinically feasible methods to expand blood-forming stem cells in the lab—transforming cord blood transplantation and opening curative therapy to children and adults who previously had no donor options.
She vividly remembers the moment her first patient received lab-expanded cells.
“When my very first patient was infused with cells we grew in the lab, I hand-carried them to the bedside myself,” recalled Dr. Delaney. “It was extraordinary. After his recovery, I invited him to the lab so the whole team could meet the person whose life they helped save.”
SCTx is overcoming high-cost barriers and poor access to current cell therapies by using cord blood as starting material. Leveraging the platform developed to grow cells in the lab, immune cells can now be engineered and manufactured to make potent cellular immunotherapies that are then frozen for future use.
“All of the therapies we make are universal, meaning we do not have to match them in any way to the patient, so these products are immediately available to patients in need,” she describes. “Cord blood is the ultimate recycled product that would otherwise be considered medical waste and thrown away. We are using these very young and healthy cells to save lives.”
Dr. Delaney believes the next frontier is broadening accessibility through universal approaches. But the problem to achieving lasting treatments is funding.
“Pediatric cancers are rare, amounting to no more than six percent of all cancers. Investment in pediatric cancer research or trials is severely lacking because the opportunities for commercialization are limited, so big pharma does not make the investment,” she explained. “Yet, the first CAR T-cell therapy approved by the FDA was for the treatment of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia based on a protein called CD19. This same biology applies to many adult blood cancers that also express CD19, leading to subsequent FDA approval of multiple CAR-T therapies for adult blood cancers.”
Kids do experience a lot of blood cancers like leukemia and discoveries in pediatrics can be translated to benefit adults.
“I find it very short-sighted that we don’t think about funding pediatrics the same way we do adults,” Dr. Delaney claimed. “I am grateful that FFST is on board with funding big bold ideas in support of pediatric research.”
Across SCTx, this spirit of possibility fuels the work. Dr. Delaney describes her team as caring, passionate, unstoppable, and joyous.
“When you’ve seen cures emerge directly from your research, when you know you’re working on something bigger than all of us, the possibilities become endless and joy becomes part of the work,” she said. “Every patient, every family that I care for reminds me that I am exactly where I need to be. I made a commitment to them and to myself that we must continue to advance our work and provide hope. We are making progress, but there is still much to be done to achieve the outcomes our patients deserve. And we are ready and willing to take on this fight.”
SCTx has long been recognized as a leader in autologous CAR-T therapy, having developed multiple first-in-human, investigator-initiated clinical trial products in partnership with Seattle Children’s Research Institute. To date, SCTx has advanced 18 FDA-authorized Investigational New Drug applications for genetically engineered T-cell therapies targeting multiple malignancies and autoimmune disease and have treated nearly 600 patients. This work has established Seattle Children’s as one of the nation’s foremost centers for pediatric cellular immunotherapy. With support from FFST, Seattle Children’s Therapeutics is building on their past successes in developing advanced cell and gene therapies to continue early clinical trials of promising treatments for cancer and autoimmune disorders. This work aims to ensure no child is left without treatment.