# Michel Sadelain

Source: https://onco.cc/people/michel-sadelain/  
OnCo record `michel-sadelain` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Designed the second-generation CAR with a CD28 costimulatory domain that made CAR-T therapy work.

## Summary

Michel Sadelain's laboratory at MSKCC created the CD19-targeted second-generation chimeric antigen receptor with a CD28 signalling domain, the design underlying axicabtagene ciloleucel and brexucabtagene autoleucel, and showed that costimulation was the key to making engineered T cells persist and kill. He led the first CD19 CAR-T trials in adult ALL with Renier Brentjens and pioneered CRISPR-targeted CAR insertion into the TRAC locus. He moved to Columbia in 2024.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Tags: cell-therapy; car-t; engineering
- Role: Director, Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
- Specialisms: CAR T-cell engineering; Gene therapy; Synthetic immunology; Cell therapy manufacturing

## Sources

- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Sadelain%20M%5BAuthor%5D%20chimeric%20antigen%20receptor

## Connected records

- cancers: [Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia](https://onco.cc/cancers/all-leukemia/), [Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/dlbcl/)
- technologies: [CAR-T cell therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/car-t/), [In vivo CAR-T](https://onco.cc/technologies/in-vivo-car-t/)
- targets: [CD19](https://onco.cc/targets/cd19/)
- institutions: [Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University](https://onco.cc/institutions/columbia-hicc/)
- key papers: [ZUMA-1: axicabtagene ciloleucel for refractory large B-cell lymphoma, the first CAR-T approved for lymphoma](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-zuma-1-axi-cel-nejm-2017/)
- journals: [Science Translational Medicine](https://onco.cc/journals/science-translational-medicine/)

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