Charles Prussak, Pharm D, PhD has over 25 years’ experience working in academia and the biotech industry developing cell-based therapeutics. Dr. Prussak is currently the Director of the Cell Therapy Translational Laboratory (CTTL), which has been created by the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to serve as the engine to generate translational cell-based therapeutics that take advantage of breakthroughs discovered in UCSD research laboratories. His long history in developing cell-based therapies began at Viagene, Inc., where he was a founding scientist of a pioneering gene therapy company. As Director of Product Development, Dr. Prussak was responsible for the creation of the first ex vivo modified cell products and recombinant retroviruses entered into human clinical trials. After Chiron, Inc., acquired Viagene, Dr. Prussak was named Director of Gene Therapy at UCSD and was responsible for the creation and production of cell and gene therapy products for campus researchers. To expand the scope of this program, UCSD joined with the Boehringer Mannheim Corporation to form Molecular Medicine. As President & CEO of Molecular Medicine, Dr. Prussak directed the production of gene and cell therapies that were employed in over 20 phase I-III clinical trials conducted in the US and Europe. Following Molecular Medicine, Dr. Prussak co-founded Tragen Therapeutics, which developed gene therapies for the treatment of leukemias and solid tumor cancers. Tragen’s lead product employed gene-modified B cell leukemic cells to activate immune responses that sensitized the target cancer to standard chemotherapeutic agents. These ex vivo clinical studies were precursors to current targeted immunotherapies employing immune modulating agents.