A Discussion with Dr. Natasha Kekre, Hematologist and Clinician Scientist

[Figure: see text] Dr. Natasha Kekre has been appointed to the Department of Medicine in the Division of Hematology, within the Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program at The Ottawa Hospital since 2015. She is also a scientist within the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa. She completed her Bachelor's in Science at the University of Windsor then obtained her medical degree from the University of Ottawa. She trained at the University of Ottawa in Internal Medicine and Hematology, then did fellowship in stem cell transplantation at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA with a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University. Her research is focused on developing early phase clinical trials and moving home grown therapeutic strategies from the lab to patients in the clinic. She has collaborated with scientists and physicians across Canada to build a Canadian CAR-T cell platform (chimeric antigen receptor T cells are immune cells engineered to kill cancer cells), bringing this exciting new therapy to Canadian patients.