Crystal Mackall, MD

Crystal Mackall, MD, is a professor of pediatrics and medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she also leads the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program and serves as associate director of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Between 1998 and 2016, she was at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she built an internationally recognized translational research program on T-cell homeostasis and tumor immunology and directed pioneering clinical trials of immune-based therapies for cancer. At the NIH, she served as head of the Immunology Section and later became chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch.

Dr. Mackall is credited with identifying the essential role of the thymus in human T-cell regeneration and discovering IL-7 as the master regulator of T-cell homeostasis. Her group was one of the first to demonstrate impressive activity of CD19-CAR in pediatric leukemia. She serves in numerous national leadership roles, including chair-elect of the Pediatric Cancer Working Group for the American Association for Cancer Research and co-leader of the StanfordUp2Cancer/St. Baldrick’s Pediatric Cancer Dream Team.

• Current: Editor-in-Chief, Frontiers in Pediatric Oncology; Associate Editor, Blood
• 2008: Named NCI Chief of Pediatric Oncology
• 2005: Appointed NCI Acting Chief of Pediatric Oncology
• 2004: Northeast Ohio Distinguished Alumni Award
• 2003: NCI Mentor of Merit Award; NCI Director's Award
• 2000: NIH Distinguished Clinical Teacher Award