He leads a team of scientists that includes graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, as well as university research staff as they work on innovative cell therapies.
PHILADELPHIA, PA, July 08, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Neil C. Sheppard, DPhil, has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Acting on a lifelong fascination with immunology, Dr. Sheppard is currently on staff at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, where he is head of the T Cell Engineering Laboratory (TCEL) and director of Research Technologies and Innovation. He leads a team of scientists that includes graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, as well as university research staff as they work on innovative cell therapies. Dr. Sheppard is also an adjunct associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine.
Prior to embarking upon his professional journey, Dr. Sheppard received a Bachelor of Science in immunology from the University of Bristol in 2002 and a Doctor of Philosophy in molecular retrovirology and vaccines research at the University of Oxford in 2007, after which Dr. Sheppard embarked on a career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.
Important posts that have shaped Dr. Sheppard's career include being a senior scientist and principal scientist in vaccine research for Pfizer from 2007 until 2013 in the UK and San Diego, CA. Subsequently, Neil was selected for the prestigious 'Esprit R&D' rotational leadership development program at GSK, where he completed three rotations of one year each between 2013 and 2016 in the Regenerative Medicine unit in Collegeville, PA, the Ethnopharmacology unit in Sydney, Australia, and finally in the Immuno-Oncology in the Combinations Discovery Performance Unit in Collegeville, PA. He graduated from the Esprit program as the Head of External Cooperations for the Oncology Cell Therapy unit, and Early Development Leader for TCR-T programs from 2016 to 2018. Following his time at GSK, Dr. Sheppard became an executive director program leader for Tmunity Therapeutics Inc. in Philadelphia, PA from 2018 to 2019 where he opened an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for a novel CAR-T therapy. In 2019, Dr. Sheppard was recruited to University of Pennsylvania Center for Cellular Immunotherapies.
Dr. Sheppard has been the inventor of patents, contributor to numerous peer-reviewed publications as either first or senior author and held an appointment as a lecturer in molecular medicine at Magdalen College Oxford between 2006 and 2007. He counts as a career highlight an ongoing clinical trial that was shaped by his collaborative efforts through negotiation, trial design and regulatory approvals. Moreover, Dr. Sheppard is proud of having been a founding member of the GSK Oncology Cell Therapy unit where he was instrumental in exercising GSK's option to acquire a new cell therapy, as well as having won the Team Science Recognition Award 'Advanced T cell Engineering Against Malignancies (A-TEAM)', which he earned from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) in 2020.
International travel is what opened Dr. Sheppard's mind to the fascinating subject of vaccines. Taking trips with his parents to the Caribbean and Sri Lanka from the young age of 6 inspired him to think about immunizations needed for travel and how they worked. Those interests developed into an intense curiosity for microbiology as well, and over time he became interested in the interface between the immune system and cancer, which led him to immunotherapy. He is excited to witness his first wave of student mentees graduate with their doctorates, and Dr. Sheppard plans to contribute further to publications and patent introductions.
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Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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