MADHUSUDHANAN SUKUMAR

Trained as a T cell immunologist in Dr. Steven Rosenberg’s lab that advanced the FDA approved, commercial CAR-T products YESCARTA and bb2121, I bring 18 years of results-driven leadership in TIL, TCR engineering, CAR-T, CAR-NK, and CAR-γδ T cell programs. I have advanced therapies for both hematological malignancies and solid tumors through discovery, achieved multiple NME milestones and IND-enabling studies within tight timelines, fostering strategic collaborations, and developing talent to achieve aggressive milestones.

• 2020 & 2021: Supporting CARVYKTI CAR-T Mechanism of Action & CAR Optimization Leadership
• 2022: J&J Leadership Award: Delivered Best-in-Class Auto CAR T for lymphoma
• 2023: J&J Leadership Award: Delivered CAR iNK NME Milestone for hematological (Lymphoma, Leukemia, Multiple Myeloma and solid tumor (Prostate cancer)
• 2023: J&J Innovation Leadership Award (ILA) High-Throughput Cytokine Platform to accelerate the discovery of first and best in class therapeutics
• 2012: NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE) 2012, Bethesda MD
• 2014: Winner of SITC Presidential Award (Society of International Therapy of Cancer) 27th Annual Meeting, Bethesda, MD
• 2014: NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE) 2014, Bethesda MD
• 2015: SITC 2015 Young Investigator Award

• Invitation from Dr. Carl June, December 2017, Department Seminar, Center for Cellular Immunotherapy, University of Pennsylvania
• Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 27th Annual SITC Meeting 2012, Bethesda, Maryland.
• Keystone Meeting 2012 (Emerging Topics in Immune System Plasticity), Santa Fe, New Mexico.
• Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 28th Annual SITC Meeting 2013, National Harbor, Maryland.
• Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 29th Annual SITC Meeting 2014, National Harbor, Maryland.
• Keystone Meeting 2016, Cancer Vaccines: Targeting Cancer Genes for Immunotherapy (X1), Fairmont Chateau Whistler, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.
• Keystone Meeting 2016, Immunometabolism in Immune Function and Inflammatory Disease (Q8), Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alberta, Canada.
• Immunology 2016, The American Association of Immunology (AAI-Annual meeting) Seattle, Washington.
• Faculty Interview Invitation from Dr. Doug Green, March 2016, Department of Immunology Seminar, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
• UCLA Immunology, Infectious Disease and Transplantation (I3T) Seminar Series (2016-2017).
• Keystone Meeting 2017, Integrating Metabolism and Immunity (E4), Dublin, Ireland.
• Keystone Meeting 2019, Cancer Metastasis: The Role of Metabolism, Immunity and the Microenvironment, Florence, Italy.
• December 2019, The 48th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Immunology, Hamamatsu 2019.
• November 2024: Immune Modulation and Engineering Symposium, Philadelphia 2024
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• Leadership: Directed a team of 5 direct reports at Johnson and Johnson, fostering a growth mindset and cultivating future leaders capable of delivering high-quality results in matrix environments
• Program Leadership: Successfully led multiple autologous and allogeneic CAR-T programs for both hematological and solid tumors as project lead, driving high-quality NME advancements
• Process Optimization: Collaborated closely with API to implement autologous manufacturing processes, significantly enhancing CAR T functions
• Recognition: Won prestigious SPARK Award and received recognition for “Establishing a high-throughput CAR screening platform to identify best-in-class CARs for heme and solid tumors”
• Innovation: Received the Innovative Leadership Award for spearheading the development of a high-throughput cytokine platform, accelerating internal CAR T programs supporting CAR T portfolio programs (Leukemia, Lymphoma, Multiple Myeloma, Prostate and NSCLC & RCC) that can help understand efficacy and toxicity of CAR T lead candidates
• Mentorship: Served as PhD thesis advisor within J&J, mentoring scientists in thesis and supporting research publications
• Intellectual Property: Filed five patent applications on cutting-edge innovations, including generation of CAR T with enhanced T stem cell memory population manufacturing, CAR T optimization, CAR screening methods, and viral engineering techniques

1. P Muranski, Z Borman, S Kerkar, C Klebanoff, J Yun, Sukumar M, L Gattinoni and NP Restifo.

Th17-derived memory cells are long-lived and retain a stem cell-like molecular signature.

Immunity. 2011 Dec 23;35(6):972-85. (Commentary in Cell Stem Cell)

2. Gerbitz A*, Sukumar M*, Helm F, Wilke A, Friese C, Fahrenwaldt C, Lehmann F, Loddenkemper C, Kammertoens F, Mautner J, Schmitt C, Blankenstein T, and Bornkamm G.

Stromal Interferon gamma signaling and cross presentation are required to eliminate antigen loss variants of B cell lymphoma in mice. PLoS One 2012 * First author equal contribution.

3. Sukumar M*, Liu J, Ji Y, Subramanian M, Crompton JG, Yu Z, Roychoudhuri R, Palmer DC, Muranski P, Karoly ED, Mohney RP, Klebanoff CA, Lal A, Finkel T, Restifo NP, Gattinoni L.

Inhibiting glycolytic metabolism enhances CD8+ T cell memory and antitumor function.

J Clin Invest. 2013 Oct 1;123 (10):4479-88. * Corresponding author. (Commentary in Cancer Biology and Therapy)

4. Crompton JG*, Sukumar M*, Restifo NP.

Uncoupling T-cell expansion from effector differentiation in cell-based immunotherapy.

Immunol Rev.2014 Jan; 257(1):264-76.  * Contributed equally

5. Sukumar M* and Gattinoni L

The short and sweet of T-cell therapy: Restraining glycolysis enhances the formation of immunological memory and antitumor immune responses.

Oncoimmunology. 2014 Jan 1; 3(1):e27573.* Invited Review and Corresponding author

6. Crompton JG*, Sukumar M*, Roychoudhuri R, Clever D, Gros A, Eil R, Tran E, Hanada KI, Yu Z, Palmer DC, Kerkar SP, Michalek RD, Upham T, Leonardi A, Aquavella N, Wang E, Marincola FM, Gattinoni L, Muranski P, Sundrud MS, Klebanoff CA, Rosenberg SA, Fearon DT and Restifo NP*

Inhibition of Akt enables expansion of tumor-specific lymphocytes with memory cell characteristics and enhanced anti-tumor function

Cancer Res. 2015 Jan 15;75(2):296-305

*Contributed equally and corresponding author. (Article selected for the Cover in Cancer Research)

7. Ji Y, Wrzesinski C, Yu Z, Hu J, Gautam S, Hawk NV, Telford WG, Palmer DC, Franco Z, Sukumar M, Roychoudhuri R, Clever D, Klebanoff CA, Surh CD, Waldmann TA, Restifo NP, Gattinoni L.

miR-155 augments CD8+ T-cell antitumor activity in lymphoreplete hosts by enhancing responsiveness to homeostatic γc cytokines. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Jan 13;112(2):476-81

8. Crompton JG, Narayanan M, Cuddapah S, Roychoudhuri R, Ji Y, Yang W, Patel SJ, Sukumar M, Palmer DC, Peng W, Wang E, Marincola FM, Klebanoff CA, Zhao K, Tsang JS, Gattinoni L, Restifo NP.

Lineage relationship of CD8+ T cell subsets is revealed by progressive changes in the epigenetic landscape. Cell Mol Immunol. 2015 Apr 27.

9. Sukumar M, Roychoudhuri R, Restifo NP.

Nutrient Competition: A New Axis of Tumor Immunosuppression. Cell. 2015 Sep 10; 162(6):1206-8.

10. Palmer DC, Guittard GC, Franco Z, Crompton JG, Eil RL, Patel SJ, Ji Y, Van Panhuys N, Klebanoff CA, Sukumar M, Clever D, Chichura A, Roychoudhuri R, Varma R, Wang E, Gattinoni L, Marincola FM, Balagopalan L, Samelson LE, Restifo NP.

Cish actively silences TCR signaling in CD8+ T cells to maintain tumor tolerance.

J Exp Med. 2015 Nov 16; 212(12):2095-113. (Commentary in Nature Reviews Immunology)

11. Klebanoff CA, Scott CD, Leonardi AJ, Yamamoto TN, Cruz AC, Ouyang C, Ramaswamy M, Roychoudhuri R, Ji Y, Eil RL, Sukumar M, Crompton JG, Palmer DC, Borman ZA, Clever D, Thomas SK, Patel S, Yu Z, Muranski P, Liu H, Wang E, Marincola FM, Gros A, Gattinoni L, Rosenberg SA, Siegel RM, Restifo NP.

Memory T cell-driven differentiation of naive cells impairs adoptive immunotherapy.

J Clin Invest. 2016 Jan 4; 126(1):318-34. (Commentary in the journal of Clinical Investigation)

12. Sukumar M*, Liu J, Mehta GU, Patel SJ, Roychoudhuri R, Crompton JG, Klebanoff CA, Ji Y, Li P, Yu Z, Whitehill GD, Clever D, Eil RL, Palmer DC, Mitra S, Rao M, Keyvanfar K, Schrump DS, Wang E, Marincola FM, Gattinoni L, Leonard WJ, Muranski P, Finkel T, Restifo NP.

Mitochondrial Membrane Potential Identifies Cells with Enhanced Stemness for Cellular Therapy.

Cell Metab. 2015 Dec 7.

* Corresponding author. (Article selected for the Cover in Cell Metabolism)

13. Roychoudhuri R, Eil RL, Clever D, Klebanoff CA, Sukumar M, Grant FM, Yu Z, Mehta G, Liu H, Jin P, Ji Y, Palmer DC, Pan JH, Chichura A, Crompton JG, Patel SJ, Stroncek D, Wang E, Marincola FM, Okkenhaug K, Gattinoni L, Restifo NP.

The transcription factor BACH2 promotes tumor immunosuppression.J Clin Invest. 2016 Jan 5.

14. Crompton JG*, Sukumar M* and Restifo NP

Targeting Akt in cell transfer immunotherapy for cancer

Oncoimmunology. 2015 Dec 29;5(9) * Invited review and contributed equally

15. Roychoudhuri R, Clever D, Li P, Wakabayashi Y, Quinn KM, Klebanoff CA, Ji Y, Sukumar M, Eil RL, Yu Z, Spolski R, Palmer DC, Pan JH, Patel SJ, Macallan DC, Fabozzi G, Shih HY, Kanno Y, Muto A, Zhu J, Gattinoni L, O'Shea JJ, Okkenhaug K, Igarashi K, Leonard WJ, Restifo NP.

BACH2 regulates CD8(+) T cell differentiation by controlling access of AP-1 factors to enhancers.

Nat Immunol. 2016 Jul;17.

16. Clever D, Roychoudhuri R, Constantinides MG, Askenase MH, Sukumar M, Klebanoff CA, Eil RL, Hickman HD, Yu Z, Pan JH, Palmer DC, Phan AT, Goulding J, Gattinoni L, Goldrath AW, Belkaid Y, Restifo NP. Oxygen Sensing by T Cells Establishes an Immunologically Tolerant Metastatic Niche.

Cell. 2016 Aug 25

17. Eil R, Vodnala SK, Clever D, Klebanoff CA, Sukumar M, Pan JH, Palmer DC, Gros A, Yamamoto TN, Patel SJ, Guittard GC, Yu Z, Carbonaro V, Okkenhaug K, Schrump DS, Linehan WM, Roychoudhuri R, Restifo NP.

Ionic immune suppression within the tumour microenvironment limits T cell effector function. Nature. 2016 Sep 14;537

18. Kishton RJ, Sukumar M, Restifo NP.

Arginine Arms T Cells to Thrive and Survive. Cell Metab. 2016 Nov 8;24(5):647-648.

19. Metabolic reprograming of anti-tumor immunity.

Sukumar M*, Kishton RJ, Restifo NP.

Curr Opin Immunol. 2017 Jun; 46:14-22. * Corresponding author. (Article selected for the Cover)

20. Kishton RJ, Sukumar M, Restifo NP.

Metabolic Regulation of T Cell Longevity and Function in Tumor Immunotherapy.

Cell Metab. 2017 Jul 5;26(1):94-109.

21. Patel SJ, Sanjana NE, Kishton RJ, Eidizadeh A, Vodnala SK, Cam M, Gartner JJ, Jia L, Steinberg SM, Yamamoto TN, Merchant AS, Mehta GU, Chichura A, Shalem O, Tran E, Eil R, Sukumar M, Guijarro EP, Day CP, Robbins P, Feldman S, Merlino G, Zhang F, Restifo NP.

Identification of essential genes for cancer immunotherapy.

Nature 2017 Aug 31;548(7669):537-542.

22. Vodnala SK, Eil R, Kishton RJ, Sukumar M, Yamamoto TN, Ha NH, Lee PH, Shin M, Patel SJ, Yu Z, Palmer DC, Kruhlak MJ, Liu X, Locasale JW, Huang J, Roychoudhuri R, Finkel T, Klebanoff CA, Restifo NP. T cell stemness and dysfunction in tumors are triggered by a common mechanism.

Science. 2019 Mar 29;363(6434). (Commentary in Science, Immunity and Oncoimmunology)

23. Gurusamy D, Henning AN, Yamamoto TN, Yu Z, Zacharakis N, Krishna S, Kishton RJ, Vodnala SK, Eidizadeh A, Jia J, Kariya CM, Black M, Eil R, Palmer DC, Pan JH, Sukumar M, Patel SJ, Restifo NP

Multi-phenotype CRISPR-Cas9 Screen Identifies p38 Kinase as a Target for Adoptive Immunotherapies. Cancer Cell. 2020 Jun 8.

24.Mazzanti N, Tamot N, Francese A, Luo J, Borrok JM, Rossillo J, Plummer J, Patwardhan G, Sum CS, Ports M, Spiller KL, Sukumar M. Fine-Tuning Affinity and Spacer Design Enhances T Cell Potency in DLL3 and BCMA CAR T Cells (Manuscript submitted) 2025