About Us
Our Vision: Precision Cell and Gene Therapy
Cross-disease, biomarker-driven, translational.
Our Mission
Cell and gene therapies are increasingly transforming the treatment of diseases across a wide range of medical specialties—from blood cancers to autoimmune diseases and congenital blood disorders to eye diseases.
To this end, the Munich Center for Cell and Gene Therapy brings together four functions at LMU Medical Center under one umbrella:
- Clinical and scientific expertise in the application of these therapies
- A network of specialized disciplines for managing their side effects
- Research that paves the way for new therapeutic approaches—from expanding the use of existing drugs to new indications to the development of entirely new procedures
- A platform for interdisciplinary scientific collaboration and clinical trial activities that fosters synergies among the participating departments
Munich Center for Cell and Gene Therapy
Director: Prof. Dr. med. Marion Subklewe
Secretariat: Stefanie Grießhammer
More About the Center
CAR-T cell therapy began at LMU Medical Center in 2018 with the first cell collection; the first patient received their infusion in early 2019. This has evolved into a program that utilizes CAR-T therapies approved in Europe. By mid-2024, more than 150 patients had already been treated in this way. At the same time, a dedicated working group on treatment safety was established, whose findings now form the basis for treatment recommendations both in Germany and abroad.
In July 2026, this program became a center: the MCCG Munich Center for Cell and Gene Therapy—founded by five clinics and departments of the LMU Medical Center. It conducts its own studies, implements cell and gene therapies in close collaboration with the Department of Transfusion Medicine, and paves the way for other research groups to move toward clinical application. In the fall of 2026, gene therapy for beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease will be added.
No single specialty deals exclusively with cell and gene therapies. At the center, hematology and oncology, transfusion medicine, clinical pharmacology, pediatrics, and ophthalmology work together, along with neurology, radiology, and nuclear medicine. Currently, collaboration is particularly close with the Rheumatology Department of Medical Clinic IV, Neuroimmunology, Pulmonology, Dermatology, Ophthalmology, and Nephrology. Before treatment begins, an interdisciplinary indication board determines whether a therapy is appropriate.
Several examples illustrate the extent of this collaboration: The center was the first in the world to use a T-cell engager as part of a compassionate-use program for systemic sclerosis (Magno et al., EJC). This approach was also applied to antiphospholipid syndrome and immune thrombocytopenia, as published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Gottschlich et al., NEJM 2026).
The Immuno Task Force is a multidisciplinary group of physicians and nurses dedicated to ensuring the safety of these therapies. Psycho-oncology is also part of the team. It assesses individual risks before treatment, provides support during therapy, and remains a point of contact for patients and referring physicians after discharge.
Their work led to the development of the CAR-HEMATOTOX score, which Dr. Kai Rejeski developed in collaboration with Prof. Marion Subklewe at LMU Medical Center. This score assesses the risk of persistent changes in blood counts before therapy begins and is used internationally. The group played a leading role in drafting the Onkopedia guideline on CAR-T cell therapy and contributed to international consensus criteria.
The team has developed the free myTcell app for physicians. It helps classify side effects of CAR-T cell therapies and T-cell engagers and provides guidance on their treatment.
The center conducts its own studies, ranging from preclinical development to investigator-initiated clinical trials, funded by, among others, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Bavarian Center for Cancer Research, and the Bruno and Helene Jöster Foundation. Early-phase clinical trials are conducted through the Early Clinical Trial Unit of Medical Clinic III, headed by Dr. Veit Bücklein. This same infrastructure is available to research groups both within and outside the hospital that wish to bring their own procedures into clinical practice.
Networks and Early-Career Researchers
The center collaborates with the Bavarian Center for Cancer Research and the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research. Through the European GoCART initiative of the professional societies EBMT and EHA, it is integrated into the network of European cell therapy centers.
Since 2026, the center has offered a fellowship program for physicians from centers that are establishing their own CAR-T cell therapy programs. The program was initiated by Prof. Marion Subklewe and Prof. Martin Dreyling and is financially supported by GoCART. The first guest arrived in March 2026 from Poland, and a guest from Turkey is scheduled to arrive in January 2027.
