Timothy Cripe, MD, PhD, chief of Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplantation at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, was recently appointed a member of the Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee which reports to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
This committee provides guidance to the FDA in approving novel cellular, tissue and gene therapy therapeutics and devices. In recent years, the committee reviewed applications for the new cancer immunotherapy Sipuleucel-T (Provenge) and the first licensed cord blood product, HEMACORD. The committee is also charged with reviewing applications that use embryonic stem cells or other cellular therapies.
Such committees of the FDA are established to provide functions which support its mission of protecting and promoting the public health, while meeting the requirements set forth in the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The FDA has 32 Advisory Committees across all Centers which are subject to renewal at two-year intervals unless the committee charter states otherwise. They are advisory in nature with the FDA making final decisions.
Dr. Cripe recently came to Nationwide Children’s from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center where he served as medical co-director in Clinical and Translational Research and was the founding director of the Comprehensive Musculoskeletal Tumor Program. During his stint at Cincinnati, he was a professor of Pediatrics and Director of Pilot and Collaborative Studies in the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training.
His clinical interests include gene and viral therapies for solid tumors in children, including brain tumors, neuroblastoma and bone and soft tissue sarcomas. Dr. Cripe’s current research focuses on developing and testing new, targeted therapies for pediatric solid tumors and translating those findings into clinical studies. He also investigates the use of viruses that selectively infect and kill cancer cells, studies their utility for killing cancer stem cells, and was among the first in the country to launch clinical trials of attenuated viruses in children.
Dr. Cripe is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and completed his MD, PhD in genetics and pediatric residency training at the University of Iowa. He was a fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and at the Children’s Hospital and University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.
Following his subspecialty training, he was an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin Children’s Hospital and Comprehensive Cancer Center in Madison and was the pediatric medical director of the UW/American Red Cross Hemophilia Treatment Center.
NOTE TO EDITOR: Dr. Cripe is a resident of Dublin 43017.
Dr. Timothy Cripe, chief of Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplantation