Lab Practices Committee

Charter

The Laboratory Practices Committee strives to:

• Help develop, standardize and disseminate accepted laboratory practices for clinical applications of cellular therapy.
• Participate in the translation of novel cell therapy products from the laboratory to the clinic.
• Encourage and foster the participation of laboratory practitioners in all aspects of the society.
  
  

Projects & Objectives

• Facility Sanitization White Paper: Published in Cytotherapy July 2015.
• Benchmark for Staffing Survey: launched September 2013.
• ISCT Annual Meeting: The LPC is actively involved in the organization of the ISCT Annual Meeting. The LPC topic interests are included in the the Quality and Operations Track. This committee also participates in the review of abstract submissions.
• Educational Webinars: The LPC is involved in the planning of ISCT webinars.
  
  

Publications

• The Evolving Role of Umbilical Cord Blood in Transplantation, Immunotherapy, and Regenerative Medicine: A Brief Contemporary Review by the ISCT Lab Practices Committee (2026)
• Shaping the future of cell and gene therapy workforce development: training of cell therapy processing personnel - perspectives from the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy Lab Practices Committee (2025)
• International Society for Cellular Therapy Facility Sanitization Survey Laboratory Practices Committee Report (Cytotherapy 2015, 17: 850-859)

The Committee

Chair

Joseph Schwartz, MD, MPH

Foundation for The Accreditation of Cellular Therapy

Tampa, FL, United States

CO-Chair

Ashley Krull, PhD
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Columbus, OH, United States

Members

Medhat Askar, MD, PhD, MSHPE, FRCPath
Texas A&M College of Medicine
College Station, TX, United States

Charles (Charlie) Branson
Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE, United States

Mark Travis Byrd, PhD
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Columbus, OH, United States

Cheryl Cox, MT ASCP
Elected Member Technologist (June 2026 - June 2028)
Moffitt Cancer Center
Tampa, FL, United States

Wanxing Cui, MD, PhD
Medstar Georgetown University Hospital
Washington, DC, United States

Rajdeep Das, MD, PhD, FIBMS
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center
Cleveland, OH, United States

Karin G.L. Hermans, PhD
The Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto, ON, Canada

Jelena Holovati, PhD
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, Canada

Diane Kadidlo, BSc, MT(ASCP), SBB
University of Minnesota
St Paul, MN, United States

Ted Kieffer, MD
Abbott Laboratories Executive
Lake Forest, IL, United States

Monica Klein, MD
ESP Leadership Development Program (2025 - 2027)
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN, United States

Nadim Mahmud, MD, PhD
University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System
Chicago, IL, United States

Mariana Morato Marques, PhD
ESP Leadership Development Program (2025 - 2027)
Albert Einstein Hospital
São Paulo, Brazil

Elena Maryamchik, MD, MBA
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY, United States

Dara Missan, PhD
Mayo Clinic
Phoenix, AZ, United States

Gabrielle A. Reckard, MLS(ASCP)^CM
Mayo Clinic
Phoenix, AZ, United States

Federico Rodriguez Quezada
Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT)
Gainesville, FL, United States

Ronit Slotky, PhD, MSc, CABP
Hackensack University Medical Center
New Jersey, NJ, United States

Jessica Sue, BSc, MHSM
Elected Member Technologist
(June 2025 – June 2027)
Sydney Cord Blood Bank
Sydney, NSW, Australia

Yvette Tanhehco, PhD, MD, MS
New York Presbyterian Hospital
New York, NY, United States

Zlatibor Velickovic, PhD
Royal Perth Hospital
Perth, WA, Australia