Developed by the ISCT Telegraft Editorial Board
Janet MacPherson has spent a career in cell therapy manufacturing, regulatory affairs, and scientific community-building. She serves as Quality Manager for the Stem Cell Transplant and Cell Therapy Program at NSW Health Pathology in Newcastle, Australia.
As Senior Editor, she oversaw the transition of the Telegraft from an emailed newsletter to an online hub. With a searchable platform for past and present content, it provided a more dynamic and permanent home for our content.
Janet has always been a great advocate of our ISCT members, seeking to feature them in the newsletter and generate more engagement. She started a recurring feature highlight of past presidents to introduce them and their eras to a new generation of members, and preserving our collective institutional memory. She has actively used the Telegraft as a career development platform for early stage members, recruiting and mentoring several new editors towards more involvement in the society during her tenure. Her editorials for the Telegraft are some of the most read pieces in the Hub. She has used the newsletter as a great vehicle for discussion among our community. Her October 2025 editorial featured the turning point in the regulatory landscape of cell and gene therapies, with the draft guidances from the FDA, the Collaboration on Gene Therapies Global Pilot (CoGenT), a pilot initiative designed to explore concurrent, collaborative regulatory reviews, and the integration of AI. “Current regulation should not be a barrier to innovation or patient access,” she wrote. “Industry and product developers have a key role to play.
We are all the better because of her commitment and her tireless leadership. As she signs off to pursue the next set of challenges in her career, we want to take this opportunity to thank her for her stewardship of our newsletter, for her active shaping of our content, for her example of interacting with our community of scientists, physicians, regulatory officers, industry members, technicians, advocates, and patients.
Janet, we will miss you at the Telegraft Editorial Board, and we wish you well. Thank you from all of us.
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