Terry J. Fry, MD, Joins Children’s Hospital Colorado as Co-Director of the Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Initiative

Children’s Colorado and the University of Colorado School of Medicine are pleased to announce that Terry J. Fry, MD, one of the leading cancer researchers in the country, will join Children’s Colorado and the faculty of the University of Colorado School of Medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus on February 1, 2018.

Dr. Fry also has been named Co-Director of the Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Initiative on the Anschutz Medical Campus as part of his role as Director of Cancer Immunotherapy on the Anschutz Medical Campus.

After receiving his MD from Georgetown University in 1992 and completing a pediatric residency at Georgetown in 1995, he served as Chief Pediatric Resident. Dr. Fry undertook fellowship training in pediatric hematology/oncology at Johns Hopkins University and established a research program focused on the immunology of stem cell transplantation as a platform for cancer immunotherapy. 

Investigative experience

Before joining the Anschutz Medical Campus community, Dr. Fry was a Tenure Track Investigator at the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute. Prior to that he served as Chief of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Children’s National Medical Center, a position he held until 2010 when he returned to the Pediatric Oncology Branch as Head of the Hematologic Malignancies Section.

“The opportunity to recruit Dr. Fry here to add to the already outstanding faculty on campus is truly amazing. We are fortunate that he chose to come to Children’s Colorado and the University over the many other leading institutions in the country who wanted him. The future is bright here,” said Lia Gore, M.D., Director of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Colorado and Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant at the University.

Among the first to develop acute lymphoblastic leukemia therapy

Dr. Fry was among the first scientists to investigate the potential to insert modified genes into a child’s own T-cells to target CD19, a surface protein found on nearly all cells affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The first product using this technology was approved by the FDA for pediatric use in August 2017, achieved an astonishing 80% remission rate in children with leukemia previously resistant to all other therapies including conventional bone marrow transplant.

“Treatment for autoimmune diseases involves manipulating the same cells we’re manipulating for cancer treatment,” said Dr. Fry. “There are ways to use these same procedures to turn these cells off instead of on. This absolutely has potential beyond cancer.” 

Dr. Fry is a member of multiple societies including the American Society of Hematology, the American Association of Immunology, the Children’s Oncology Group where he serves as Vice Chair of Cell Therapy, the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, and he was elected into the American Society of Clinical Investigation this past year. He also serves in leadership positions in the Oncology Strategy Group in the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium and the Cellular Therapy Consortium.