Christian Capitini is the Acting Director of the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, Transplant and Cellular Therapy at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He graduated with an MD with Distinction in Research at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 2002. He then completed a residency in Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota in 2005, where he was inducted into the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Honor Society. Dr. Capitini then completed a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology through the joint program of Johns Hopkins University/National Cancer Institute in 2008. He also served as Chief Fellow in the last year of fellowship. Dr. Capitini joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an Assistant Professor in 2011, and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2020 and Professor with tenure in 2024. He is board certified in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.
Dr. Capitini focuses his research on using adoptive cell therapies to cure pediatric cancers and treat immune-related adverse events from transplant like GVHD and acute radiation syndrome. Ongoing laboratory work is combining NK cells with immune checkpoint inhibitors against neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma after allogeneic bone marrow transplant. He is also developing CAR T cells to treat pediatric solid tumors. Clinically, Dr. Capitini is a site investigator for clinical trials studying CAR T cells for relapsed leukemia, neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma as well as TCR T cells.