2026 Kite-Gilead Cell Therapy Innovation Program

Summary:

Kite-Gilead is a global life sciences company committed to bringing the promise of cell therapy to as many eligible patients as possible who may benefit.

The Kite-Gilead Cell Therapy Innovation Program is part of the Stanford-Kite Strategic Alliance (established in November 2024) and is designed to support Stanford investigator collaborations to accelerate innovative, early-stage cell therapy research. With this program, Kite-Gilead aims to support novel preclinical and translational research.

Amount of Funding:

$200,000 in direct research funding, plus applicable institutional indirect costs, for up to 18 months. Kite-Gilead expertise and guidance will also be provided. A milestones-based budget will be requested during the full proposal stage. 

Program Goals:

Kite-Gilead’s primary objective in developing this Innovation program is to convert promising projects to clinical-sponsored research programs and subsequently create in-licensing and start-up opportunities with the potential to continuously expand and augment Kite-Gilead’s early-stage portfolio. 

Areas of Interest:

This program will focus on research projects that aim to discover new and actionable knowledge about (1) therapeutic targets, T cell activation pathways and mechanisms to avoid CAR T cell exhaustion; (2) innovative methods to increase patient CAR T cell safety and efficacy; (3) correlative analysis of samples to improve cell therapy patient outcomes; and (4) exploration of non-cancer cell therapy indications. 

The following examples are to be used as a guide. However, proposals do not have to be limited to addressing the following topics.

Oncology

• Novel strategies for improving chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) safety and efficacy, including identification of methods and conditioning strategies to develop more effective, more reliable, and more precise future cell therapies. 
• Tools/biomarkers for patient stratification, analysis of responders/non-responders, and toxicity management. 
• Exploring the impact of T-Cell Engagers and barriers to yield manufacturable CAR T cells, with multi-dimensional methods including single cell and spatial characterization of priority hematological and solid tumor malignancies. 
• Correlative analysis of biosamples collected from patients undergoing treatment with standard of care cell therapy and/or Kite-Gilead investigator-initiated trials to understand immune disease etiology, severity, response to treatments. 
• Characterization of disease heterogeneity through unsupervised embeddings of high dimensional multi-model data. 
• Understanding of T-cell phenotypes and fitness in CAR refractory and TCE experienced patients in Lymphoma and MM 
• Exploring the impact and alternatives of lymphodepletion dose on safety and efficacy of CAR-T therapies 

Rheumatology / Immunology

• Understanding biological features that indicate which patients with lupus are / are not appropriate candidates for a B-cell targeting approach
• Identifying rare autoimmune disorders that may be treated more effectively with CAR T cell therapies 

Milestones:

Applicants will propose project milestones. The Study Order will outline a predetermined Go/No-Go milestone in which the Kite-Stanford Innovation Joint Steering Committee and Alliance Leadership Team will review preliminary Project Results. 

Intellectual Property:

Please reach out to kiteprogram@stanford.edu for any questions.

Timeline:

RFP launch: June 3, 2026

Deadline to submit CE faculty PI Waiver requests (if applicable); see detailed eligibility instructions below: July 15, 2026

Deadline for submission of pre-proposals to Strategic Ventures-Industry Relations (SV-IR): July 22, 2026

Invitations for “pitch” day announced: Week of August 24, 2026

In-person “pitch” day: Target Week of September 21, 2026

Awardees notified: Early October 2026

Submission Instructions for Pre-proposals:

Fill out the attached pre-proposal template. Email the complete pre-proposal to kiteprogram@stanford.edu by July 22, 2026. SV-IR will review the submissions with the Office of Technological Licensing (OTL) and Industry Contracting Office (ICO) for Confidential Information, and then formally submit all pre-proposals to the Stanford-Kite Alliance Leadership Team and Joint Steering Committees on behalf of Stanford. See attached instructions for more information.

There should be NO confidential information disclosed in the pre-proposals.

Institutional representative: You do not need to submit your pre-proposals through RMG or OSR for institutional approval; you must submit your pre-proposal directly to the program per the instructions above. Only if invited for the “Pitch” day, please initiate your Proposal Intake Form (PIF) at your earliest convenience.