Q&A: Dr. Ritesh Kotecha, 2025 KCA Grant Winner
Dr. Ritesh Kotecha is a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He received a 2025 Pediatric Kidney Cancer Focus Award in partnership with Joey’s Wings Foundation for his project “GPNMB-CAR T Cell Therapy for Translocation Renal Cell Carcinoma”. He also received a KCA Research Award in 2020. We spoke with Dr. Kotecha about his work and what it means for patients.
What is your current research about?
Our proposal focuses on the development of an allogeneic CAR-T cells — engineered immune cells that can be given “off the shelf” without needing to be made individually for each patient. This approach may transform treatment delivery from a process that typically takes weeks to one that can occur in days. By manufacturing at scale, we can achieve a more consistent product.
In this project, we are investigating immune cells designed to minimize immune rejection and improve overall persistence within the body for patients with translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC). First, we aim to validate our target antigen — a molecule that is commonly expressed on tRCC cells uniquely but low or absent on normal tissues. Using tumor samples collected from patients treated at our institution, we are characterizing potential targets and building prototype CAR T cell constructs based on our platform design. We then plan to test these in preclinical models to confirm tumor specificity and function. Our ultimate goal is to generate the foundational data needed to support the translation of a therapeutic for patients with tRCC.
How soon do you anticipate a CAR-T cell therapy could be made readily available “off the shelf” to tRCC patients?
The application of cellular therapy to treat solid tumors is rapidly evolving. CAR-T cell therapies have already received FDA approval for several hematologic malignancies, and we are now working to translate those lessons into solid tumors such as RCC. The key challenges include ensuring that engineered cells can penetrate the tumor microenvironment, maintain durable activity, and avoid off-target effects. Encouragingly, targets such as CD70 have already shown early clinical signals in patients with clear cell RCC. In a recent clinical trial presented at the 2024 IKCS meeting, several heavily pre-treated patients achieved sustained objective responses to CD70-directed CAR T cell therapy. These proof-of-concept studies demonstrate that CAR T administration is technically feasible and can exert meaningful clinical effects in kidney cancer. The next step for tRCC is identifying the right target and strategy to justify clinical advancement. We are hopeful that, in the coming years, this will be achievable.
How does this project build on your 2020 KCA grant?
The KCA’s support has been instrumental in shaping my research trajectory. Our prior KCA-funded work focused on identifying host immune biomarkers—at both population and ancestry levels—that influence immunotherapy response and outcomes. That effort highlighted a critical gap: the need for predictive biomarkers to identify patients most likely to benefit from immune checkpoint blockade, as some experience complete resistance to therapy. This project represents a natural next step—moving from predicting immune responses to engineering them. By developing CAR T cells, we aim to introduce a synthetic immune response capable of targeting kidney cancers directly.
What about your research could be most exciting for patients and families?
Patients with tRCC face limited treatment options and often aggressive disease biology. What makes this project exciting is that it reimagines CAR-T therapy as a precision-guided cellular therapy tailored to the unique molecular features of tRCC. If successful, this could open an entirely new therapeutic avenue for patients who currently have few durable options, offering real hope where conventional therapies have struggled.
What motivates you?
As a medical oncologist, my motivation comes from patients and their families—their resilience amidst uncertainty and the trust they place in us. I’ve witnessed how profoundly a cancer diagnosis reshapes lives, and that drives my determination to innovate and bridge the gap between bench and bedside. The transformative success of cellular therapies in blood cancers has redefined what’s possible. My goal is to bring that same potential to kidney cancer—to make curative outcomes conceivable, even in rare and aggressive variants like tRCC.
What else do you want others to know about your research?
Our research questions always focus on translating discovery into patient care. Kidney cancer research has entered an era of precision where molecular insights intersect with engineering new technologies. Collaboration across disciplines will be key as we accelerate along the path from innovating ideas to a tangible impact for patients.