Karen Chagin, MD

Karen Chagin M.D. is the Chief Medical Officer of Context Therapeutics as of June 9, 2025. Prior to Context, Karen served as Senior Vice President of Early-Stage Development at Adaptimmune, a leading developer of engineered TCR T cell therapies. At Adaptimmune, Karen played a critical role in the development and approval of Tecelra (afamitresgene autoleucel), the first engineered cell therapy approved for a solid tumor in the U.S.

Karen held positions of increasing responsibility at Tmunity from 2019 to 2023 ultimately becoming Chief Medical Officer. She led and was accountable for the development strategy, planning, and execution of Tmunity’s CAR T-cell therapies in multiple solid tumor indications. Subsequently, she became the Head of Kite Philadelphia following Kite’s acquisition of Tmunity.

From 2015 to 2019, Karen served as Adaptimmune’s Vice President of Clinical Development and was the clinical lead for the afamitresgene autoleucel and letetresgene autoleucel programs. Prior to joining Adaptimmune in 2015, she served as a Scientific Director in Oncology Early Development at Janssen leading development activities for Phase 1 assets.

Karen began her career in the pharmaceutical industry in 2009 at GSK and served as a Safety Development leader before transitioning to clinical development. As a Medical Director for Promacta®/Revolade®, she was responsible for the development and execution of multiple Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials. In her roles in safety and clinical development, Karen led and contributed to the registration of several products and indications globally.

Dr. Chagin holds a B.A from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine. She performed her residency at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and her fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.