Dr. John Powderly grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, and graduated from George Mason University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.  He then attended Georgetown Medical School from 1991-95 and was awarded the Lawrence Dean Georgetown Scholarship. His senior year at Georgetown was spent at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as an intern at the Surgical Oncology Branch, Immunotherapy Division focusing on melanoma immunotherapy.  

He then attended the University of Texas, at the Houston Health Science Center, for a combined Medicine/Pediatrics Residency from 1995-99. In 1999-2000, he was appointed faculty at MD Anderson Cancer Center as an Attending Staff Internist, where he also performed additional melanoma immunotherapy research.  His oncology fellowship at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill from 2000-02 focused on dendritic cell immunotherapy. 

In 2002 he relocated to Charlotte, NC to build a community-based oncology research program.  In 2003, he became Chairman of the Cancer Research Committee at Presbyterian Cancer Center and helped develop its network of clinical trials to become American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer Accredited.  He also became Section Chief of the Hematology/Oncology Division on the Medical Executive Committee Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) Mercy Hospital, and on the Executive Cancer Committee of CMC Charlotte.  

Based on his community involvement in clinical trials, and hosting rotations for medical students and residents, he was appointed Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at both Duke and UNC Chapel Hill.  He helped develop the Certified Physician Investigator (CPI) curriculum for the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP).  Dr. Powderly is also involved in community-based leadership initiatives by teaching immunotherapy educational sessions at American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO) meetings, NC Oncology Society meetings, and Community Oncology Alliance (COA) national meetings.

In 2005, Dr. Powderly founded Carolina BioOncology Institute (CBOI), a cancer research clinic that focuses on early phase immunotherapy trials as a regional referral hub in Charlotte NC.   Since 2005, CBOI has opened more than 150 early phase immunotherapy trials including multiple cell therapy trials. 

Dr. Powderly’s research has led to more than 150 publications and abstract poster presentations, including articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Journal of Immunotherapy, Clinical Cancer Research, Clinical Chemistry, and Investigational New Drugs.  Some of his articles and presentations have been recognized as “top 50 most cited articles by Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO)” and “top 10 most downloaded ASCO Video Presentations.”  He has also served as reviewer for multiple cancer journals, and NIH grant reviewer. 

In 2005, he also founded BioCytics Inc. Human Applications Laboratory (HAL) incubated within CBOI.  BioCytics performs translational research to develop autologous cellular immunotherapies at the point of care as a distributed manufacturing platform.   CBOI & BioCytics have grown to 50+ employees with 31,000 sq ft including multiple large clean rooms and bioinformatics for its manufacturing and clinical research operations.  It is the only independent (privately held) phase I cancer clinic combined with leukapheresis, cellular manufacturing and phase 1 dosing capabilities “under 1 roof.”