MD Anderson received FDA IND clearance to begin a Phase I trial of JV-394, a CD94-targeted CAR T-cell therapy for patients with relapsed or refractory CD94-positive T/natural killer (NK) cell lymphomas. The clearance enables initiation of early clinical testing focused on safety and dose evaluation in a rare, hard-to-treat cancer subgroup. The IND pathway indicates the FDA accepted the company’s/center’s initial risk controls and translational rationale for the construct, setting the stage for patient enrollment and early activity readouts. As CAR platforms increasingly diversify beyond CD19 and BCMA, CD94 represents a distinct immunobiology target approach. For clinical development teams, the approval highlights the continued FDA willingness to open first-in-human trials in lineage-defined malignancies where targeted cell therapy strategies may offer a new option.