Larry Kwak is an American cancer researcher who works at City of Hope in Duarte, California and is the Director of the Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center at City of Hope. Dr. Kwak formerly worked at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was included on Time's list of 2010's most influential people.
Dr. Kwak graduated from the 6-year combined B.S./M.D. Honors Program in Medical Education from Northwestern University Medical School in 1982 and earned his Ph.D. in tumor cell biology there in 1984. He then completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in medical oncology at Stanford University Medical Center in California.
Thereafter, he served as Head of the Vaccine Biology Section, Experimental Transplantation and Immunology Branch, at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) from 1992 to 2004. His NCI laboratory is credited with the pioneering bench-to-clinic development of a therapeutic cancer vaccine for B-cell malignancies, which was recently reported as positive in a landmark national Phase III clinical trial. This was one of three recently positive Phase III clinical trials of cancer immunotherapy.
From 2004 to 2014, Dr. Kwak served as Chairman of the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma and co-director of the Center for Cancer Immunology Research at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
In 2010 Dr. Kwak was named to the TIME100, one of the world's 100 most influential people by TIME magazine, for his 20-year commitment to the science of cancer immunotherapy, and in 2016 he was awarded the Ho-Am Prize in Medicine.
Dr. Kwak is the Director of the Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center and the Dr. Michael Friedman Professor for Translational Medicine at City of Hope.
The Wistar Institute is an independent, nonprofit research institution in biomedical science with special focuses in oncology, immunology, infectious disease, and vaccine research. Located on Spruce Street in the University City section of Philadelphia, Wistar was founded in 1892 as a nonprofit institution to focus on biomedical research and training.
The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), previously known as the International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer (iSBTc), is a professional society of scientists, academicians, researchers, clinicians, government representatives, and industry leaders from around the world dedicated to improving outcomes in patients with cancer by advancing the science and application of cancer immunotherapy. Currently, SITC has more than 2,400 members, representing 22 medical specialties from 42 countries around the world, who are engaged in the research and treatment of cancer.
James L. Gulley is an American cancer researcher and the Director of the Medical Oncology Service at National Cancer Institute.
John E. Niederhuber was the 13th director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), from 2006 until July, 2010, succeeding Andrew von Eschenbach, who went on to become a director at biotechnology firm BioTime. A nationally renowned surgeon and researcher, Dr. Niederhuber has dedicated his four-decade career to the treatment and study of cancer - as a professor, cancer center director, National Cancer Advisory Board chair, external advisor to the NCI, grant reviewer, and laboratory investigator supported by NCI and the National Institutes of Health. He is now Executive Vice President/CEO Inova Translational Medicine Institute and Inova Health System and co-director, Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network.
The University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center is a collaborative cancer research center based in Hyde Park, Chicago, United States. The Comprehensive Cancer Center is affiliated with the University of Chicago.
Jonathan S. Berek, MD MMS is the Laurie Kraus Lacob Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Director of the Stanford Women's Cancer Center, and Senior Advisor, Stanford Cancer Institute. He is a recent past Fellow in the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute.
James Patrick Allison is an American immunologist and Nobel laureate who holds the position of professor and chair of immunology and executive director of immunotherapy platform at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Allison is Regental Professor and Founding-Director of James P. Allison Institute at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Helen Elisabeth Heslop is a physician-scientist from New Zealand whose clinical interests are in hematopoietic stem cell transplants. Heslop’s research focuses on immunotherapy to treat viral infections, post transplant and hematologic malignancies. She is a professor in the Department of Medicine and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and the director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital and Houston Methodist Hospital. She is also the Dan L. Duncan Chair and the associate director of clinical research at the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center.
Elaine Sarkin Jaffe is a senior National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) most well known for her contribution to hematopathology. She completed her medical education at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, receiving her M.D. degree from University of Pennsylvania in 1969. After an internship at Georgetown University she joined NCI as a resident in anatomic pathology, and has been a senior investigator since 1974, focusing on the classification and definition of lymphomas. Jaffe's early work helped to provide a deeper understanding of the origin of lymphomas, especially follicular lymphoma. Her team notably elucidated the difference between T cell and B cell lymphomas.
Douglas R. Lowy is the current Principal Deputy Director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Chief of the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology within the Center for Cancer Research at NCI. Lowy served as Acting Director of NCI between April 2015 and October 2017 following the resignation of Harold E. Varmus, M.D., and again between April and November 2019, while Director Norman Sharpless served as the Acting Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He resumed the role of Acting Director on May 1, 2022, when Sharpless stepped down until October 3, 2022 when Monica Bertagnolli was appointed Director. He resumed the role again in November 2023 after Bertagnolli resigned to serve as director of the National Institutes of Health.
Holger Lode is a German specialist for pediatrics. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of General Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at the University Medicine Greifswald. He is also the director of the Center of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in Greifswald. Lode is well known for his clinical and scientific work on immunotherapy of neuroblastoma.
Michael A. Caligiuri is an American physician scientist focused on oncology and immunology. He is currently the president of the City of Hope National Medical Center and the Deana and Steve Campbell Physician-in-Chief Distinguished Chair. He was elected president of the American Association for Cancer Research, the world's largest cancer research organization, for 2017–2018. He was previously the CEO of the James Cancer Hospital (2008-2017), Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center (2003-2017), and Director of the Division of Hematology-Oncology (2000-2008) at the Ohio State University. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Medicine in 2018.
Carl H. June is an American immunologist and oncologist. He is currently the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. He is most well known for his research on T cell therapies for the treatment of several forms of cancers. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
Elizabeth M. Jaffee is an American oncologist specializing in pancreatic cancer and immunotherapy.
Steven T. Rosen is the executive vice president and director emeritus of City of Hope's Beckman Research Institute and cancer center. He was previously the provost and chief scientific officer of City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. In addition to previously directing City of Hope's Comprehensive Cancer Center, he also led the Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope and the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences. Previously (1989-2014), Rosen was the director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University, which was awarded comprehensive cancer center status by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1997.
Duane A. Mitchell is an American physician-scientist and university professor. He is currently employed at the University of Florida College of Medicine, in Gainesville, Florida as the Assistant Vice President for Research, Associate Dean for Translational Science and Clinical Research, and Director of the University of Florida (UF) Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He is the Phyllis Kottler Friedman Professor in the Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery. and co-director of the Preston A. Wells Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy. Mitchell is also the founder, President, and Chairman of iOncologi, Inc., a biotechnology company in Gainesville, FL specializing in immuno-oncology.
Richard Edelson is the Anthony Brady Professor of Dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine. He is a past director of the Yale Cancer Center, and an elected fellow of both the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He is known for his research discoveries in non-Hodgkins lymphoma, particularly his early career introduction of the disease category concept of Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma (CTCL), and his discovery of extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) as an immunotherapy for cancer, transplant reactions and autoimmunity.
Adekunle O. Odunsi is an American gynecologic oncologist. In 2021, Odunsi became the director of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Philip Greenberg is a professor of medicine, oncology, and immunology at the University of Washington and head of program in immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His research is centered around T cell biology and therapeutic cell therapies. He is a co-founder of Juno Therapeutics.
Cornelis Joseph Maria Melief is a Dutch immunologuist specialising in cancer immunology and immunotherapy, with a focus on therapeutic cancer vaccines. He is emeritus Professor, former head of the Department of Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion at the Leiden University Medical Center, and Chief Scientific Officer at ISA Therapeutics in Netherlands. He is known for his work in the field of cancer immunology, devising new cancer therapies based on the activation of the patient's own immune system.