Padmanee Sharma (born June 26, 1970) is an immunologist and oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She holds the position of professor of genitourinary medical oncology and immunology in the Division of Cancer Medicine where she specializes in renal, prostate, and bladder cancers.
Sharma studies the treatment of cancer with immunotherapy. [1] [2] [3] Her doctoral work demonstrated that cells expressing thymus-leukemia (TL) on their surface could be recognized by the Immune system and killed. [4] In 2003, she was the lead author on a study of another tumor antigen, NY-ESO-1 in bladder cancer. [5] She won an ASCO Young Investigator Award in 2003 to pursue this work. [6]
Sharma was born June 26, 1970, in Guyana. [11] She is married to longtime collaborator, James P. Allison and has three daughters from a previous marriage. [12]
Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies. Immunotherapy is under preliminary research for its potential to treat various forms of cancer.
A cancer vaccine is a vaccine that either treats existing cancer or prevents development of cancer. Vaccines that treat existing cancer are known as therapeutic cancer vaccines or tumor antigen vaccines. Some of the vaccines are "autologous", being prepared from samples taken from the patient, and are specific to that patient.
Cancer immunotherapy (immuno-oncotherapy) is the stimulation of the immune system to treat cancer, improving on the immune system's natural ability to fight the disease. It is an application of the fundamental research of cancer immunology and a growing subspecialty of oncology.
Ipilimumab, sold under the brand name Yervoy, is a monoclonal antibody medication that works to activate the immune system by targeting CTLA-4, a protein receptor that downregulates the immune system.
Cancer immunology (immuno-oncology) is an interdisciplinary branch of biology and a sub-discipline of immunology that is concerned with understanding the role of the immune system in the progression and development of cancer; the most well known application is cancer immunotherapy, which utilises the immune system as a treatment for cancer. Cancer immunosurveillance and immunoediting are based on protection against development of tumors in animal systems and (ii) identification of targets for immune recognition of human cancer.
Vaccine therapy is a type of treatment that uses a substance or group of substances to stimulate the immune system to destroy a tumor or infectious microorganisms such as bacteria or viruses.
Lloyd John Old was one of the founders and standard-bearers of the field of cancer immunology. When Old began his career in 1958, tumor immunology was in its infancy. Today, cancer immunotherapies are emerging as a significant advance in cancer therapy.
James L. Gulley is an American cancer researcher and the Director of the Medical Oncology Service at National Cancer Institute.
Neuvenge, Lapuleucel-T, is a therapeutic cancer vaccine (TCV) in development by Dendreon (DNDN). It uses the "immunotherapy platform approach" first successfully demonstrated on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved TCV Provenge. It was first tested on breast cancer patients with tumors expressing HER2/neu, and is now scheduled to be tested on bladder cancer patients.
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 at the University of Texas.
Dr. Cora Sternberg is an American medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, serving as a member of the Genitourinary (GU) Oncology Program. Dr. Sternberg facilitates the continued growth and development of clinical and translational research programs in GU malignancies. Dr. Sternberg is an internationally respected leader in the field of medical oncology and urological malignancies and a recognized expert in the area of new drug development. She is known for her seminal contributions in bladder cancer, her strong track record of sustained genito-urinary (GU) oncology leadership and collaboration in multiple practice-changing clinical trials, including novel medicines, and her current role applying her expertise in oncology and GU cancers to precision medicine to further improve outcomes for patients. Dr. Sternberg has been decidedly influential in the development of novel hormonal therapies and checkpoint inhibitors across the landscape of GU oncology as evidenced in her curriculum vitae. She is a globally respected researcher who has lectured extensively at universities and cancer symposia worldwide (>800). As Clinical Director of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine (EIPM), Dr. Sternberg develops strategies to incorporate genomic sequencing and precision medicine throughout the Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian healthcare network, including Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
Pamela J. Russell was an Australian academic researcher of immunology, bladder and prostate research. Russell was awarded Membership of the Order of Australia (AM) for her research on prostate and bladder cancer in 2003.
Anil Suri is a cancer researcher working in the field of Translational Cancer research at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, India. He is a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Medical Sciences, a fellow of National Academy of Sciences, India, editorial board member of Cancer Research, vice president of the Indian Society for the Study of Reproduction and Fertility (ISSRF) and was an Executive Member of Indian Association of Cancer Research.
Elizabeth M. Jaffee is an American oncologist specializing in pancreatic cancer and immunotherapy.
Crystal L. Mackall is an American physician and immunologist. She is currently the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Stanford University. She is the founding director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy.
Michel Sadelain is an genetic engineer and cell therapist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, where he holds the Steve and Barbara Friedman Chair. He is the founding director of the Center for Cell Engineering and the head of the Gene Transfer and Gene Expression Laboratory. He is a member of the department of medicine at Memorial Hospital and of the immunology program at the Sloan Kettering Institute. He is best known for his major contributions to T cell engineering and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy, an immunotherapy based on the genetic engineering of a patient's own T cells to treat cancer.
Stephan A. Grupp is an American pediatric oncologist. He is the Chief of the Cell Therapy and Transplant Section in the Division of Oncology and Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2019, Grupp was elected a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.
T cell receptor T cell therapy (TCR-T) is a type of cancer immunotherapy. TCR-T therapies use heterodimers made of alpha and beta peptide chains to recognize MHC-presented polypeptide fragments molecules. Unlike CAR-T's cell surface antigens, TCR-T can recognize that larger set of intracellular antigen fragments. However, TCR-T cell therapy depends on MHC molecules, limiting its usefulness.
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.
Marcin Kortylewski is a Polish American cancer researcher and immunologist. He is currently professor of immuno-oncology at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. His research has shown that the STAT3 protein plays a role in protecting cancers from immune responses and contributes to resistance to therapies. Later he developed a two-pronged strategy for cancer immunotherapy using simultaneous STAT3 inhibition and TLR9 immune stimulation. Kortylewski invented platform strategy for delivery of oligonucleotides, such as siRNA, miRNA, decoy DNA, antisense molecules and others to selected immune cells.
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