Testimonials

Dr. Ethan M. Shevach received his M.D. from Boston University in 1967. Following clinical training, he joined the Laboratory of Immunology at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as a senior staff fellow in 1972, was appointed a senior investigator in 1973, and became a section chief in 1987. He served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Immunology from 1987 to 1992 and editor-in-chief of Cellular Immunology from 1996 to 2007. He received the 2004 William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology. He published over 450 papers and is recognized as a highly influential scientist with a high citation count. He is a member of the American Association of Immunologists, American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians.

Dr. Erxi Wu is a Professor at Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH), where he serves as the Associate Director of the Neuroscience Institute and Director of the Neuro-Oncology Research Center. Additionally, he holds a professorship at Texas A&M University Health Science Center and is an Associate Professor and Full Member of the LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes at UT Austin. His previous roles include faculty positions at North Dakota State University, Harvard-MIT’s Health Sciences & Technology Division, and a research associate at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Wu has published over 170 peer-reviewed papers, and has received numerous grants. He serves on several review panels and boards, and frequently presents at national and international conferences.

Dr. Hua Yu is Billy Wilder Endowed Professor, Co-Leader of Cancer Immunotherapeutics Program, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center.  Dr. Yu is a noted expert and pioneer on the role of STAT3 in cancer inflammation, which is critical for aging.  She was the first to uncover and define the protein’s effect on inducing immunosuppression in cancer. Dr. Yu’s studies have laid the foundation for a new generation of molecular targeted cancer therapy approaches that disable both tumor cell growth and inhibit cancer-promoting inflammation.  She has developed potentially paradigm-shifting novel siRNA, antibody and CRISPR delivery technology platforms to inhibit STAT3 and other challenging targets critical for cancer and aging (inflammation). Dr. Yu received her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Columbia University in New York City. She completed fellowships with the American Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Health. The fundamental discoveries from her laboratory have been well supported continuously by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Her recent studies have been published extensively in such prestigious biomedical /cancer research journals as Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Immunity and Cell Metabolism. She is also the corresponding author of multiple review articles on STAT3 in cancer / inflammation in Nature Reviews Cancer and Nature Reviews Immunology.

Dr. Lee is Chancellor’s Professor of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and MAE at UC Irvine (UCI). He served as department chair for BME from 2010-2019. He is currently Director of the NSF I/UCRC “Center for Advanced Design & Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics” (CADMIM). Dr. Lee was Editor-in-Chief for the Lab on a Chip journal from 2017-2020. Prior to UCI, he was at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and was a Program Manager at DARPA (1999-2001). His current research focuses on microtechnology for liquid biopsy, microphysiological systems, cell engineering, and immunotherapy. He has over 60 issued US patents over 130 journals articles. Dr. Lee received the 2009 Pioneers of Miniaturization Prize and is elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), RSC, ASME, IAMBE, and the Biomedical Engineering Society.

Peixuan Guo, a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors, pioneer of RNA nanotech. He was a Ph.D. from UMn under Dwight Anderson and NIH/NIAID postdoc under Bernard Moss, a pioneer of vaccinia virus as a vaccine vector. As a Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Purdue where he directed NIH Nanomedicine-Development Center, then moved to hold three endowed chair professorships at UC, UK, and currently OSU; is the President of ISRNN. He worked on 2 animal vaccines and invented methods for vaccinia virus mRNA capping enzyme (PNAS 1990) used currently for capping COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. Recent awards include OSU Innovator of the Year 2021; NAI Fellow 2023, President Research Excellent Catalyst Award 2024.

Prasad Adusumilli is a thoracic surgeon-scientist and Vice Chair of Translational Research in Dept. of Surgery at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. His research focuses on solid tumor immunology and immunotherapy. Supported by R01 and Dept of Defense awards, his laboratory investigates biological therapies, including oncolytic viruses and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that are translated to clinical trials. Dr. Adusumilli discoveries in lung adenocarcinoma pathobiology were included in WHO classification of lung tumors and resulted in changes in clinical practice. Dr. Adusumilli has mentored >150 junior faculty, post-docs and MDs resulting in >320 publications and >100 research awards. He is an elected member of Fleischner Society, American Society of Clinical Investigation and American Surgical Association.

Dr. Saul Priceman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at USC, and the Founding Director of the KSOM/Norris Cancer Cellular Immunotherapy Research Center. Over the last 14 years, Dr. Priceman’s research has focused on T cell immunobiology and cancer immunotherapies. His laboratory develops CAR T cell therapies and combinatorial approaches for the treatment of solid cancers, bringing several therapies to phase 1 clinical testing. Dr. Priceman’s research has led to high-impact publications including in Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, and Cell Metabolism, with numerous patents and technologies licensed for further clinical development. His research has been funded with grants from the NCI, DOD, CIRM, and Prostate Cancer Foundation. Dr. Priceman received his B.S. in microbiology at UCSB, his Ph.D. in molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA, and his postdoctoral research at City of Hope.

Dr. Wu is a professor at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Dermatology Department, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and Harvard Medical School (HMS). After earning a Ph.D. from Utah State University, she completed her postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and HMS.  Her research is centered around pioneering next-generation technologies to mitigate the gravest threats of sepsis and pandemics. Dr. Wu’s team develops biomimetic nanoparticles as potent adjuvants for universal influenza vaccines (Science, Nature Nanotech), utilizes lasers to accelerate platelet regeneration (Sci. Trans. Med.), and unravels bacteria-specific phototoxicity against superbugs (Sci. Trans. Med.).  Dr. Wu has authored over 100 publications and serves as a conference chair, a member of the organizing committee, and a section chair or co-chair of a dozen international symposia.

Alex Marson is Director of the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology and Professor in the UCSF Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. He serves as the Director of the Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy at Gladstone, among other roles. Dr. Marson’s work aims to understand the genetic programs controlling human immune cell function in health and disease, with an emphasis on developing and applying CRISPR genome engineering tools to primary immune cells, especially T cells. Combining genomics and gene editing approaches, the lab works to assess the consequences of coding and noncoding genetic variation on immune cell function and autoimmune disease risk and to genetically engineer human immune cells to target cancer, autoimmunity, and infectious diseases.

Marcel van den Brink is a physician scientist and medical oncologist who performs both laboratory and clinical research related to allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and immuno-oncology. He is a globally recognized leader in the basic and translational science of bone marrow transplantation (BMT), the microbiome and cancer immunotherapy. Dr. van den Brink is president of City of Hope Los Angeles and National Medical Center, chief physician executive and the Deana and Steve Campbell Chief Physician Executive Distinguished Chair. Before he joined City of Hope, Dr. Van den Brink served in leadership positions at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for 24 years, most recently as the Alan N. Houghton Chair in Immunology and the head of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies. He is also the Vice Chairman of the Board of DKMS, an international nonprofit organization devoted to bone marrow donor registration. As Chair of the Medical Board, he reorganized DKMS, which is now the largest global BMT donor registry and enables 40% of all unrelated allograft donations worldwide.

As a clinical scientist, Dr. van den Brink is involved in immunotherapeutic trials of cytokines, cell therapies, as well as strategies to manipulate the intestinal microbiome for patients with hematologic malignancies. His laboratory is devoted to the immunology of BMT, and he studies immune reconstitution, pathophysiology of graft-versus-host disease, the intestinal microbiota, and chimeric antigen receptor T cells in patients and preclinical models. Dr. van den Brink is an international leader whose research bridges microbiome, bone marrow transplantation (BMT), hematological malignancies, and immunotherapy of cancer. In 2022, ASTCT & CIBMTR awarded him the E. Donnall Thomas Award, the most prestigious honor in the field of BMT. In 2009, he was the first to perform (pre)clinical studies regarding the role of the intestinal microbiome in BMT. These studies have found wide acclaim, for example: a) Enterococcus and GVHD (Science 2019) was profiled in NEJM (Garrett WS, NEJM 2020), and b) Intestinal microbiota diversity in BMT patients (NEJM 2020) was highlighted by the NCI Director as one of the most important studies in 2020. In addition, he has performed innovative (pre)clinical studies regarding thymic regeneration and graft-vs-host disease resulting in several clinical trials. As a laboratory Principal Investigator, he mentors junior faculty members, hematology oncology fellows, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students.

Professor Joseph M. Tuscano is a distinguished physician and researcher at UC Davis, where he specializes in hematology and oncology. With a focus on blood cancers, particularly non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and multiple myeloma, Dr. Tuscano has contributed extensively to the development of new treatments for these conditions. His research is centered on immunotherapies, including CAR-T cell therapy, and targeted therapies to improve patient outcomes. A dedicated educator, Dr. Tuscano is actively involved in mentoring medical students and residents while continuing to advance cancer research through clinical trials. He is widely respected for his innovative approaches to cancer treatment and commitment to improving patient care in the field of oncology.

Dr. Rongfu Wang received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in 1992 and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine. In 1994, Dr. Wang joined Dr. Steve Rosenberg (at NCI) and was promoted to Senior Principal Investigator. He discovered many tumor antigens, including NY-ESO-1 and neoantigens. In 2000, Dr. Wang was appointed Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine and was promoted to full Professor in 2004. He received the Michael DeBakey Excellence in Research Award in 2006, and the Jack L. Titus Professorship at BCM. From 2011 to 2019, he served as the Director of the Center for Inflammation and Epigenetics at Houston Methodist Research Institute and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University. He received numerous awards, including the President’s Award for Transformational Excellence. Since 2019, he is Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics, and Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, and Endowed Chair of Cell therapy Research at CHLA/University of Southern California. Dr. Wang has recently developed breakthrough technologies in T cell receptor (TCR)-engineered T cell therapy in solid cancers and therapeutic vaccines. His research interests include cancer antigen discovery, innate immune signaling, epigenetic reprogramming, cancer vaccine and cancer immunotherapy.

Yanhong Shi, Ph.D, is Professor and Chair of Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases, and Director of Division of Stem Cell Biology Research at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope. Dr. Shi is also the Herbert Horvitz Endowed Professor in Neuroscience, a beneficiary of the Christopher Family Endowed Innovation Fund for Alzheimer’s Disease Research in Honor of Vineta Christopher, and an elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). The Shi lab at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope is focused on human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based disease modeling, drug discovery, and cell therapy development for debilitating diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Canavan disease, and cancer. The Shi lab has developed cGMP-compatible manufacturing processes for human iPSC derivation, differentiation, and genetic engineering, has demonstrated robust disease-modifying effects of human iPSC-derived cells as a cell therapy for Canavan disease in preclinical studies, and is rigorously developing human iPSC-based disease models and cell therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. Dr. Shi holds multiple patents on human iPSC-based technologies or cellular products and has published rigorously on human iPSC-related studies. Lab Website: https://www.cityofhope.org/yanhong-shi