Padmanee Sharma
Associate Vice President of Immunobiology, Professor of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Padmanee Sharma is associate vice president of immunobiology and professor of genitourinary medical oncology and immunology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Sharma designed and conducted the first neoadjuvant (pre-surgical) clinical trial with immune checkpoint therapy and multiple subsequent clinical trials, leading to FDA-approval of immune checkpoint therapy for cancer patients. Her experiments have defined biologic pathways that are involved in anti-tumor responses and mechanisms of resistance to immune checkpoint therapy. Current work focuses on a reverse translation process that encompasses studies on human immune responses to generate and test hypotheses related to mechanisms of tumor rejection. At MD Anderson, Sharma is also the director of scientific programs for the James P. Allison Institute, scientific director of the immunotherapy platform, T.C. and Jeanette Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology, and co-director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. (MD Anderson is a 2024 Festival Underwriter)
Previously
Whether the headlines describe a “cancer moonshot” or a “war on cancer,” they capture a yearning and determination to eliminate the scourge of malignancy. Artificial intellige...