Lectures and seminars Eva & Georg Klein double lecture: Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Cancer Immunotherapy: Mechanistic insights provide new therapeutic opportunities and Evaluating Mechanisms to Improve Immune Checkpoint Therapy

The Eva and Georg Klein double lectures, together with What is life-series, are to honour Eva and Georg Klein and their 200 year-anniversary, and the history of tumor immunology – from mice to cure

Jim Allison Bio 

Jim Allison, the 2018 Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine, has spent a distinguished career studying the regulation of T cell responses and pioneering new strategies for cancer immunotherapy. Among his most notable discoveries are the determination of the T cell receptor structure and that CD28 is the major costimulatory molecule that allows full activation of naïve T cells and prevents anergy in T cell clones. His lab resolved a major controversy by demonstrating that CTLA-4 inhibits T-cell activation by opposing CD28- mediated costimulation and that blockade of CTLA-4 could enhance T cell responses, leading to tumor rejection in animal models. He proposed that blockade of immune checkpoints such as CTLA-4 might be a powerful strategy for therapy of many cancer types, and conducted preclinical experiments showing its potential. These seminal findings established the field of immune checkpoint blockade therapy for cancer. Work in his lab led to the development of ipilimumab, an antibody to human CTLA-4 and the first immune checkpoint blockade therapy approved by the FDA. Since that time ipilimumab has been approved as part of the therapeutic regimen for metastatic melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and lung cancer. His current work seeks to improve immune checkpoint blockade therapies currently used by our clinicians and identify new targets to unleash the immune system to eradicate cancer. 

He is regental professor and chair of the MD Anderson Immunology department, and the Founding Director of the James P. Allison Institute. 

Among many honors, he is a member of the National Academies of Sciences and Medicine. His other recent awards include the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2014, Lasker-Debakey Clinical Medical Research award in 2015, the Balzan Prize in 2017, and the Kovalenko Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, the King Faisal Prize in Medicine, and the BBVA Foundations of Knowledge Prize in 2018. 

Padmanee Sharma Bio 

Dr. Sharma is an internationally renowned physician scientist at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she serves as a Professor in Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology, Associate VP of Immunobiology, and holds the T.C. and Jeanette D. Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology. She is the Director for the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson, overseeing immune monitoring studies for over 100 clinical trials. In 2022, she was appointed the Director of Scientific Programs for the James P. Allison Institute. 

Her pioneering work includes leading the first neoadjuvant trial with immune checkpoint therapy. She also identified multiple mechanisms of response and resistance to immune checkpoint therapy. Her work also led to the development of multiple innovative immunotherapy clinical trials, including trials that led to the FDA approval of immune checkpoint agents to treat bladder and renal cell carcinoma. She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Emil Frei III Award (2016), the Coley Award (2018), and the Randall Prize (2021). Dr. Sharma is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, member of the American Association of Physicians, and fellow of the Academy of the American Association for Cancer Research. 

In addition to her research, Dr. Sharma is a dedicated mentor, having guided over 50 students, fellows, and junior faculty since 2005. Dr. Sharma earned her M.D. and Ph.D. in immunology from Pennsylvania State University in 1998, completed her residency at Cornell Medical Center in 2000, and her postdoctoral work plus fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2004.