Padmanee Sharma

Dr. Pam Sharma is Professor in the Departments of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology, Scientific Director of the Immunotherapy Platform and holds the T.C. and Jeanette D. Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology at MD Anderson. Dr. Sharma is an internationally renowned physician-scientist, with expertise in both medical oncology and immunology. She designed and conducted the first pre-surgical trial, also known as a window-of-opportunity trial, with immune checkpoint therapy (anti-CTLA-4) in 2004, which allowed her to study the impact of immune checkpoint therapy on human tumors, with subsequent identification of the ICOS/ICOSL pathway as a novel target for cancer immunotherapy strategies. Her translational research work laid the foundation for the Immunotherapy Platform to be established at MD Anderson. Dr. Sharma is also the Co-Director of Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at MD Anderson. Recent awards include the 2016 Emil Frei III Award for Excellence in Translational Research and the 2018 Coley Award for Distinguished Research for Tumor Immunology.

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