Dr. Allison is the Chair of the Department of Immunology, the Vivian L. Smith Distinguished Chair in Immunology, Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Research, and the Executive Director of the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Allison spent a distinguished career studying the regulation of T-cell responses and developing strategies for cancer immunotherapy.

Dr. Allison´s work led to the development of an antibody towards human CTLA-4 called ipilimumab, which became the first immune checkpoint inhibitor and cleared the path for the emerging field of using checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of cancer.

In 2018 Dr. Allison earned the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with Dr. Tasuku Honjo, "for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation".

Dr. Allison's current work seeks to improve immune checkpoint blockade therapies currently used and to identify new targets to unleash the immune system in order to eradicate cancer.

Dr. Sharma is professor in the departments of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology, and the Scientific Director for the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is also a Scientific Director of Scientific Programs for the James P. Allison Institute at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Dr. Sharma is a nationally and internationally renowned physician scientist whose research work is focused on investigating mechanisms and pathways within the immune system that facilitate tumor rejection. In partnership with Dr. Allison, Dr. Sharma is currently exploring combinations of immunological therapies and targeted drugs to treat a variety of cancers more effectively.

Dr. Sharma is a trained medical oncologist and immunologist and the T.C. and Jeanette D. Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology. 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.

Robert D. Schreiber, Ph.D is The Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is co-leader of the Tumor Immunology Program of Washington University’s Siteman Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Founding Director of the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs. Schreiber is an Extramural Member Researcher of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, an Associate Director of the Scientific Advisory Board to the Cancer Research Institute, and a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors to the National Cancer Institute. Schreiber is a co-founder of three biotech companies: Igenica Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Burlingame CA), Jounce Therapeutics (Boston MA), and Neon Therapeutics, Inc (Cambridge, MA).

Schreiber’s was the first to demonstrate that interferon-gamma (IFNg) activated mouse macrophage anti-tumor and anti-microbial activities and one of the first to elucidate the structure and function of the IFNg receptor. Schreiber and colleagues demonstrated that the immune system could eliminate primary tumors and thereby resolved the long-standing controversy over whether cancer immunosurveillance occurs. He also demonstrated that immunity can promote tumor dormancy and ultimately facilitate cancer progression by shaping tumor immunogenicity. These observations led Schreiber and his collaborators to propose the cancer immunoediting hypothesis that has gained nearly universal acceptance in the last few years.  Schreiber’s work has led to a generalized appreciation of the profound effect of immunity on developing tumors and has contributed critical conceptual and practical support to the fields of tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy. Recently, Schreiber pioneered the use of genomics approaches to define the antigenic targets of cancer immunoediting and elucidate the mechanisms that underlie the process. This latter work supports ongoing efforts to develop individualized cancer immunotherapies. 

Robert Schreiber has authored more than 300 peer reviewed and invited publications and has received many honors including the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology from the Cancer Research Institute, the Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Prize for Cancer Research, and the Lloyd J. Old Prize in Cancer Immunology awarded jointly by the American Association for Cancer Research and the Cancer Research Institute. Schreiber is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Marabelle is the Clinical Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at Gustave Roussy Cancer Center in Villejuif, France, and he works as a Senior Medical Oncologist and an investigator in the Drug Development Department (DITEP). He leads a translational research laboratory (LRTI) within the INSERM U1015 with a focus on mechanisms of action of immune targeted therapies. He is also the director of the Clinical Investigation Center BIOTHERIES dedicated to intratumoral immunotherapies.

Dr. Marabelle´s clinical practice is dedicated to early phase clinical trials in cancer immunotherapy and his translational research is focused on mechanisms of action of immune checkpoint monoclonal antibodies.