Organizer

Ira Mellman is Vice President of Cancer Immunology at Genentech and Adjuct Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics at UCSF. He previously served as Sterling Professor of Cell Biology & Immunology at the Yale University School of Medicine where he was also Chair of the Department of Cell Biology, Scientific Director of the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, and a member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Ira performed his postdoctoral fellowship training with the late Ralph Steinman at The Rockefeller University. Ira's work is distinguished by a cell biological approach to understanding the function of dendritic cells and T cells, and how they work together to initiate and maintain the adaptive immune response. He is noted for the co-discovery of endosomes and understanding how endocytosis and its regulation facilitates antigen processing and presentation by dendritic cells. At Genentech, he founded the Cancer Immunology department and its cross-functional activities, which helped to bring the anti-PD-L1 antibody Tecentriq® to the clinic and to the market. Ira's group is also responsible for initiating Genentech's personalized cancer vaccine program (in collaboration with BioNTech and Nykode), cell therapy program, as well as a number of other drug candidates currently in clinical trials. Ira is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (US), the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a Fellow of the Academy of the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). He has given a range of named lectures and received prestigious awards including The Wilbur Cross Medal (Yale), The Newton-Abraham Professorship (Oxford), The Lloyd J. Old Award for Cancer Immunotherapy (AACR), the Peter Dougherty Lecture (St Jude's), and the Richard V. Smalley Award (SITC). With Dan Chen, Ira was also the originator of the Cancer Immunity Cycle in 2013.

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