James P. Allison

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For other people named James Allison, see James Allison (disambiguation).

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James P. Allison
File:James P. Allison (2015).JPG
James P. Allison in 2015
Born (1948-08-07) August 7, 1948 (age 75)
Alice, Texas
Residence Houston, TX
Nationality American
Fields Immunology
Institutions M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Alma mater University of Texas, Austin
Known for cancer immunology research
Notable awards Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2014)
Tang Prize (2014)[1]
Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2014)
Harvey Prize (2014)
Gairdner Foundation International Award (2014)
Spouse Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD[citation needed]

James P. Allison is an immunologist who holds the position of professor and chair of Immunology and executive director of immunotherapy platform at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. His discoveries have led to new cancer treatments for the deadliest cancers. He is also the director of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) scientific advisory council. He has a longstanding interest in mechanisms of T-cell development and activation, the development of novel strategies for tumor immunotherapy, and is recognized as the first person to isolate the T-cell antigen receptor complex protein.

Career

Allison earned a B.S. in microbiology in 1969 and a Ph.D. in biological science, in 1973, from the University of Texas, Austin, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He was appointed a professor of immunology and director of the Cancer Research Laboratory at UC Berkeley in 1985. In 2004, he moved to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, which he left for the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in 2012. Since 2012 he has been chair of immunology at M.D. Anderson.

His research in the 1990s at the University of California, Berkeley,[2][3] led to the clinical development of ipilimumab (Yervoy™), which was approved in 2011 by the FDA for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Dr. Allison was the first to show that antibody blockade of a T-cell inhibitory molecule (known as CTLA-4) could lead to enhanced anti-tumor immune responses and tumor rejection. This paradigm-shifting concept of blocking T-cell inhibitory pathways as a way of unleashing anti-tumor immune responses and eliciting clinical benefit laid the foundation for the development of other drugs that target T-cell inhibitory pathways, which have been labeled as "immune checkpoint therapies".

Previously, Allison was director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and the chair of the immunology program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as the Koch chair in immunologic studies and attending immunologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). He was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator until 2012, when he left MSKCC to join the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is director of the Cancer Research Institute scientific advisory council. Previously, he served as president of the American Association of Immunologists. He has received numerous awards, including the Centeon Award for innovative breakthroughs in immunology, the William B. Coley award for distinguished research in basic and tumor immunology, the AAI-Dana Award in human immunology research and the C. Chester Stock award for distinguished achievement in biomedical research. He recently received an AACR/SU2C/CRI cancer immunotherapy dream team grant, for which he will serve as the team leader. His cancer research in the area of immunotherapy led to the successful development of “immune checkpoint therapy,” and FDA-approval of the immunotherapy drug Yervoy for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.[4]

Honors

In 2014, Allison shared the first Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science with Tasuku Honjo.[5] In February 2014, James Allison was announced the winner of the 9th Annual Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research by the National Foundation for Cancer Research. In 2014, he received the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his work,[6] the Canada Gairdner International Award,[7] the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize,[8] and the Harvey Prize [9] of the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa.

Research areas

Allison's research is in molecular immunology of the T cell antigen receptor complex, co-stimulatory receptors, and other molecules involved in T cell activation. He is particularly interested in finding signals that lead to differentiation of naive T cells and also those that determine whether antigen receptor engagement will lead to functional activation or inactivation of T cells. Once defined, the basic studies are used to develop new strategies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and immunotherapy of cancer. Most recently he has been interested in understanding the immune responses in cancer patients who respond to immunotherapy. He established the immunotherapy platform at MDAnderson Cancer Center to study immune responses in cancer patients.[10]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.tang-prize.org/ENG/Publish.aspx?CNID=298
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences 2014
  7. ↑ Canada Gairdner International Award 2014
  8. ↑ Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize 2014
  9. ↑ Harvey Prize 2014
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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