18th Annual Zubrod Memorial Lecture & Cancer Research Poster Session

Carl H. June, MD is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He is currently Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, 1979. He had graduate training in Immunology and malaria with Dr. Paul-Henri Lambert at the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland from 1978-79, and post-doctoral training in transplantation biology with E. Donnell Thomas and John Hansen at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle from 1983 – 1986. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. He maintains a research laboratory that studies various mechanisms of lymphocyte activation that relate to immune tolerance and adoptive immunotherapy for cancer and chronic infection.

In 2011, his research team published findings detailing a new therapy in which patients with refractory and relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia were treated with genetically engineered versions of their own T cells. The treatment has also now also been used with promising results to treat children with refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He has published more than 350 manuscripts and is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine in 2012 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014, the William B Coley award, the Richard V Smalley Memorial Award from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, the AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology, the Philadelphia Award in 2012, the Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Science in 2014 (shared w S. Grupp, B. Levine, D. Porter), the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (shared w J. Allison), the Novartis Prize in Immunology (shared w Z. Eshaar and S. Rosenberg), the Karl Landsteiner Memorial award, the Debrecen Award and a lifetime achievement award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

2017 Outstanding Faculty Award Winners

Basic Scientist of the Year

Ramin Shiekhattar, Ph.D.
Director, Cancer Epigenetics Research Program, Chief, Division of Cancer Genomics & Epigenetics Professor, Department of Human Genetics, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Clinical Researcher of the Year

Breelyn A. Wilky, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Miller School of Medicine

Community-based Researcher of the Year

Alberto J. Caban-Martinez, DO, Ph.D., MPH, CPH
Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences, Director of the UM Director of the Musculoskeletal Disorders and Occupational Health Lab, and Deputy Director of the MD/MPH Program

Mentor of the Year – Junior Faculty

Nipun Merchant, M.D.
Vice Chair of Surgical Oncology Services, Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology in the Department of Surgery, Chief Surgical Officer and Associate Director of Translational Research (Interim) of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Mentor of the Year – Trainees

Mark L. Gonzalgo, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Vice Chairman, Department of Urology, Miller School of Medicine Director, Urologic Oncology Fellowship

Teacher of the Year

Pasquale Benedetto, M.D.
Professor of Medicine

2017 Zubrod Poster Winners & Categories

Basic Science: Graduate students

Fiorella Magani, M.S. – Abstract #16
Research mentor Dr. Kerry Burnstein

Michael D. Birnbaum, B.S. Abstract #5
Research mentor Dr. Fangliang Zhang

Basic Science: Post-doctoral fellows

Jianping Li, M.D. – Abstract #15
Research mentor Dr. Feng-Chun Yang

Clinical Research

Joyson Kodiyan, M.D. – Abstract #44
Research mentor Dr. Stephen Ramey

Translational & Population-Based Research

Sabrina Copsel, Ph.D. – Abstract #59
Research mentor Dr. Robert Levy