Chair, Global Center for Immunotherapy, Cleveland Clinic Health System,
@ClevelandClinic
; Professor of Medicine; fan of tennis, coral reefs, Legos; views my own
Here is an alternative to BioRender that is TRULY FREE and actively maintained. Over 1500 vectorized images sorted by license type (all creative commons or MIT). Fully editable icons and soon they will launch an Inkscape library.
Well, Ive been sitting on this news for some time. After over a decade
@sloan_kettering
, I'm moving to the
@ClevelandClinic
. Will be coming in as chair of the Immunotherapy Center for the Cleveland Clinic health system. Incredibly excited to join the CC family!
@yashar
police support an assault rifles ban by a wide margin. what happened to support police and blue lives matter?? many laws in Texas forcing women to get ultrasounds and counseling before abortions....what about the counseling before buying guns? where is the pro life passion??
Here is a brief tweetorial on our latest study. This was aimed at understanding what and factors (both known and unknown) contribute to immune checkpoint therapy efficacy and how they interact.
I generally try to avoid political tweets but as a physician, I think its our duty to say that this is unforgivable. If we dont speak out on such a clear issue, who will?
BREAKING: Trump announced the U.S. is officially leaving the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic.
WHO is currently coordinating international vaccine and drug trials to fight
#Covid19
Honored to be elected to
@theNAMedicine
. This recognizes the entire team of an extraordinary post-doctoral fellows, students, mentors and colleagues I have been blessed to work with.
Here is a brief tutorial on the latest from the lab
@NatureGenet
. We show that POLE and POLD1 mutations are tumor-agnostic biomarkers for immune checkpoint therapy efficacy.
A bit of happiness for us. My grandma Ruth Chan just had her 100th birthday (and celebration with social distancing). How amazing is that? The Taiwan government sends a cake and a prize. 😆We love u and Happy birthday!
Ok, I have not been on twitter for that long but I will give it a go for a brief tweetorial on our new paper on the importance of HLA diversity for immune checkpoint response.
Such a privilege to chair this entity at this amazing institution
@CleClinicMD
@caseccc
. So many great colleagues: our dept laboratories, developmental therapeutic teams, clinical trials, shared resources. Much work to do together
Was asked recently why I bother with a tough life of research... why not just go into practice full time and make money. My answer...the memory of holding the hand of family members as they slipped away from cancer. I think there should be less of that kind of pain in the world
My philosophy for building programs in academia: a top goal should be to build an environment where everyone is empowered to succeed, not just a chosen few. Diversity of thought leads to innovation. Federation buttresses the status quo.
Just learned that one of the people in immunology that I admire, David Baltimore, did not have formal immunology training. This is a testament to the value of cross-field fertilization. If you have good ideas, don’t let entrenched folks bully u into abandoning your passion
We are happy to launch the Cleveland Clinic Distinguished Research Scholars program. Selective fellowship for post-doctoral applicants interested in translational cancer medicine. See below to apply!
Very sad about the passing of Mike Kattan. He was a terrific human being, valued colleague, and a beloved chair. Im still in shock over the sudden loss of my friend. Deep condolences to his family and all those who knew him and were the better for it.
Very excited for the lab to see concepts discovered in our lab (high mutations lead to better immune checkpoint response) lead to two FDA pancan approvals for immunoRx......MSI+ (causes high TMB) and high TMB. Wonderful how this concept has caught on. Exciting times.
#oncoalert
Never gets old (nor unannoying). Just got back a review from an NIH grant reviewer writing that further efforts to study how tumors evolve under immune selection is not useful nor significant. unbelievable. This is why reviewers need to be named.
@CharlesSwanton
help me! 😉
A shout out to all the physician scientists. Discussions on career paths rarely focus on the human side of the job. dealing with death and human suffering head on is part of our job. We bring this to the bench.. we help humanize and ground the scientific enterprise at times
Wow. Ctla4 mechanism all wrong? A lot on the line here. 😳
Lack of blocking activity in anti-CTLA-4 antibodies reduces toxicity, but not anti-tumor efficacy
In the programs I lead, one saying we like is this “To make the room brighter, one does not snuff out the candle of the person next to you, one lights more candles.” Very relevant in the research setting. I try to impart this to all our folks.
Not looking good. So they were indeed doing gain of function experiments where they swapped spoke proteins between different coronaviruses and generate more virulent strains.
"NEWLY RELEASED documents provide details of US-funded research on..coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology..The Intercept has obtained more than 900 pages of documents detailing..work of..EcoHealth Alliance..at the Chinese lab.."
Amazed at the Cleveland Clinic
@ClevelandClinic
@CleClinicMD
@CCLRI
. New health education campus for the medical school. When CC needs to do sometime, they do it in terrific fashion. Amazing facilities and talent. So excited to push the boundaries of immunotherapy here!
Looking for a postdoc position? We have openings focused on exciting and high impact areas in immuno-oncology or cancer genomics. If interested, email chanlabrecruitment
@ccf
.org
Just stood up for this Asian person on the subway that was undergoing coronavirus harassment. This should not be going on. Remember, help out folks if you see this! ✊
One of the benefits of no longer having a 3 hour commute to Manhattan every day....buying the first bicycle I have ever owned and riding around the neighborhood just for fun!🙏👍🤸♂️🚴♀️
#livinglife
Important paper. This is similar to what some folks, including our group, have been suggesting. (1) there is functional synergy between immunity against cancer and pathogens and (2) hot and cold status is reversible. The genetics underlying tumors are not.
Wise words that have been said. In cancer, the genomics is not additional information, it IS the diagnosis. At leading cancer centers, let’s gets the diagnosis right. Let’s do this.
If you want to grow your cancer care footprint, you must grow your innovation and research. In cancer, they will only come if you innovate. Forget one without the other.
Important to acknowledge the groundbreaking work of Gordon Freeman, Arlene Sharpe, and Lieping Chen as well. Without them, immune checkpoint therapy would not have advanced as it did.
Hi yes this is something I am very passionate about. I have seen how depts end up with people that all study the same thing and think the same way. I do not believe the force will be with such folks 😉
Very exciting... the new
@ClevelandClinic
Florida Center for Research and Innovation. Beautiful facility. Future site of Immunotherapy Center Florida location.
Number two ranked hospital in the world! Congrats
@ClevelandClinic
@CleClinicMD
@CCLRI
! We are building a cell therapy development program! Faculty openings immunofacultysearch
@ccf
.org
For those that hold up braf v600e mutation as a gold standard for biomarkers, note that the response rate in lung cancers with this mutation is just 37%. That’s bad for what’s been held up as a beacon of precision oncology. We don’t know as much as we think
I Have now seen clear hyperprogression in patients treated with immune checkpoint therapy who have prostate cancer, colon cancer, sarcoma, and lung cancer. Some tumors grow 10-20x in size in as little as 2 weeks. Wondering what others have seen?
Folks running immune checkpoint trials really do need to keep track of HLA diversity score. Its a primary driver of benefit. It’s no different than vaccine trials....Hla imbalance accounts for a lot of the differences seen between trials
NEW study in the latest issue: Pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy for previously
untreated, PD-L1-expressing, locally advanced or metastatic
non-small-cell lung cancer (KEYNOTE-042): a randomised,
open-label, controlled, phase 3 trial
@CeliaMcKee
I fail all the time. Doesn’t even bother me anymore. Have been able to completely separate sense of self worth from granting. Makes me all that much thankful for the successes that are mixed in. 👍
@StephenVLiu
Not a good idea to recruit T cells to the tumor and then kill them immediately with RT. Question is how many phase 3 studies will it take before that sinks in 🤦
Looking forward to my first Velosano!!!. Living in NY, I didn’t have a bike… lived in the subway and on the commuter train 🤣. Now I got a bike and gonna ride!!! What a tremendous organization and amazing riders
Excited to be in Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi in the UAE to help plan the cancer center expansion. Just an amazing hospital here… a tremendous place providing awesome or care….Excited for what is to come…
@ClevelandClinic
@CleClinicMD
@TomMihaljevicMD
@CCLRI
My deepest condolences to friend and family of Jose Baselga on his passing. He was a true visionary. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. He will be missed.
I am deeply grateful for the partnership and friendship with
@DrJohnSuh
, Alex adjei and the Taussig team, the tremendous leadership of Serpil Erzurum
@CCLRI
and Beri Ridgeway
@CleClinicMD
Congratulations
@GeneCollector
on The Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Endowed Chair in Immunotherapy and Precision Immuno-oncology!! 👏🍾🎊 Wonderful that your lab colleagues were present to celebrate with you!
@CCLRI
#CleClinicCancer
Its becoming clear that anti-VEGF therapies are very effective. Just needed to find the right context (ie. with immune checkpoint inhibitors in the right tumors). Imp lesson for precision oncology. Lots of PO folks called it dead...its far from that..time/progress opens doors
So looking forward to working with the amazing Lucy, Maggie, and Piero, and the terrific
@LittleWarriorFd
on treatments for
#Ewing
Sarcoma! We are laser focused on making a difference for kids with ES. Swords up!
@ClevelandClinic
@CCLRI
H3K27M neoepitope vaccination in diffuse midline glioma induces B and T cell responses across diverse HLA loci of a recovered patient | Science Advances
I am so proud of my colleague, labmate, and friend Luc Morris
@lucmorrisnyc
. He just got done volunteering as attending in a field hospital in Queens. True grit and compassion. 👏👏🙏👏 to all the NY volunteers at the hotspots in epicenter
@tmprowell
Of course. With current trialism and buddy-buddy relationships as the primary foundation of todays crediting system, this is not at all unexpected. As a wise scientist scientist told me once, it’s 95% politics, 5% actual science.
@ParikhSimul
@toddscarbrough
Until the rad onc field starts studying the disease rather than the modality—-shooting for real effects on OS rather than technical aspects , this trend is likely to continue. Rad oncs are oncologists first and foremost
We have faculty openings for PIs focused on immuno-oncology at our beautiful state of the art Florida site. Despite covid, we are hiring. Email or pm me if interested!
Cleveland Clinic Florida has opened the Florida Research and Innovation Center. The center will focus on research in immuno-oncology and infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
No doubt about it. Low carb diet works. My triglycerides dropped by 90%!!! 9 months after I started a low carb diet. The utility of diet modification is really under appreciated in medicine.
We are hiring faculty members for immuno-oncology, cell therapy, and regenerative medicine! Join our terrific team and be a part of our family at a premier health and research institution.
Wow. Phase III randomized trial demostrates heterologous immunity from BCG vaccination. People who laughed at heterologous immunity....not so funny now, is it?
ACTIVATE: RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL OF BCG VACCINATION AGAINST INFECTION IN THE ELDERLY
The amazing Drew Pardoll giving a great keynote including a tribute to terrific mentors D Coffey and B Vogelstein
@bloombergkimmel
@HopkinsMedicine
at IASLC
Rad onc is one of the very best fields you can go into in medicine. Not sure why there are some off kilter complaints in some corners. Rad oncs are among the most well trained, perfect for physician scientist career, excellent for clinical academic medicine path....
Happy Thanksgiving! Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday. Very thankful for all my family, my wonderful lab, terrific colleagues and friends
@CCLRI
@CleClinicMD
@caseccc
and throughout the world.
9 pt. hugs today in clinic as I begin closing down my clinical service
@sloan_kettering
. Sad to be leaving but happy that they are doing well! I'm lucky to have a clinical team here that is just at the top of their game - with exceptional skill and professionalism
Physicians are asked sometimes to avoid politic in their interactions.... to avoid issues that may offend patients...like wearing a mask. Sorry sunshine.. not today. We stand for science and safety. If u can’t wear a mask, go somewhere else
Wonderful to teach my son about the Holocaust in DC. Everyone should be required to do this every 5 years. One of the things I told him was to “ask why” and to speak out when you see injustice. So applicable on so many levels today.
Crazy how much I am learning from infectious disease colleagues. A lot of our work in cancer is inspired by phenomena that are commonplace concepts in the ID world. And yet hard to get traction for some of these concepts in cancer…perhaps different communities I guess
Well, since we are going to be wearing masks for at least the rest of the year, I invested in a sightly more stylist one. Many thanks to the Amish made masks that have gotten us through the last month
We are moving now. Its a bit sad to leave a place youve lived in for almost a decade and a half, even as an adult. Any suggestions for dealing with moving blues for elementary age kids?
yet another study supporting the concept of some level of heterologous immunity between cancer and infectious diseases. Inactivated virus does not help so its not just an adjuvant/DC cell effect.
Kill shot: Flu vaccine is a stone cold cancer killer
When combining checkpoint blockade
#cancer
#immunotherapy
and radiation therapy, order matters. A new
@SciImmunology
study in mice reveals that applying radiation before checkpoint blockade may induce stronger antitumor responses than the reverse order:
Happy Mother’s Day to my wife Darcie. She has been such a wonderful influence on our son...teaching him the values of generosity, compassion, kindness, honesty, and so much more. Happy Mother’s Day!