I received my undergraduate degree from Princeton University and my MD and PhD from New York University, where I additionally completed my residency. After my fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), I remained on its faculty, ultimately becoming Chief of the Melanoma and Immunotherapeutics Service. I was also The Lloyd J. Old Chair in Clinical Investigation at MSK, head of the Ludwig Collaborative Laboratory, associate director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, co-leader of the SU2C–ACS Lung Cancer Dream Team and director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at MSK.

In 2022, I moved to Weill Cornell Medicine, where I am today the Meyer Director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center and co-director of the Ludwig Collaborative Laboratory at Weill Cornell Medicine. Although my clinical focus is primarily on melanoma, my laboratory has long explored immunotherapeutic approaches to the treatment of a variety of cancers. We investigate the mechanistic basis of sensitivity and resistance to existing immunotherapies, and explore biomarkers and genetic determinants of treatment response. My laboratory has identified and preclinically validated several new therapeutic approaches to treating cancer and overcoming the immunosuppressive effects of the tumor microenvironment.

I have served as a principal investigator of numerous clinical trials, including the pioneering studies that led to the approval of the immunotherapy ipilimumab for melanoma and, more recently, those that established the use of combinations of checkpoint blockade immunotherapies to treat the cancer. While at MSK, I was named director of the Cancer Vaccine Collaborative (CVC), a joint initiative between the Cancer Research Institute and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. The CVC conducted nearly 50 early-phase clinical trials of different therapeutic cancer vaccines involving more than 950 patients with multiple types of cancers.

I have received several awards for my research, including the American Association for Cancer Research-Joseph H. Burchenal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research, the ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology and the David Karnofsky Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). I have served on the Board of Directors of ASCO and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, where I am currently the treasurer. I am an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and I am a member of the Board of Directors of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. My work has also been recognized with the AACR Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award, the Giants of Cancer Care in Melanoma Award and the Alfred Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Research.