Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh

Director of the Immunotherapy and Drug Development Center (Phase I) 

Associate Director for Clinical Research at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

My work focuses on translational therapeutic advances in immuno-oncology, early phase drug development for advanced solid tumors and the management of patients with cutaneous malignancies. In melanoma, I have designed and led two practice changing studies documenting the role of combination anti-PD1 + low dose anti-CTLA4 Ab in PD1 refractory disease as well as establishing the role for, and FDA/EMA approval of, adjuvant anti-PD1 for stage IIB/C melanoma. I am a thought leader for clinical and translational immunotherapy of cancer more broadly, having   been a lead investigator for many novel immunotherapies from checkpoint inhibitors, bispecific approaches, metabolism modifiers, innate agonists and oncolytic virus as well as solid tumor cellular therapies. I have pursued novel biomarker investigations across immunotherapy responsive tumors substantially contributing to the biologic characterization of the T cell-inflamed tumor microenvironment. Additionally, I have made major contributions to the biology and clinical investigations of stereotactic body radiotherapy as well as the commensal microbiome with immunotherapy. I am the principal investigator for the UPMC cancer enterprise genomic sequencing and biobanking protocol (HCC #18-177). I co-lead a research laboratory with Riyue Bao, Ph.D., called the Translational Immuno-Informatics Laboratory, where we coordinate large scale biobanking efforts related to cancer immunotherapy and lead a group of bioinformaticians identifying tumor-intrinsic mechanisms of immune exclusion from patient samples by employing multi-omic approaches. I have been successful in obtaining support for translational and clinical investigation from private, public and industry sources.

Elucidation of biomarkers for immunotherapy treatment response and tumor-intrinsic mediators of  immune-exclusion. I have led and contributed to multiple investigations describing biomarkers of immunotherapy treatment response and biologic correlates of anti-tumor immunity. These include but are not limited to contributions surrounding the role of the T cell-inflamed tumor microenvironment and neo-antigenicity   as biomarkers of treatment response, as well as the identification of genomic cancer biology limiting the infiltration of tumors by host immunity.

Development of novel immuno-therapeutic approaches, particularly radio-immunotherapy and microbiome. I have led or participated in the development of several novel immunotherapy treatments or combinations as well as assessments of related toxicities. I developed and published the seminal study of SBRT in combination with immunotherapy that has now been used as a backbone template for researchers exploring this topic. In addition, I was a major contributor to one of the seminal reports indicating the impact of the fecal microbiome on treatment outcomes to cancer immunotherapy.

International leader for immuno-oncology developmental therapeutics. I am an internationally recognized early phase investigator for novel therapeutics in cancer, particularly immune-oncology I have been the overall PI for several programs and continue to lead one of the most active early phase research units in the field.

Liver-Related Work

WNT signaling in immuno-oncology and HCC
Mechanisms of immune-exclusion in HCC

Current Collaborations with PLRC Members Dr. Paul Monga & Dr. Aatur Singh

Complete List of Published Work in My Bibliography:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/jason.luke.1/bibliography/public/