News & Announcements

Ali Ellebedy, PhD (an assistant professor of pathology and immunology and a researcher with the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology & Immunotherapy Programs) and colleagues will compare how people’s immune systems respond to the yellow-fever vaccine and the inactivated flu vaccine to better understand how vaccines elicit long-lasting immune responses. In contrast to the flu vaccine, the yellow-fever vaccine provides robust life-long immunity.

Immune-based therapies are becoming a reality for cancer care. A few short decades ago, cancer treatment consisted mainly of three pillars: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Although each has earned its place as a valuable option, more precise alternatives have long been the oncologist’s dream.

Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, an infectious diseases specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been chosen as the recipient of the American Society for Clinical Investigation’s 2019 Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award. He is being honored for his contributions to understanding the molecular basis of disease caused by globally emerging RNA viruses such as the Zika, West Nile and chikungunya viruses.

Neuroscientist Azad Bonni, MD, PhD, and virologist and immunologist Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, both of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences. Membership in the organization is one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine in the United States.

Radiation oncologist Carl J. DeSelm, MD, PhD, has been honored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his visionary research to harness the immune system to fight cancer.

Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, MD, newly named director of the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), speaks at a town hall Tuesday, Feb. 27, on the Medical Campus. He visited the School of Medicine to attend and speak at the Bursky Center symposium and participate in a town hall.

Robert D. Schreiber, PhD, the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Distinguished Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named a co-recipient of the Balzan Prize for his groundbreaking work in immunology and melanoma research.

Gavin Dunn MD, PhD, a member of the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs, focuses on glioblastoma, the most deadly form of brain cancer. He studies how the immune system recognizes brain cancer cells and how it can be harnessed to treat patients with glioblastoma.

Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, Robert D. Schreiber, PhD, and Wayne M. Yokoyama, MD, lead a team of investigators working to develop new immune-based therapies for cancer, infectious disease, autoimmunity and immunodeficiency in the newly named Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy at Washington University School of Medicine.

Andrew and Jane Bursky donated $10 million to Washington University for its research on using the immune system to fight diseases including cancer. The gift creates the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs and an endowed distinguished professorship for cancer immunologist Robert Schreiber, director of the center and an adviser to Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer moonshot project.