STEM Supremes: In Conversation with Padmanee Sharma

Join us for STEM Supremes, a series of  conversations with leading women in science and tech, where we will explore their careers, discoveries, insights, and what they see on the horizon in their respective fields.

This event will feature Dr. Padmanee Sharma, an internationally renowned physician scientist whose research is focused on investigating immunologic mechanisms and pathways that impact tumor rejection. She is a trained medical oncologist and immunologist and the T.C. and Jeanette D. Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology. Her expertise enabled her to design and lead clinical trials with immune checkpoint therapy for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma and bladder cancer, resulting in improved survival and the approval of new treatments for these patients. Dr. Sharma also designed and conducted the first neoadjuvant (pre-surgical) trial with immune checkpoint therapy in 2006.

As inaugural Scientific Director of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Immunotherapy Platform, Dr. Sharma has championed a “reverse translation” process that uses studies on human immune responses to generate hypotheses related to mechanisms of tumor rejection, which she tests in pre-clinical models, and subsequently uses the new data to design novel clinical trials to improve outcomes for patients with cancer. Using this model, she is currently responsible for designing immune monitoring studies for over 100 clinical trials. In addition, Dr. Sharma is a Professor in the departments of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology and Co-Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. A member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), Dr. Sharma has received numerous accolades including the Emil Frei III Award for Excellence in Translational Research in 2016; the Coley Award for Distinguished Research for Tumor Immunology in 2018; and the Women in Science with Excellence (WISE) award in 2020.