James Allison, PhD  from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center will receive the 2011 Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine “for his development of strategies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for immunotherapy of cancer”. The award, administered by the Rosenstiel Center at Brandeis, consists of a $15,000 cash prize and a medallion. Dr. Allison will deliver the award lecture on Mobilizing the immune system to treat cancer: Immune checkpoint blockade, on Monday, Nov 14, 2011 at 3:30 pm in Gerstenzang 121.

Allison and his lab are interested in the mechanisms that regulate T cell responses and using that understanding to improve clinical outcomes in areas ranging from autoimmunity, to allergy to vaccination to  tumor therapy.