Lawrence Fong

Dr. Lawrence Fong is the Efim Guzik Distinguished Professor in Cancer Biology in the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco, where he leads the Cancer Immunotherapy Program. He also co-directs the Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy at UCSF and co-leads the Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy Program in the Cancer Center. He is a physician-scientist in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, directing both a translational research program and a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research lab. He has more than 20 years of experience in cancer immunotherapy and has been involved in both preclinical and clinical studies of FDA-approved immunotherapies such as sipuleucel-T and immune checkpoint inhibitors. He has also been involved in multiple first-in-human clinical trials, including trials of dendritic cell vaccines, ipilimumab, and an adenosine receptor antagonist. Dr. Fong’s research examines the mechanisms that underlie clinical response and resistance to immunotherapies. This work includes tracking antigen-specific T-cell responses in treated cancer patients and developing biomarkers that are associated with clinical outcomes. The Cancer Immunotherapy Program that he directs performs early-phase and high-risk clinical trials across different disease indications. The program also includes a translational laboratory that performs mechanistic studies on samples derived from patients undergoing treatment. Throughout his career, Dr. Fong has received multiple awards, including the NIH Outstanding Investigator Award.