Michael A. Curran

Dr. Michael Curran is an Associate Professor of Immunology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas and co-Scientific Director of the Oncology Research for Biologics and Immunotherapy Translation (ORBIT) program coordinating development and production of clinical immunotherapeutic antibodies. Dr. Curran received the Ph.D. degree from Stanford University training in the laboratory of Dr. Gary Nolan where he was awarded the McDevitt prize for the best graduate thesis in his year. Dr. Curran was the first recipient of the prestigious American Cancer Society Levy Fellowship to fund his post-doctoral studies in the lab of Dr. James P. Allison. While pursuing his postdoctoral studies at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Curran published several influential manuscripts describing how T cell co-stimulatory pathways could be modulated, in tandem, to mediate immunologic rejection of melanomas in mice. Dr. Curran described how combination blockade of the T cell co-inhibitory receptors CTLA-4 and PD-1 promoted the rejection of most murine melanomas. This work supported the launch of a Phase I clinical trial in which greater than 50% of metastatic melanoma patients experienced objective clinical responses – a result so unprecedented that this became the first FDA-approved immunotherapy combination. In addition, his subsequent immunologic studies of 4-1BB agonist antibodies earned him the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer’s prestigious Presidential Award. The Curran Lab seeks to discover the underlying mechanisms of immune resistance in the “coldest” tumors, pancreatic and prostate adenocarcinoma and glioblastoma, so that rational therapeutic interventions can be developed to restore T cell infiltration and sensitivity to T cell checkpoint blockade.