publication date: Jan. 22, 2021

In Brief

Adekunle Odunsi named director of UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center

Adekunle “Kunle” Odunsi, an expert in immunotherapy and vaccine therapy for cancer, was named director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center effective March 1.

Odunsi will also serve as Biological Sciences Division dean for oncology and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago.

Odunsi comes to Chicago from Buffalo, NY, where he was deputy director at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was also executive director of the Center for Immunotherapy and chair of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology at Roswell Park.

Odunsi will succeed Michelle Le Beau, the Arthur and Marian Edelstein Professor of Medicine, who has led the Cancer Center since 2004. Under Le Beau’s direction and strategic vision, the cancer center was awarded NCI’s Comprehensive designation in 2008 and has maintained it since.

“Dr. Odunsi will be charged with taking UChicago Medicine’s NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center to the next level of excellence among the elite cancer programs in the country,” Kenneth Polonsky, dean and executive vice president for Biology and Medicine at the University of Chicago and president of the UChicago Medicine health system, said in a statement. “He will play a central role in integrating research, clinical care and education, and in strategic planning for community outreach and engagement.”

Odunsi is a gynecologic oncologist whose research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of immune recognition and tolerance in ovarian cancer and translating these findings to immunotherapy clinical trials. He pioneered the development of antigen-specific vaccine therapy and next generation adoptive T-cell immunotherapies to prolong remission rates in women with ovarian cancer.

Odunsi was elected to … Continue reading Adekunle Odunsi named director of UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center

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