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Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil

John H. Glick, MD, Abramson Cancer Center Director’s Professor

Biography

Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, is director of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the John H. Glick, MD, Abramson Cancer Center Director’s Professor in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. He graduated from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Medical School. He completed training in internal medicine and medical oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Vonderheide’s laboratory combines efforts in both basic research and clinical investigation to advance the understanding of tumor immunology and to develop novel immunotherapies for cancer. His basic research includes deciphering the immunobiology of a novel genetically engineered mouse model of pancreatic cancer, including the regulation of immune surveillance and the tumor microenvironment by CD40 and other inflammatory pathways. His translational work tests novel vaccines and antibody approaches for the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer, melanoma and breast cancer. He has studied telomerase and surviving as tumor rejection antigens and the immune modulatory capacity of CD40, CTLA-4 and CD25 antibodies.

Education & Training

  • 1985: University of Notre Dame, IN, BS Chemical Engineering
  • 1989: Oxford University, England, DPhil Immunology
  • 1993: Harvard Medical School, MA, MD

Awards & Honors

  • 2013: Elected member, American Association of Physicians
  • 2012: William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
  • 2011: Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
  • 2007: Elected member, American Society of Clinical Investigation
  • 2002: Scholar Award, V Foundation
  • 2000: Cancer Research Fund-Lilly Clinical Research Investigator Award, Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Foundation
  • 1999: Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Award