Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD

Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, is a nationally and internationally renowned physician scientist whose research work is focused on investigating mechanisms and pathways within the immune system that facilitate tumor rejection or elicit resistance to immune checkpoint therapy. She is a Professor in the departments of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology, Associate VP of Immunobiology and the T.C. and Jeanette D. Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology, at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Additionally, she is Co-Director of the PICI Center at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

She is also the inaugural Scientific Director for the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center. As Scientific Director, she designs and supervises immune monitoring studies for over 100 different immunotherapy clinical trials. In 2022, she became the Director of Scientific Programs for the James P. Allison Institute at MD Anderson.

Dr. Sharma is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). She received the Emil Frei III Award for Excellence in Translational Research in 2016, the Coley Award for Distinguished Research for Tumor Immunology in 2018, the Women in Science with Excellence (WISE) award in 2020, the Heath Memorial Award in 2021 and the Randall Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research in 2021.

Dr. Sharma has mentored over 50 graduate students, medical students, postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows and junior faculty since 2005. She also mentors undergraduate summer students, including underrepresented minorities from Puerto Rico and Howard University, each summer. She is currently mentoring three post docs, three graduate students, two clinical fellows and four junior faculty. She provides excellent leadership, guidance, expertise and invests her time for the success of the careers of these young scientists.

In 2006, Dr. Sharma designed and conducted the first neoadjuvant (pre-surgical) trial, also known as a window-of-opportunity trial, with immune checkpoint therapy (anti-CTLA-4, ipilimumab), which allowed her to establish safety of the neoadjuvant approach for immune checkpoint therapy as well as provide tumor tissues for translational research studies. She identified the ICOS/ICOSL pathway as a novel target for cancer immunotherapy strategies.

The neoadjuvant clinical trial in 2006 was also the first trial with immune checkpoint therapy in patients with bladder cancer. The clinical data indicated that 25% of patients had significant anti-tumor responses with pathologic complete responses. These data led Dr. Sharma to conduct additional clinical trials with immune checkpoint therapy (anti-PD-1, nivolumab) for patients with bladder cancer, which enabled FDA-approval of nivolumab as treatment for patients with metastatic bladder cancer. Dr. Sharma also led the clinical trials with immune checkpoint therapy (nivolumab and nivolumab plus ipilimumab) in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC), which led to FDA-approval of these agents as treatment for patients with RCC.

Dr. Sharma holds a PhD in immunology and an MD from Pennsylvania State University. She completed her clinical residency at New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center in New York, and her clinical fellowship was completed at the Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center.

• 2004: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, Clinical Fellowship, Medical Oncology
• 2000: New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY, Clinical Residency, Internal Medicine
• 1998: Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, MD, Medicine
• 1998: Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, Ph.D., Immunology
• 1991: Boston University, Boston, MA, MA, Biotechnology
• 1990: Boston University, Boston, MA, BA, Biology

• 2021: Heath Memorial Award and Randall Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research
• 2020: Women in Science with Excellence (WISE) Award
• 2018: Coley Award for Distinguished Research for Tumor Immunology
• 2016: Emil Frei III Award for Excellence in Translational Research
• 2012: MD Anderson Cancer Center Faculty Scholar Award; MD Anderson Women Faculty Programs "Woman Leading the Way"; National Institute of Health R01 Award
• 2011: Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas Award
• 2010: DOD/CDMRP Idea Development Award
• 2009: American Cancer Society Mentored Research Scholar Grant
• 2008: Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award; Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator Award; Prostate Cancer Foundation Challenge Award in Immunology
• 2007: Carl C. Anderson, Sr. & Marie Jo Anderson Charitable Foundation; MD Anderson Cancer Center Bladder Cancer SPORE Development Award; The Gillson Longenbaugh Foundation
• 2006: American Society of Clinical Oncology Career Development Award; Cancer Research Institute Clinical Investigator Award; Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award
• 2005: MD Anderson Cancer Center Institutional Research Grant; MD Anderson Cancer Center Physician Scientist Training Program Award; National Institute of Health Renewal Clinical Loan Repayment Program Award
• 2003: American Society of Clinical Oncology, Young Investigator Award                 Recipient; Award Recipient, GSK National Medical Oncology Fellows Forum
• 2002: Award for Abstract Presentation, Doris Duke Symposium
• 2001: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Institutional NIH T32 Grant
• 1998: Pennsylvania State University, Department of Medicine Scholarship for    Excellence in Medicine
• 1995: Pennsylvania State University Student Clinician Research Award
• 1994: The Judy S. Finkelstein Memorial Award in Immunology
• 1990: Golden Key National Honor Society