UCLA physician-scientist elected to National Academy of Medicine

Dr. Antoni Ribas, a world-renowned physician –scientist and professor of medicine at theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has been named to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.New members are elected by their peers, and selection to the academy honors individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service and have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care and public health.The academy recognized Ribas for defining the mechanistic basis of how patients respond to or develop resistance to immunotherapy drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors and for leading multicenter clinical trials that have provided transformative treatments for patients with advanced melanoma, which was once thought untreatable.A pioneer in cancer immunology, Ribas has  devoted his career to developing and refining new therapies for malignant melanoma. His research focuses on how the immune system can be used to fight cancer in order to develop more effective and less toxic therapies for people with melanoma.“It is a privilege to be recognized by the National Academy of Medicine,” said Ribas, who directs the tumor immunology program at theUCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.“It speaks to the impact immunotherapy has played in cancer research. When I started treating cases of melanoma that had metastasized to other organs, maybe 1 in 20 responded to ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news