Academic History

Jason Luke, MD, FACP, is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, Pittsburgh, PA, where he also serves as Associate Director for Clinical Research and Director of the Immunotherapy and Drug Development Center (Phase I). He received his medical degree from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, Chicago, IL, followed by internship and residency at Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA. He then completed fellowships in Medicine and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY. He subsequently held academic and clinical positions at Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, and later served as Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago before joining the University of Pittsburgh.

He is an active member of several professional organizations, including SITC—where he sits on the Board of Directors—AACR, ASCO, and the Society for Melanoma Research. He also leads an R01-funded laboratory and serves as Project 3 Clinical Co-Leader of the Pittsburgh Skin Cancer P50 SPORE.

Speaking on innovations in immuno-oncology and early-phase drug development

Dr Luke’s research is at the forefront of immunotherapy and early-phase drug development for solid tumors, with a particular focus on melanoma. He has led numerous clinical trials investigating a wide range of novel immunotherapeutic strategies, including checkpoint inhibitors, bispecific antibodies, cytokine-based therapies, innate immune agonists, oncolytic viruses, metabolism-targeting agents, and solid tumor cellular therapies such as TCR and CAR-T.

His work has driven practice-changing advances, notably in defining the role of anti-PD-1 and CTLA4 after anti-PD-1 failure and establishing adjuvant anti-PD-1 therapy for node-negative stage IIB/C melanoma, leading to regulatory approvals. In addition, his research explores the role of the microbiome and radiation in modulating immunotherapy responses. His translational efforts integrate large-scale informatics to improve the understanding and effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies.