Ira Mellman, PhD is currently the co-founder and CSO of Medici Therapeutics, a “next-generation immunotherapy” company. Previously, Dr. Mellman ran all of oncology research at Genentech from 2007 – 2014 and was then Vice President of Cancer Immunology at Genentech from 2014 – 2024, following 20 years as a faculty member at the Yale University School of Medicine, where he was chair of his department, a member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, scientific director of the Yale Cancer Center, and Sterling Professor of Cell Biology and Immunobiology.

Dr. Mellman has an AB from Oberlin College & Conservatory and a PhD in Genetics from Yale and was a Fellow at the Rockefeller University with Ralph Steinman. Dr. Mellman’s laboratory is known not only for advances in fundamental cell biology in the area of membrane traffic (notably, the discovery of endosomes) and for applying these insights to understanding the cellular basis of the immune response.

Of particular importance to cancer immunotherapy has been his pioneering contributions to elucidating how dendritic cells initiate immunity or maintain immune tolerance. Recently, his group turned to elucidating how T cell signaling is regulated by immune checkpoints, and how personalized cancer vaccines and cell-based therapies can be used to enhance anti-tumor T cell responses. Dr. Mellman’s group was responsible for having brought Genentech’s anti-PD-L1 antibody, Tecentriq® (atezolizumab), to the clinic, an approved blockbuster drug for a variety of indications.

Dr. Mellman also oversaw the initial discovery or early development of Genentech’s cancer vaccine programs directed against patient-specific mutant neo-antigens using mRNA (in collaboration with BioNTech) and DNA (in collaboration with Nykode) based platforms, tiragolumab (anti-TIGIT, now in pivotal trials), Cotellic® (MEK inhibitor cobimetinib), Lunsumio® (mosunetuzumab, anti-CD20/CD3 bispecific), and Polivy® (anti-CD79b ADC).

Dr. Mellman is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization, a Fellow of the Academy of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and the former Editor in Chief of the Journal of Cell Biology. He has also served on the editorial boards of Cell, the Journal of Experimental Medicine, EMBO Journal, OncoImmunology among others, and is the recipient of many named lectureships, honorary professorships, and awards, including Yale University’s Wilbur Cross medal, the Peter Dougherty Lecture at St. Jude’s, and the Lloyd J. Old Award for Cancer Immunotherapy (from the AACR). He has also served on the boards of AACR, SITC, the ASCB, the Melanoma Research Foundation, and the Cancer Research Institute.