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SPECIAL

LECTURE

SPECIAL LECTURE

The IUIS 2025 Congress in Vienna will feature a Special Lecture by a distinguished Nobel laureate, highlighting groundbreaking advancements in immunology and related fields. Among the esteemed speakers is:

James P. Allison: An American immunologist renowned for his pioneering work in cancer immunotherapy. His research on T-cell development and activation led to the development of novel cancer treatments, earning him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2018.

This lecture offers attendees a unique opportunity to gain insights from a leading scientist whose discoveries have significantly impacted our understanding of health and disease.

Biography

Jim Allison, the 2018 Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine, has spent a distinguished career studying the
regulation of T cell responses and pioneering new strategies for cancer immunotherapy. Among his most
notable discoveries are the determination of the T cell receptor structure and that CD28 is the major
costimulatory molecule that allows full activation of naïve T cells and prevents anergy in T cell clones. His lab
resolved a major controversy by demonstrating that CTLA-4 inhibits T-cell activation by opposing CD28-
mediated costimulation and that blockade of CTLA-4 could enhance T cell responses, leading to tumor
rejection in animal models. He proposed that blockade of immune checkpoints such as CTLA-4 might be a
powerful strategy for therapy of many cancer types, and conducted preclinical experiments showing its
potential. These seminal findings established the field of immune checkpoint blockade therapy for cancer.
Work in his lab led to the development of ipilimumab, an antibody to human CTLA-4 and the first immune
checkpoint blockade therapy approved by the FDA. Since that time ipilimumab has been approved as part of
the therapeutic regimen for metastatic melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and lung cancer. His current work
seeks to improve immune checkpoint blockade therapies currently used by our clinicians and identify new
targets to unleash the immune system to eradicate cancer.
He is regental professor and chair of the MD Anderson Immunology department, executive director of the
Immunotherapy Platform, and director of the James P. Allison Institute.
Among many honors, he is a member of the National Academies of Sciences and Medicine. His other recent
awards include the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2014, Lasker-Debakey Clinical Medical Research
award in 2015, the Balzan Prize in 2017, and the Kovalenko Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, the
King Faisal Prize in Medicine, and the BBVA Foundations of Knowledge Prize in 2018.

Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Cancer Immunotherapy: Mechanistic insights provide new therapeutic opportunities.
Friday, August 22, 2025
14:30 – 15:00