Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD
Dr. Jeffrey Weber is the Deputy Director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center (PCC) and works with a multidisciplinary team of medical and surgical oncologists, dermatologists, and pathologists to treat patients with melanomas ranging from the most common to the most complex. Dr. Weber serves as Codirector of PCC’s Melanoma Research Program and is head of Experimental Therapeutics at PCC, overseeing work in experimental therapeutics.
Dr. Weber’s clinical and research interests primarily lie in the field of immunotherapy for cancer, and he works at the forefront of new ideas in immunotherapy for treating patients with melanoma and managing the side effects of these novel therapies. He has been instrumental in the development of ipilimumab for melanoma, publishing some of the earliest papers showing its efficacy, and has been an early advocate for the use of checkpoint inhibition as adjuvant treatment, culminating in the publication of the New England Journal of Medicine work showing benefit for the PD-1 antibody nivolumab compared with ipilimumab for resected high-risk melanoma. Dr. Weber has also been involved in a large variety of clinical trials, including trials for melanoma vaccines, protocols involving adoptive cell therapy, and novel immunotherapy trials for patients with melanoma.
Dr. Weber is the principal investigator of a number of ongoing studies funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), including trials in clinical drug development and managing the autoimmune side effects of immunotherapy for melanoma. He has been the chair of the CONC study section of the NCI and also serves as the coprincipal investigator of New York University’s Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for skin cancer and melanoma research from the NCI. Dr. Weber’s research has been funded by RO1 grants from the NCI for more than 25 years.
Dr. Weber has published more than 230 articles in the top peer-reviewed journals in his field. He currently sits on the scientific advisory boards of 7 cancer-related biotechnology companies and numerous cancer institutions and foundations.
It is with utmost sadness that we inform you that Dr. Jeffrey S. Weber, our beloved founding member of the OncoC4 Scientific Advisory Board, has passed away after a most courageous battle against cancer. Jeff never lost a moment in advising us even during the most difficult times that he faced. In our last communication with him early this month, Jeff asked that we keep our monthly call in September on schedule.
The world knows Jeff as a wonderful human being, physician-scientist, teacher, administrative leader, and one of the pioneers of cancer immunotherapy. He was the leader of the first randomized Phase 3 study that showed anti-CTLA-4 antibody was effective against melanoma, and the leader in defining, preventing and treating the adverse effects of immunotherapy.
At OncoC4, we had the great honor to benefit from his wisdom, intellect, and drive in clinical studies. We also had the privilege to be indulged with his warm friendship, sharp wit and insightful and candid advice.
Words cannot convey our sorrow. We will show our gratitude to Jeff the only way we can, to make progress in our fight against cancer.
Sincerely,
Michael A. Caligiuri, SAB Chair
Pan Zheng, CMO
Yang Liu, CEO and CSO