How does the Moderna and Merck melanoma vaccine approval last week mean for immunotherapy industry overall?

In terms of cellular immunotherapies and other therapeutic cancer vaccines, it's been a tough road over the years.

Before there were immune checkpoint inhibitors, there were a number of these that were in the clinic and evaluated, but unfortunately did not do very well.

Because of that, there was a cloud over the whole field of cancer vaccines for many years.

More recently, immune checkpoint inhibitors came into play because the problem was that the cancer vaccine would induce an immune response against the cancer, but then the cancer would block the immune response with these immune checkpoints.

Fortunately, we now have the immune checkpoint inhibitors, which can kind of unblock that block or take the foot off the brake, so to speak, of the immune system.

And then the cancer vaccine can induce that immune response that will allow the immune system to attack the cancer.

So I have to ask you the question, do you think of yourself more as a scientist now or as a company executive?

But, um, take a little time to tell us a little bit more of this background story, 'cause you've been on quite a, a little journey here.

Sure.

Uh, happy to do that.

So, uh, after graduation from MIT, I went to Tufts Medical and then did internship and fellowship up in Boston at the VA.

Went out to University of Missouri Columbia to train in rheumatology immunology, and then I came back to the East Coast to Mark Green's lab at Penn and did a, uh, postdoctoral fellowship there in molecular immunology and, uh, pathology.

Uh, which was a great experience, 'cause Mark's lab has always been very focused on therapeutic development.

As people may not know this, but if you've heard of Herceptin, the basic, um, uh, insights that went into developing that came from Mark's lab many, many years ago, and that still remains a very effective treatment for breast cancer.

So take us a little into that realm and re-educate our audience on this.