Renowned Melanoma and Immunotherapy Expert Joins NYU Langone Medical Center

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD

Immunotherapy expert Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, whose investigations and research findings have brought innovative advances in melanoma treatment from the laboratory to clinical practice, will join the senior faculty of NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, one of the country’s elite cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Weber will serve as deputy director of the Perlmutter Cancer Center and co-director of its melanoma program, and will oversee its work in experimental therapeutics.

Dr. Weber officially joins the NYU Langone faculty on November 2, 2015.

“We are extremely excited for Dr. Weber to join us and to bring his expertise in melanoma therapeutics to our already strong program in this field of oncologic medicine,” said Benjamin G. Neel, MD, PhD, director of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone. “Dr. Weber is a recognized leader in forging collaborative partnerships between basic scientists and clinical and translational investigators to advance cancer care. His interests in cancer immunotherapy, particularly his work conducted under NCI funding, will greatly broaden the depth and scope of our research efforts.”

Dr. Weber’s research, which has been continuously funded by the NCI for over 20 years, focuses on experimental therapeutics and drug development, particularly in the areas of immunotherapy and checkpoint inhibitory antibody development in melanoma and other types of cancer. Specifically, his laboratory monitors and characterizes how T cells, a principal component of the immune system, respond in patients with cancer who are undergoing immune therapy. In addition, he established laboratory models to further understand how the use of antibodies that “take the brakes off” the immune system has promoted the use of immunotherapy in patients with cancer.

Recently, Dr. Weber has led or been a major participant in multiple cutting edge trials using immune effector cells called tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, or TIL, and other agents to boost cancer immunity utilizing novel agents such as CTLA-4 and PD-1 to inhibit important checkpoint molecules on T cells.

Prior to joining NYU Langone and its Perlmutter Cancer Center, Dr. Weber served since 2007 as a Senior Member of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, and director of its Donald A. Adam Comprehensive Melanoma Research Center. He also holds the academic title of Professor in the Department of Oncologic Sciences at the University of South Florida. In addition, he has been the principal investigator and director of Moffitt’s Skin Cancer SPORE (P50) NCI grant, a collaborative, multi-project translational research program.

Before coming to Moffitt, Dr. Weber served for over 10 years in positions of increasing responsibility at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, including stints as chief of medicine and chief of the division of medical oncology at the Norris cancer Hospital of USC’s Keck School of Medicine.

An undergraduate alumnus of Columbia University in New York City, Dr. Weber earned his PhD in Molecular Cell Biology at The Rockefeller University and his medical degree from NYU School of Medicine (Class of 1980). He completed internship and residency training at the University of California-San Diego. Following his residency, Dr. Weber completed fellowship training in Medical Oncology and Tumor Immunology at the NCI.

Dr. Weber has published more than 150 peer reviewed articles in top tier journals, including New England Journal of Medicine, Clinical Cancer Research, Journal of Clinical Oncology and Nature Medicine. He also has served on the NCI’s Clinical Oncology Study section as well as the boards of the Melanoma Research Foundation and the Melanoma Therapeutics Foundation. He also served as chair of the U.S. Veterans Administration’s Clinical Oncology Study section.

“I am delighted to join Dr. Neel and other distinguished members of the faculty of NYU Langone Medical Center, the NYU School of Medicine and the Perlmutter Cancer Center,” said Dr. Weber. “It is my fervent desire to further advance NYU’s excellent investigative work in the study of melanoma and to broaden the role that immunotherapy can play at the Perlmutter Cancer Center in the treatment and, ultimately, the remission of various types of cancer.”