James Allison

James Allison at MD Anderson shared the 2018 Nobel Prize with Tasuku Honjo for discovering that CTLA-4 acts as a brake on T cell activation and that blocking CTLA-4 unleashes potent anti-tumor immunity. His foundational 1995-1996 Science papers with Max Krummel demonstrating tumor regression with anti-CTLA-4 in mouse models led to ipilimumab development — the first checkpoint inhibitor to demonstrate survival benefit in cancer and the proof-of-concept for the entire checkpoint immunotherapy revolution.