Michael T. Lotze MD

Dr. Michael Lotze is Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh; Vice-Chair of Research, Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and Assistant Vice Chancellor Sponsored Training Grants, University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences. Dr. Lotze has worked in the field of immunology and clinical medicine for over 35 years and believes that a fundamental understanding of cancer biology and immunology is essential to making progress in oncology.

Dr. Lotze’s career has always been predicated on the bench to bedside to bench paradigm in science, starting at the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) [1978-1990]. There, he championed the development of novel therapies for patients with melanoma and kidney cancer and the in vivo application of IL-2, IL-4, and IL-7 as cancer therapies.

Dr. Lotze developed adoptive transfer of Natural Killer Cells (NKs)/lymphokine-activated killer cells and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapies and launched gene therapy efforts that continued when he moved to the University of Pittsburgh. Since then, he has developed and overseen four separate successful funded Program Project grants on research topics including cytokine gene therapy, dendritic cell (DC) therapy, the tumor microenvironment, and most recently, integration of NKs and DCs in the treatment of cancer patients.