Amy B. Heimberger, MD
Jean Malnati Miller Professor of Brain Tumor Research & Professor of Neurological Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University
Biography
Dr. Heimberger’s scientific interests focus on elucidating the mechanisms of tumor-mediated immune suppression and identifying actionable targets for immune therapeutics. Her laboratory was pivotal in the development of a peptide (PEP-3-KLH/CDX-110) vaccine strategy that targets the epidermal growth factor receptor. In addition, she has clarified that the signal transducer and activator of the transcription 3 (STAT3) pathway is a key molecular hub of gliomagenesis and tumor-mediated immune suppression. She also conducted the pre-clinical development of a novel small molecule inhibitor of STAT3, WP1066, which was introduced into clinical trials in 2018 for melanoma patients with CNS metastasis and primary glioma patients. Furthermore, she showed that tumor-associated microglia/macrophages potentiate gliomagenesis via STAT3 and established that the glioma-associated cancer stem cells via the STAT3 pathway exert immune suppressive properties on both the adaptive and innate arms of the immune system. She is a prolific author with highly impactful publications in journals such as Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Research, Cancer Cell, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Nature Genetics, and Journal of the National Cancer Institute, among many others.