Brent A. Hanks, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Medical Oncology in the Department of Medicine and an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University.  He currently serves as the Associate Director of Basic/Translational Research for the Center for Cancer Immunotherapy within the Duke Cancer Institute. Dr. Hanks completed his M.D. along with a Ph.D. in tumor immunology while in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM).  During his time at BCM, he developed a novel pharmacologic approach to activate dendritic cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity, resulting in a US patent supporting a series of clinical trials.  After graduating with distinction with the ‘BCM Best Overall Performance in Medical School Award’, he went on to complete his internal medicine residency training and his oncology fellowship training at Duke University.  During this time, he earned the Duke University Barton Haynes and Robert Califf Research Awards, along with membership in Alpha Omega Alpha.  During his oncology fellowship training, Dr. Hanks worked under the auspices of Dr. Gerard Blobe to study the modulation of anti-tumor immunity by the TGF-b pathway, garnering several awards including the Silber Memorial Research Award, the North Carolina Oncology Association Fellows Award and two ASCO Merit Awards.  After completing his training, Dr. Hanks has built a NIH/DoD/and multi-foundation-funded basic and translational research lab focusing on developing novel strategies for overcoming immunotherapy resistance and managing immunotherapy-associated toxicities.  His work has led to MRA and ACGT Young Investigator Awards, a CCF/ASCO Advanced Cancer Reseaerch Award, a CRI CLIP Award, and he has published in several high impact scientific journals including Journal of Clinical Investigation, Cancer Immunology Research, Immunity, Cell Reports, Science Translational Medicine, Cancer Research, and Nature Medicine.  He is also a medical oncologist with 13 years of experience managing cancer patients with immunotherapy.