Suzanne L. Topalian, M.D.
Professor, Surgery and Oncology
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Suzanne L. Topalian, MD*, is a physician-scientist whose studies of anti-tumor immunity have been foundational in developing cancer immunotherapy. She has published over 160 original research articles and reviews in this area and is one of the most highly cited researchers in the biomedical field. She received her medical and scientific training at Tufts University School of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the National Cancer Institute, NIH. She joined the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in 2006 as the inaugural director of its Melanoma/Skin Cancer Program, and currently serves as associate director for the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Johns Hopkins. She also chairs the Melanoma Research Alliance scientific advisory panel.
Dr. Topalian is credited with advancing the clinical development of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy for melanoma and other cancers, and her work is widely recognized. She was named one of Nature’s 10 in 2014, and received the Karnofsky Award from ASCO in 2015, the Taubman Prize in 2016, the NCI’s Rosalind E. Franklin Award in 2018, the AAD’s Gruber Memorial Cancer Research Award in 2020, and the Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences from the AAMC in 2021, for landmark discoveries in cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Topalian was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2017, and to the AACR Academy and the SITC Academy of Immuno-Oncology in 2022.
*All organizational affiliations and titles are listed for identification purposes only. All individuals serve in their personal capacity only and not as a representative of their employer.