Dr. Suzanne L. Topalian is the Bloomberg-Kimmel Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is a physician scientist whose studies of programmed death 1 (PD 1) blockade established immune checkpoint inhibition as a new pillar of oncology. Her work demonstrated durable tumor regressions across multiple malignancies and laid the clinical foundation for today’s PD 1/PD L1 inhibitors, now approved in more than 20 cancer types. She also co-led the development of the PD-L1 IHC and MSI-high biomarkers. An author of over 180 peer reviewed publications and one of the most highly cited biomedical researchers, she continues to innovate trials of neoadjuvant immune checkpoint blockade and biomarker driven treatment combinations. Dr. Topalian’s work has garnered numerous awards, and she was recognized with election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2017.