Biography

Dr. Kelvin Lee became the third director of the Indiana University (IU) Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center in February 2021, succeeding Dr. Patrick J. Loehrer. Dr. Lee is the HH Gregg Professor of Oncology and associate dean for cancer research in the IU School of Medicine and the system oncology medical director for IU Health. He received his medical degree from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), completed his internal medicine internship and residency at the University of Colorado (Go Buffs!), trained in medical oncology at the University of Michigan, and was a Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Craig Thompson.

In 1992, Dr. Lee joined Dr. Carl H. June’s Immune Cell Biology Program at the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, MD, and was an ICBP branch head (Stem Cell and Vaccine Development) and assistant professor of medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Dr. Lee joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami (UM) Medical School in 1999. He was co-leader of the Clinical Oncology Research Program (2002-2005) and the Tumor Immunology Program (2005-2006) in the UM Sylvester Cancer Center.

In 2006, Dr. Lee became the Jacob Family Chair of the Department of Tumor Immunology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was also co-leader of the Cancer Center Support Grant Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Program from 2006 to 2019 and, in 2019, became the senior vice president for basic sciences. Dr. Lee led multiple institute-wide initiatives, including the establishment of the Roswell Park Center for Immunotherapy and the development of the T32-funded PhD graduate program in tumor immunology. He also spearheaded a first-of-its-kind scientific collaboration and business joint venture (Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance with the Center for Molecular Immunology in Havana, Cuba) and developed formal senior scientific leadership for the institution in establishing the Basic and Population Science Research Council. He was awarded the Thomas B. Tomasi Hope Award for Faculty Achievement in 2018.

Dr. Lee is nationally recognized for his work in immunology and multiple myeloma and has been continually peer-review funded since 1999. Most recently, his research has focused on the biology of normal long-lived plasma cells (e.g., Lightman et al. Immunity 2021) as well as multiple myeloma, the transformed counterparts of these plasma cells (e.g., Nair et al. Leukemia 2017). He has translated, and is continuing to translate, his laboratory research into investigator-initiated clinical trials. In addition to his laboratory research (which includes mentoring summer, graduate, and medical student trainees), Dr. Lee has an active clinical practice where he regularly sees multiple myeloma patients.

In addition to his extensive Institutional service, Dr. Lee served on the AACI Presidential Initiative Steering Committee (2021-2023) and as chair of the 2024 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting Program Committee.