In this exclusive, JEM editor Xin Sun interviews field leader Dr. Georgina Long about the latest advances in immunotherapy approaches against melanoma. In this discussion, Dr. Long provides insight into the greatest challenges in tackling melanoma, both molecularly and clinically, and new strategies to defeat the disease. She also shares how lessons learned in this context might extend to many other cancer types, with the potential to guide successful treatment of a wide variety of cancers that prove resistant to current drug regimens.
Professor Georgina Long is Co-Medical Director of Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA), and Chair of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Translational Research at MIA and Royal North Shore Hospital, The University of Sydney. She is a medical oncologist and clinician-researcher, and leads an extensive clinical trials team and laboratory at MIA, with a focus on targeted therapies and immuno-oncology in melanoma. Her translational research focus is on the molecular biology of melanoma, with a particular interest in mechanisms of drug therapy sensitivity and resistance. With an H-index of 92, she continues to publish her research in high-impact journals such as Science, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Lancet Oncology, Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology and Cancer Discovery.
Dr. Sun received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Johns Hopkins University, studying the roles of RNA-binding proteins in DNA damage responses, NF-kB signaling and tumorigenesis. She then pursued her postdoctoral research in the lab of Robert Darnell at The Rockefeller University, where she studied RNA genomics in neurological disease and cancer. She joined the Journal of Experimental Medicine as a Scientific Editor in 2018.
