Brent A. Hanks, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor with Tenure in the Departments of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, and Pharmacology within the Lineburger Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  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.  He went on to complete his internal medicine residency training and his oncology fellowship training at Duke University.  After completing his training, Dr. Hanks has built a NIH/DoD/and multi-foundation-funded research lab focused on the discovery and translation of tumor-mediated immune evasion and immunotherapy resistance mechanisms.  This work has been primarily directed toward the study of tumor-intrinsic mechanisms of immune evasion in addition to exploring how tumors manipulate dendritic cell functionality and antigen cross-presentation in the tumor microenvironment.  A more recent component of his lab is also investigating mechanisms of tumor-dependent innate training and how these processes are contributing to both immunotherapy resistance as well as the development of immunotherapy-associated toxicities.  His work has been published in several high-impact peer-reviewed scientific journals including Journal of Clinical Investigation, Immunity, Cancer Research, Cancer Immunology Research, Nature Medicine, Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Science Immunology, and Science Translational Medicine.  In addition to his research program, Dr. Hanks is also a practicing medical oncologist with 14 years of experience managing patients with cutaneous malignancies, upper gastrointestinal malignancies, as well as immunotherapy-associated toxicities.