Michael A. Caligiuri – Candidate for Treasurer of AACR

The voting for the 2025 AACR Annual Election is now open, where members will vote for the next President-Elect, Treasurer, five Board Members, and four members of the Nominating Committee.

This year Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, FAACR is a candidate for treasurer of AACR.

Michael A. Caligiuri is currently a professor in the Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute in Duarte, California.

From 2018 to 2023, Dr. Caligiuri served as the president and physician-in-chief at City of Hope. Prior to that, he was the CEO (2007–2018) and deputy director (2003–2007) of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute at Ohio State University.

He also held multiple leadership roles at Ohio State, including director of the Division of Hematology and Oncology and professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Cancer Biology and Genetics.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Caligiuri was a professor at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the State University of New York at Buffalo, as well as an instructor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.

His career has been dedicated to advancing cancer research and treatment, with a particular focus on hematologic malignancies.

Dr. Michael A. Caligiuri’s research focuses on immunology and immunotherapy, particularly in the context of lymphoma, leukemia, and both liquid and solid tumors. He studies human natural killer (NK) cells and their potential in cancer treatment, especially through chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) NK cells.

Dr. Caligiuri has developed methods to improve NK cell function using proprietary retroviral transduction and has worked on generating CAR NK cells from peripheral blood, umbilical cord blood, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

His goal is to advance cancer therapies by harnessing the immune system’s natural defenses to better target and destroy cancer cells.

Dr. Michael A. Caligiuri has played a significant role in the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) through various leadership positions and contributions.

He is currently cochair of the AACR Oncology Industry Partnering Event (2024-present), chair of the Fellows of the AACR Academy Nomination and Election Oversight Subcommittee (2023-present), and scientific editor for Blood Cancer Discovery (2023-present).

Dr. Caligiuri also serves as treasurer-elect (2022-present) and holds ex officio positions on the Finance and Audit Committee and the Executive Committee.

He has been an influential member of several AACR committees, including the Nominating Committee, Bylaws Committee, and the Oncology Development Fund Investment Advisory Committee. Dr. Caligiuri was elected a Fellow of the AACR Academy in 2018 and has served as chair of the AACR Cancer Progress Report Steering Committee and president of AACR (2017-2018).

His extensive service and leadership have greatly shaped the AACR’s impact on cancer research and policy.

Education

Dr. Michael A. Caligiuri earned a BA in humanities and health sciences from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1997. He then completed an MS in physiology (1982) and an MD (1983) at Stanford University. Afterward, he trained as a clinical fellow in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (1983-1989), where he also served as an intern and resident in internal medicine. He went on to complete a fellowship in medical oncology and tumor immunology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School (1986-1989).

Awards and Honors

• Recipient, Simon M. Shubitz Lecturer and Award, University of Chicago CCC (2018).
• Recipient, NCI Director’s Service Award (2012).
• Recipient, NCI MERIT Award (2010).
• Recipient, NCI Eminent Lecture Award (2010).
• Recipient, Basic Science Mentor Award, American Society of Hematology (2022).
• Honoree, Tullman Lecture in Hematology, Yale Cancer Center (2019).
• Keynote speaker, California Cancer Registrars Association Annual Education Meeting, “Precision Medicine” (2019).

Interviews with Michael A. Caligiuri

A Message to Our Patients from Dr. Michael Caligiuri – City of Hope (14th October, 2020)

AACR 2019 – Michael Caligiuri, M.D., on Clinical Trials – City of Hope (3rd April, 2019)

To vote for your chosen candidate, click here.