Vincent Lam, MD

Dr. Mark Yarchoan is a physician–scientist based in Baltimore who specializes in the treatment and study of gastrointestinal cancers, with a particular focus on liver malignancies, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). He received his undergraduate degree from Amherst College and his medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a fellowship in medical oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he joined the faculty in 2018. Dr. Yarchoan leads a research laboratory dedicated to developing novel immunotherapies for liver cancers. His translational research program integrates analyses of clinical trial biospecimens with preclinical modeling to identify and overcome barriers to effective antitumor immunity. A major focus of his work is the development of therapeutic cancer vaccines for hepatobiliary malignancies. He serves as Principal Investigator on multiple clinical trials for hepatobiliary cancers, contributes to international guideline committees for liver cancer, and is a member of the Johns Hopkins Graduate Training Programs in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Immunology. Dr. Yarchoan’s contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including the ASCO Young Investigator Award, the Conquer Cancer Foundation Career Development Award, the Mark R. Clements Award from the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, and the Blue Faery Award for Excellence in Liver Cancer Research.

Dr. Neeha Zaidi is a physician scientist and a medical oncologist, caring for patients with pancreatic and colorectal cancers.Dr. Zaidi received her undergraduate degree (Magna Cum Laude) in Biology from Cornell University and earned her M.D. from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine where she graduated with Distinction in Research. During medical school, she spent a year as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Research Fellow at The Rockefeller University studying dendritic cell vaccines. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Weill Cornell and subsequently received an Intramural Research Training Award to perform a year-long post-doctoral fellowship at the Vaccine Research Center (NIAID) at the NIH. She then completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Zaidi joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2019.Dr. Zaidi’s laboratory focuses on developing novel personalized immunotherapy approaches for the treatment and prevention of pancreatic cancer.Dr. Zaidi has most recently been recognized with an ASCO Career Development Award and a NCI K08 Award.

Dr. Lipson is an internationally-recognized skin cancer and immunotherapy specialist at Johns Hopkins. He received his medical degree in 2005 from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, where he graduated with distinction in research. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and completed a Medical Oncology fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.Dr. Lipson leads cutting edge clinical trials for patients with melanoma and other skin cancers. As a member of the Johns Hopkins Melanoma and Cancer Immunology Programs, he focuses on evaluating novel therapies for patients with high-risk or advanced disease. Dr. Lipson’s publications include the first reports of organ transplant recipients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors for advanced cancer, and the first description of kidney retransplantation performed after immunotherapy–related organ rejection. Based on his published work, Dr. Lipson initiated a clinical trial testing a novel combination of immune-based therapies for kidney transplant recipients with advanced selected cancers. Results from this trial - the first of its kind - were reported in 2022 at an international oncology meeting.Dr. Lipson is a leader in the clinical development of relatlimab, an antibody blocking the LAG-3 immune checkpoint. He leads a phase 2 trial testing combination immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy—including anti-LAG-3—for patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma. In June 2021, Dr. Lipson presented findings from the first phase 3 study establishing the LAG-3 pathway as the third immune checkpoint pathway in history, after CTLA-4 and PD-1, for which blockade has clinical benefit. This trial supported the FDA's approval of a new therapy for patients with advanced melanoma.In addition to his research activities, Dr. Lipson is an educator in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Many of his lectures focus on the management of immune-mediated drug toxicities associated with novel cancer drugs. Dr. Lipson conducts regular clinical practices in Baltimore, Maryland and at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. as part of the multidisciplinary Melanoma Program at Johns Hopkins.