Dr. Ronald Herberman is the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and the UPMC Cancer Center.  He is also associate vice chancellor for cancer research within the School of Medicine, Department of Health Sciences. Other appointments include chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and the Hillman Professor of Oncology.  He is also a professor of Medicine and Pathology. In serving as vice chancellor for cancer research, he has the responsibility for enhancing and facilitating the basic and clinical research activities of the six schools of the health sciences and of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Dr. Herberman remains personally involved in several cancer research programs.

In 1968, prior to joining the university, Dr. Herberman was a senior investigator in the immunology branch of the National Cancer Institute, where he organized a research program related to tumor and cellular immunology. In 1971, he became head of a newly established cellular and tumor immunology section in the Laboratory of Cell Biology of the National Cancer Institute. During this period, he had responsibility for a research program of several investigators related to studies in animal model systems and in patients with cancer, studying the cell mediated immune responses to tumors. As a result of this research, a new category of lymphocytes was discovered in Dr. Herberman's laboratory and termed natural killer (NK) cells. Since then, much of Dr. Herberman's research has been focused on the characterization of these natural effector cells and on their role in resistance to cancer growth.

In 1975, the National Cancer Institute organized an intramural and extramural research program focused on immunodiagnosis of cancer. Dr. Herberman was selected as the chief of the new Laboratory of Immunodiagnosis and also assumed responsibility for the national contract program on immunodiagnosis of cancer.

In 1988, he was appointed chairman of the Biological Response Modifiers Committee of the NIAID AIDS Clinical Trials Group and also served as a member of the NIAID AIDS Clinical Drug Development Committee.

Dr. Herberman left the National Cancer Institute in 1985 to establish the UPCI facility, now a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center specializing in innovative approaches to cancer treatment.

Dr. Herberman has served on the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research. He has been given the Award for Excellence in the Sciences by the governor of Pennsylvania and the Lifetime Science Award by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Immunology and Aging. He has also served as interim chairman of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) from 1994 to 1995. He currently serves as president of the American Association of Cancer Institutes and is the past president of the Society for Biological Therapy and the Society for Natural Immunity. He is also the first recipient of an endowed chair in oncology from the Hillman Foundation.

Dr. Herberman serves on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals. He has been featured in several publications for his work in the field of immunology, particularly as it relates to cancer research and currently serves as editor-in-chief for the international journal Natural Immunity as he continues his efforts to gain a better understanding of cancer and improve modern methods of treatment. He is also the principal investigator of a cancer center support grant of over a quarter of a million dollars from the National Institutes of Health.

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CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr. Ronald B. Herberman
Phone: (412) 623-3205
Email: herbrb@pitt.edu