Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, deputy director of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone and co-leader of its Clinical Melanoma Program, professor of oncology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and an Emeritus member of the AACR, died August 18, 2024, at the age of 72.
Weber was principal investigator of several ongoing studies funded by the National Cancer Institute, including trials in clinical drug development and managing the autoimmune side effects of immunotherapy for melanoma. At the AACR Annual Meeting 2023, he reported on a KEYNOTE trial indicating that adding a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine to immunotherapy may prolong recurrence-free survival in patients with high-risk melanoma.
He received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Columbia University in 1972, a doctorate in molecular cell biology from The Rockefeller University in 1979, and a medical degree from the NYU School of Medicine in 1980. He completed internship and residency training at the University of California-San Diego, followed by a fellowship in medical oncology and tumor immunology at the National Cancer Institute.
Weber stayed at NCI for nine years, rising to senior investigator in the Surgery Branch before moving to the University of California-Irvine in 1994 and the University of Southern California in 1995. He served there as an associate professor of medicine and molecular microbiology and immunology; head of the developmental therapeutics program at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; Lucille and Berle Adams chair in cancer research; and chief of medical oncology at the Keck USC school of Medicine.
In 2007, he joined the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, as a senior member and director of its Donald A. Adam Comprehensive Melanoma Research Center, and professor of oncologic sciences at the University of South Florida. He served as the principal investigator and director of Moffitt’s Center’s Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for skin cancer and melanoma research from the National Cancer Institute. He moved to NYU in 2015.
A member of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), Weber was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology in 2023.
Leave your remembrance of Dr. Weber below (limit 1,000 characters).
I was shocked and saddened to learn of the loss of this brilliant researcher and caring physician. In my years at NCI CTEP, interacting with Jeff was always a pleasure, with his agile mind and warm personality.
May his memory be a blessing.
When I think of mentorship, Jeff Weber is the first person who comes to mind. I am forever grateful to him for taking a young intern under his wing and showing him how to be thoughtful clinician and researcher. All while doing it with a keen sense of humor. He will be greatly missed.