J. Silvio Gutkind is a Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, and Associate Director for Basic Science at the Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego. He received his Ph.D. in pharmacy and biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He served as the Chief of the Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch at the NIDCR, NIH, from 1998 until his recruitment to UCSD in 2015. His research team is exploiting emerging insights into dysregulated signaling circuits and individual genomic and molecular alterations to develop novel precision cancer therapies and multimodal strategies that enhance response to immune checkpoint blockade.
Dr. Gutkind is a world-renowned scientist, recognized for his pioneering studies revealing the key role of G proteins and G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in human malignancies, as well as for his discovery that the PI3K-mTOR and Hippo-YAP/TEAD networks are the most frequently dysregulated signaling mechanisms in oral cancer. As part of his translation efforts, he led many multi-institutional clinical trials that established the benefits of targeting mTOR for the prevention and treatment of oral cancer. His laboratory has recently launched a new initiative targeting oncogenic and immune-escape signaling drivers as a novel, multimodal precision cancer immunotherapy strategy.
His numerous honors include the NIH Merit Award and the IADR Distinguished Scientist Award, his election to the National Academy of Medicine (2019), and his appointment as American Cancer Society Research Professor (2024), reflecting his team’s basic and translational cancer research efforts. He has published over 600 research articles in some of the most prestigious journals. He has organized multiple international meetings and symposia, and served on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals and on national and international advisory committees. He has also supervised and mentored many junior investigators who are now holding leadership roles in multiple institutions throughout the United States and abroad.
