Derya Unutmaz, M.D. from Marmara University, held postdoctoral positions at Novartis and NYU before joining Vanderbilt as Assistant Professor. In 2006, he became a tenured professor at NYU. Since 2015, he has been Professor at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and an affiliated professor at UConn.
With more than 150 publications, multiple patents, nearly 30,000 citations, and an h-index of 74, he has pioneered genetic and functional assays of human immune cells, including early lentiviral vector systems. His laboratory discovered several T-cell subsets, advanced cancer immunotherapies, explored precision medicine for ME/CFS and investigated COVID-19 immunity. Now focuses on immuno-oncology and reversing immune aging.