Dmitriy Zamarin, MD, PhD (Dr. Bart A. Kamen Fellow ‘13-‘15) in the laboratory of Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘03-‘08) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, reported the clinical efficacy of a combined approach using checkpoint blockade, a strategy that harnesses the immune response to treat cancers, and oncolytic virotherapy, an investigational intervention that uses viruses to destroy tumors. The researchers reported that, in a mouse model of melanoma, the combination induced a potent and effective anti-tumor immune response. They are now working to develop protocols to evaluate their combination therapy in early stage clinical trials in humans. These results were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.