2019 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science presented to James P. Allison, Ph.D.

James P. Allison is the recipient of the 2019 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science for his pioneering discoveries of how the T-cell antigen receptor and co-stimulatory molecules are used to mount an immune response, and for his insights and perseverance in developing immune checkpoint therapies for treating cancer. Although he originally trained as a biochemist, his life-long interest has been immunology. He provided the first structural description of the T-cell antigen receptor, helping us understand how the T cell recognizes an antigen. He was also able to show that CD28 was a necessary co-stimulation signal together with the T-cell antigen receptor to fully activate the T cell. Additionally, he and his laboratory helped identify CTLA-4 as the protein responsible for inhibiting the activation of T cells. Jim Allison hypothesized that blocking the CTLA-4 signal in vivo could unleash the immune system to recognize and destroy tumors. In an absolute tour de force, he was able to demonstrate tumor remission in preclinical animal models and went on to lead and coordinate the pharmaceutical efforts to develop a human monoclonal antibody and use this as a reagent in human clinical trials. The result was the development of ipilimumab, which has been shown to be effective in treating melanoma, among other cancers. Whereas melanoma used to be a virtual death sentence, 22% of the melanoma patients treated with one round of ipilimumab are still cancer-free 10 years later.