Carl Ware, PhD, director of the Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center, was invited to stand on the pitcher’s mound at the May 17 Padres home game against the San Francisco Giants. It was part of the Padres’ way of saying thanks to the scientists fighting cancer.
And Ware deserves it. Trained as an immunologist, he has made tremendous contributions to developing therapeutics for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis and Crohn’s disease.
Now he is using his expertise to find drugs that kick-start the immune system to fight cancer. By unleashing the body’s immune system to fight cancer, immunotherapy has become a new, successful approach to help patients fight cancer.
Let’s hope he hits a home run.