Dr. Antonia focuses on translational research, using his molecular biology and cellular immunology training in the development of immunotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of cancer patients. This work is organized around three themes. The first is to develop gene-modified tumor-cell vaccines using genes that potentiate anti-tumor immune responses. The second is to develop dendritic cell-based vaccines. The third is to develop strategies designed to thwart the immunosuppressive mechanisms used by tumors to evade T-cell mediated rejection. Combination immunotherapy using these strategies ultimately will be developed. Dr. Antonia has designed and conducted numerous first-in-man clinical trials with novel immunotherapeutics. He is the sponsor of several INDs for therapeutics produced at Moffitt Cancer Center, and the inventor on two patents for technology he has developed. He was recently awarded a K24 grant from the NCI to support his clinical research, and is the PI on a Thoracic SPORE project.