Andy Minn, MD, PhD is the inaugural Chair of MSK’s Immuno-Oncology Program, which was established in 2025.
Dr. Minn joined MSK from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was Director of the Mark Foundation Center for Immunotherapy, Immune Signaling, and Radiation; Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine; a member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; and an Investigator at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute.
As a researcher, Dr. Minn has focused on understanding how long-term inflammation and the abnormal activation of antiviral pathways, such as interferon (IFN), and other inflammatory cascades impact cancer progression, treatment resistance, and immunotherapy response. He employs both experimental and translational strategies to drive discoveries from bench to bedside. His studies have led to several clinical trials.
Dr. Minn’s recent efforts have focused on finding different strategies to restore productive IFN signaling in cancer by using CAR-T cells, targeting key signaling hubs, and blocking persistent and maladaptive IFN and inflammatory signaling in cancer and immune cells with JAK inhibitors. He and his lab colleagues are seeking to improve immunotherapy by discovering, understanding, and targeting chronic IFN and other inflammatory pathways that drive suppressive tumor-immune system states, leading to relapse and therapy resistance.
With his extensive experience as a scientist, clinician, and researcher, Dr. Minn brings a new, broad perspective to MSK’s Immuno-Oncology Program. The program builds on MSK’s pioneering contributions in the development of immune checkpoint blockade therapy, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) and other cellular therapies, and cancer vaccines. Under Dr. Minn’s leadership, the Immuno-Oncology Program serves as a central hub for comprehensive immuno-oncology research, providing resources and collaboration opportunities to colleagues across MSK. The program’s focus will be on expanding our collective knowledge of the immune system and developing immunotherapies that are more effective against more types of cancer and for a greater number of people, advancing MSK’s mission of ending cancer for life.
Dr. Minn received his MD and PhD from the University of Chicago where he studied the structure, function, and regulation of programmed cell death genes with Craig Thompson, MD, the former President and CEO of MSK. He then did his medical residency in radiation oncology at MSK, as well as postdoctoral training with Joan Massagué, PhD, studying genes that control tissue-specific metastasis. Next, Dr. Minn returned to the University of Chicago where he served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation & Cellular Oncology and a member of the Ludwig Center for Metastasis Research before moving to the University of Pennsylvania.
