I’ve always been interested in how to jump-start the immune system. My curiosity led me to train as a postdoc under Jim Allison, Ph.D., in New York. He’s an immunotherapy pioneer who received a Nobel Prize for his work in 2018.

While working in his lab, we successfully drove immune response to what we call immune “hot cancers” like melanoma and lung cancer. But most patients with other types of cancer weren’t benefiting – and many...