James Allison, ’73
Growing up in rural Alice, Texas, James Allison enrolled as a high schooler in science correspondence courses and trainings affiliated with UT Austin – where he later earned his bachelor of science, master of science and Ph.D. On the Forty Acres, Allison reportedly developed both a thrill for doing scientific research and a sense of responsibility about having an impact with his research. His pioneering research into cancer immunotherapy leveraged discoveries into how the immune system can be enlisted to help attack cancer cells, similarly to how it fights viruses and bacteria. He found that a molecule in T-cells, called CTLA-4, acts as a kind of brake within the immune system that some cancers exploit. This insight led to new cancer therapies, capable of disabling the brake – representing a significant advance in cancer research that has contributed to a drop in cancer deaths worldwide.