For Kunle Odunsi, one of the biggest challenges of realizing new treatments in cancer care is how long discoveries take to move from the laboratory to the patient’s bedside. On average, it takes 10 to 20 years to develop a new treatment, and most discoveries are unable to bridge the “valley of death”—the rift between promising research and patient impact due to lack of funding, expertise, and infrastructure.
“We are trying to solve some of the major bottlenecks in cancer care and cancer research,” says Odunsi, the AbbVie Foundation Distinguished Service Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We’ve made tremendous progress over the last 30 to 40 years in cancer research, but the progress is not nearly enough.”
Odunsi believes the University of Chicago is uniquely positioned to accelerate the pace of progress. The level of expertise across multiple disciplines all colocated on the Hyde Park campus —from cancer biology to chemistry to molecular engineering and computational approaches—facilitates a level of collaboration, speed, and efficiency that Odunsi has not seen anywhere else.
“Because of our ecosystem—our investigators and the close proximity of intellectual firepower that exists across disciplines here—we are best positioned to solve some of these big problems at this point in history,” Odunsi says.
The AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion, the first freestanding facility in Illinois dedicated exclusively to cancer research and care, expands this unique ecosystem. By bringing cancer clinicians and researchers together in one place, the new facility will accelerate discoveries and translate them more quickly into personalized treatments.
This comprehensive, collaborative approach to research and care is one of many factors that attracted Odunsi to his current role at UChicago.
Together, we are modeling a future where life-saving care is not a privilege, but a promise kept to every individual.
Before arriving at the University in 2021, Odunsi built a reputation as a leading expert in immunotherapy and vaccine therapy for cancer. He studied medicine in Nigeria, then trained at the University of Cambridge, Yale University, and the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford.
At Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, Odunsi served as deputy director of the Cancer Center, chair of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology, and executive director of its Center for Immunotherapy. There he pioneered the development of antigen-specific vaccine therapy and adoptive T-cell immunotherapies to prolong remission rates in ovarian cancer patients. His honors and awards include election to the National Academy of Medicine and receipt of the Rosalind Franklin Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research Prize.
UChicago’s culture of interdisciplinarity and rigorous inquiry enables Odunsi to continue pursuing new approaches to seemingly intractable problems in cancer research. He cites the expansiveness of the UChicago mindset, which encourages researchers to commit to looking at problems from every possible angle. He mentions the importance that artificial intelligence may have for the development of new cancer drugs—and notes some researchers’ skepticism about the tool. The way forward encompasses both perspectives.
“At the University of Chicago, we are pioneering advanced artificial intelligence to discover new drugs against cancer targets long deemed ‘undruggable.’ Our vibrant culture of rigorous debate and deep collaboration fuels our pursuit, uniting us behind a shared mission to transform cancer therapy and advance human health.”
Additionally, notes Odunsi, UChicago stands out among peers for focusing its mission on helping its immediate neighbors.
“In our community, Chicago’s South Side, cancer mortality rates are twice as high as in some other parts of the city and many parts of the United States. It is unacceptable.”
He describes the Center to Eliminate Cancer Inequity (CinEQUITY), a hub to catalyze research aimed at eliminating cancer inequities. CinEQUITY includes community outreach and engagement, an education program, and a community advisory board, among other resources.
There are also researchers from the University’s many divisions and professional schools who participate in work that puts into practice the commitment to equitable care. Odunsi points out one example of inequitable care in the Chicagoland community: how difficult it is for uninsured or under-insured people to receive high-quality cancer care despite the existence of exciting medical breakthroughs happening in their own communities.
“By uniting the innovative cancer care of UChicago Medicine with the expertise of University of Chicago Booth School of Business, along with vital insights of our community partners, we are architecting a blueprint for health equity. Together, we are modeling a future where life-saving care is not a privilege, but a promise kept to every individual,” says Odunsi. “We are studying how to make new and innovative approaches accessible to our community along the entire continuum of prevention, early detection, therapies, and survivorship.”