I serve as the head of the Immune Monitoring Facility (IMF), which was established in 2002 and became part of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy (LCCI) in November 2006. Dr. Jedd D. Wolchok serves as Associate Director at LCCI. Our primary research function is to develop and perform immune monitoring assays. These assays are required to quantify immune responses in patients who are receiving novel immune therapies and ultimately assist in moving these therapies from the clinical trial phase to standard of care. Thus, the IMF provides core support for clinical trials of active immunotherapy. Our specific correlative research aims are to elucidate antigen-specific T cell responses that arise following immunotherapy, including with various DNA vaccines that were developed in our laboratory. We are also actively investigating human immune responses to ipilimumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4).