Daniel J. Powell Jr., PhD

Center for Cellular Immunotherapies
Ovarian Cancer Research Center
Abramson Cancer Center
Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine

Dr. Daniel Powell Jr. is a nationally and internationally recognized cancer immunologist whose work has helped shape the field of translational immunotherapy. As Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Scientific Director of Immunotherapy in Gynecologic Oncology, he leads bold, mechanism-driven research to define antitumor immunity, discover actionable biomarkers, and bring innovative cell therapies—including CAR T cell therapy—closer to patients, with a focus on ovarian cancer. During his postdoctoral training at the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute, he developed combinatorial approaches for tumor vaccination, investigated the role of immunosuppressive regulatory T cells in cancer, and studied adoptive T cell therapy (ACT) for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma, leading to the important discovery that T cell persistence is associated with clinical response.  His earned his doctorate at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where he developed mouse models of human thyroid cancer to investigate the molecular drivers of tumor progression and the immunological landscape of thyroid cancer. At UPENN, Dr. Powell’s laboratory drives bold, mechanism-based cancer research to decode antitumor immunity, identify actionable biomarkers, and advance next-generation immunotherapies toward the clinic, resulting in clinical trials of CAR T cell therapy for solid cancers. Dr. Powell serves on various federal, academic and industry committees, including as past Chair of the NIH Cellular Immunotherapy for Cancer Study Section and board member for the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC).