Andrew Zloza, MD, PhD
Andrew Zloza, MD PhD earned his BS in Chemical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) as part of the IIT/Rush University Honors Program in Engineering and Medicine. He completed MD and PhD (Immunology/Microbiology) studies as part of the Rush Physician Scientist MD PhD Program. He further trained as a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) postdoctoral fellow (NIH T32) in Cancer Immunology and Tumor Vaccine Research at The University of Chicago.
From 2012 to 2023, Dr. Zloza directed a research group funded by NIH R01, R44 (SBIR), and industry- and foundation-sponsored grants. His laboratory focused on: 1) defining basic mechanisms by which pathogens and anti-pathogen vaccines alter the host immune response to cancer and 2) developing translational microbial-based cancer therapies (MBCTs) to improve patient outcomes. Towards this they created highly relevant and personalized humanized mouse models consisting of autologous patient-derived tissues and immune cells (i.e., from the same patient, aka. the AIR-PDX model). Further, as part of these efforts focusing on MBCTs, Dr. Zloza translated the intratumoral seasonal “flu” shot from benchside basic research (published in PNAS) to bedside clinical trial (patent pending).
Recently, Dr. Zloza served as a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy and Division of Precision and Translational Medicine. Dr. Zloza was previously also the Section Chief of Surgical Oncology Research and founding Director of the Immune Monitoring Shared Resource at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
In recognition of his successes as an investigator, Dr. Zloza has been awarded the 2015 Chambers-eBioscience Memorial Award by the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) and a Junior Faculty Award at the 3rd Annual Immuno-Oncology Young Investigator’s Forum (IOYIF) in 2017.