The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York City has announced a $40 million gift from Henry R. Kravis to establish a hub for immunotherapy research.

Made in honor of Kravis’s wife, the gift will establish the Marie-Josée Kravis Center for Cancer Immunobiology (CCI), which will be led by the Marie-Josée Kravis Chair in Immuno-Oncology. To elevate and prioritize research across the institution, CCI will work to unite MSK’s preclinical and translational investigators across the immunology research community and encompass basic research, translational research, and the creation of novel immunodiagnostic assays at MSK with a focus on immuno-oncology discovery, cell engineering, and cancer vaccines.

According to MSK, cancer immunotherapy—including checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, and cancer vaccines—is one of the most transformational breakthroughs in modern medicine. Immunotherapies approved by the Food and Drug Administration exist for several cancers, including melanoma, lung cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, and lymphoma, with many more in development. However, current immunotherapies are not effective for everyone and, even when successful, the disease can grow resistant over time. Expanding the benefits of immunotherapies to more patients and understanding why cancers become resistant to these treatments is one of MSK’s top research priorities and a central need for the cancer field.

Longtime supporters of MSK, the Kravises established the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology in 2014 and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Cancer Ecosystems Project in 2022. Marie-Josée Kravis is currently vice chair of the MSK board of trustees.

“The extraordinary generosity and far-reaching vision of Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis has significantly advanced MSK’s research efforts throughout the years and will have a profound and lasting impact on the world of cancer science,” said Joan Massagué, MSK chief scientific officer, director of the Sloan Kettering Institute, and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair. “The Marie-Josée Kravis Center for Cancer Immunobiology will enable collaborative research between MSK’s immuno-oncology and immunology programs and support barrier-breaking efforts to move projects forward, serving as a model for how cancer research can and should be optimally implemented.”

(Photo courtesy of Memorial Sloan Kettering and the Kravises)