Charles (Chuck) Drake, M.D., Ph.D. is Vice President, Immuno-oncology (I-O) at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. In this position, he is responsible for leading the I-O team in their efforts to develop next-generation approaches to immunotherapy - including antibody-based drugs, cell therapies, and novel cancer vaccines.
Chuck is a physician-scientist whose research and clinical activities have focused on understanding the biology of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment and translating those findings into cutting-edge clinical trials for patients with prostate, kidney, and bladder cancer.
Prior to joining Janssen Research & Development, he led the genitourinary oncology program and a productive basic science laboratory at the Herbert Irving Cancer Center, Columbia University Medical Center. He was also named the Milstein Family Professor of Medicine and Urology and served as the Associate Director for Clinical Research at the cancer center.
Further, he founded Columbia’s Human Immune Monitoring Core, which provides state-of-the-art analytic technologies for the study of human cancer. At Columbia University, he and his colleagues built a strong portfolio of more than 30 clinical trials, including a number of first-in-human studies in patients with prostate kidney and bladder cancer, many based on his laboratory research. Prior to Columbia, he served as the Co-director of the Cancer Immunology Program at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Dr. Drake received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University. He earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado Medical Science Training Program and received his doctorate in Immunology from the National Jewish Research Center. Chuck completed his residency through the Osler Medical Residency Training Program at Johns Hopkins and finished his fellowship in Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins as well. He is board-certified in medical oncology and has cared for hundreds of cancer patients over the years.