Steven M. Dubinett, Associate Vice Chancellor and Senior Associate Dean for Translational Research, was named Interim Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA on September 1st, 2021, and named Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA effective June 5, 2023.
Dr. Dubinett directs the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and is jointly appointed as Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, and Medicine, where he served as Chief of the Division of Pulmonary Critical Care, Sleep Medicine, Clinical Immunology and Allergy since 2006. As chief of the Division, which serves thirteen clinical locations in Southern California, Dr. Dubinett has recruited over 100 faculty. He has fostered sub-specialization, including programs in Interventional Pulmonology, Sleep Medicine and lung transplantation. The division is home to nationally acclaimed training programs in pulmonary and critical care medicine, sleep medicine, interventional pulmonology, allergy and immunology, and lung transplantation. UCLA Pulmonology has ranked within the top 5 programs by U.S. News & World Report for the past three years.
Dr. Dubinett’s research focuses on immunity and inflammation in the development of lung cancer. While a pulmonary research fellow in the Department of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Dubinett helped lead the first clinical trial using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes to treat patients with cancer. While some of the patients with renal cancer and melanoma had very dramatic anti-tumor responses, the patients with lung cancer did not respond to the therapy. Building on original discoveries relevant to immunity and inflammation in the pathogenesis of lung cancer, Dr. Dubinett has developed a translational research program, which now utilizes these laboratory-based discoveries in the translational research and clinical environment.
After joining the UCLA faculty in 1988, Dr. Dubinett began his research program focusing on understanding why lung cancer patients were not responding to immunotherapy, and he has received uninterrupted peer-reviewed federal funding for translational lung cancer research for more than 30 years. Dr. Dubinett, experienced in mentorship, peer review, and academic administration, has trained more than 50-graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty, nearly all of whom have continued in academic or industry research careers.