Naoto Hirano, MD, PhD

Dr. Hirano received his MD and PhD from the University of Tokyo, and did his post-doctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School with Dr. Lee M. Nadler. He is Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and Professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto. He is also the Associate Director, Research of the Tumor Immunotherapy Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

Dr. Hirano's research program aims to devise novel anti-tumor immunotherapeutic modalities that can cure cancer. Dr. Hirano’s research team is particularly interested in understanding how the interactions between T cells and antigen-presenting cells affect priming, expansion, persistence and differentiation of T cells, as well as how this leads to the subsequent generation and maintenance of anti-tumor T cell memory.

Dr. Hirano has received prestigious awards and honors including the American Society of Hematology Scholar Award and Ontario Institute for Cancer Research Investigator Award. He is on the editorial board for the Cancer Immunology Research and Cancer Science.