Dr. Beatty is an Associate Professor, Medicine, in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Beatty directs the Clinical and Translational Research Program in the Abramson Cancer Center Pancreas Program. Dr. Beatty’s clinical expertise is in the area of early clinical trials for the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies including pancreas, esophageal and colon carcinomas. He has led the first clinical study of CD40 immunotherapy for pancreas cancer, the first in-human study of a novel inhibitor of indoleamine 2,3 deoxygenase, and first-in-human studies of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells for the treatment of pancreas cancer.

In addition to the translation of immunotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies, Dr. Beatty’s clinical research is focused on translating novel imaging strategies to the clinic to understand therapeutic responses to immunotherapy. A priority of his research program is to develop and translate novel treatment strategies for pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, colon cancer, and glioblastoma.

Based on early clinical findings supporting a role for immunotherapy in pancreatic carcinoma, Dr. Beatty’s laboratory is using preclinical models of cancer to advance our understanding of the role of the immune system in regulating tumor biology with the primary goal to inform the development of novel immunotherapeutics for translation to the clinical setting.