Dr. Sharma is a nationally and internationally renowned physician scientist whose research work is focused on investigating mechanisms and pathways within the immune system that facilitate tumor rejection or elicit resistance to immune checkpoint therapy. She is a Professor in the departments of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology, Associate VP of Immunobiology and the T.C. and Jeanette D. Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology, at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is also the inaugural Scientific Director for the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center. As Scientific Director, she designs and supervises immune monitoring studies for over 100 different immunotherapy clinical trials. In 2022 she became the Director of Scientific Programs for the James P. Allison Institute at MD Anderson. Dr. Sharma is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). She received the Emil Frei III Award for Excellence in Translational Research in 2016, the Coley Award for Distinguished Research for Tumor Immunology in 2018, the Women in Science with Excellence (WISE) award in 2020, the Heath Memorial Award in 2021 and the Randall Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research in 2021. Dr. Sharma has mentored over 50 graduate students, medical students, postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows, and junior faculty since 2005. She also mentors undergraduate summer students, including underrepresented minorities from Puerto Rico and Howard University, each summer. She is currently mentoring 3 post docs, 3 graduate students, 2 clinical fellows and 4 junior faculty. She provides excellent leadership, guidance, expertise and invests her time for the success of the careers of these young scientists.