Dr. Brahmer received her medical degree from the University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE. She completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, where she was also appointed Chief Resident. She completed a fellowship in oncology at Johns Hopkins University, followed by her appointment to Faculty. Dr. Julie Brahmer is now an Associate Professor of Oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and an international leader in lung cancer clinical trials research with particular expertise in drug development for thoracic malignancies and immunotherapy.
She currently serves as Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program and Associate Professor of Oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, as well as Interim Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. She is the co-Principal Investigator on the Johns Hopkins’ NCI National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) Program grant and helps direct all oncology cooperative group activities on the Johns Hopkins campuses. She is co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute (FAMRI) Center of Excellence which focuses on the study of tobacco-related diseases and tobacco control policy development. She actively serves her professional and patient community by volunteering on the committees of professional societies (ASCO) and lung cancer advocacy groups (LUNGevity Foundation, Uniting Against Lung Cancer, Lung Cancer Research Foundation, and Free to Breathe).
Dr. Brahmer was the 2012 recipient of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Statesman Award for her volunteer efforts to the society. Dr. Brahmer has been intimately involved in the development of anti-PD-1 antibodies as PI of several early phase 1 studies of these antibodies that are now in phase 3 studies in lung cancer. She was the lead investigator of the first in human trial of the anti-PD-1 antibody, nivolumab, as well as the anti-PD-L1 antibody, BMS 936559. Dr. Brahmer is committed to the research and development of effective immune-based therapies in the treatment of lung cancer and other cancers such as mesothelioma.