Associate Professor Mark Polizzotto

Mark Polizzotto is Professor of Medicine at The Australian National University College of Health and Medicine, where he leads the Clinical Hub in Interventional Research (CHOIR) and is a group leader at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, and Senior Staff Haematologist at The Canberra Region Cancer Centre, Canberra Hospital.

is a clinical triallist whose work sits a the intersection of immunity, infection and cancer. He has a focus on developing new therapies to prevent and treat malignancy, particularly infection-related cancers. Mark's work on viral and HIV-associated cancers has influenced guidelines globally, including co-leading development of an oral immunomodulator for Kaposi sarcoma which led to the first new drug approval for KS in over 20 years. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, at the invitation of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, he led international randomised trials of immunotherapies for COVID-19.

Mark's work in clinical trials and therapeutic development has led to new therapy registrations and influenced treatment guidelines in Australia and internationally, while his contributions to translational science have led to paradigmatic shifts in our understanding of the pathogenesis of key viral malignancies and complications of HIV infection. He has published in the most influential journals in his areas of interest, including Blood, Clinical Infectious Diseases, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet journals, Nature Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine.

From 2017 to 2021, Mark was head of the Therapeutic Research Program at the Kirby Institute. During that time in addition to his work in infection-related cancers he led several international randomised trials in HIV, influenza, and COVID-19 infection in collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the World Health Organization, Unitaid, and others. He also led capacity development efforts in clinical trials for the NIH in West Africa and Indonesia.