Elliott Assistant Professor of Biology Dr. Kristian M. Hargadon ’01 recently published a review article on melanoma immunotherapy in a special issue on melanoma research for the Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences & Applications.  This article highlights work in this area of research over the last several decades, with particular emphasis on the identification of melanoma tumor antigens that began in the early 1990s and the use of these antigens as targets of a variety of melanoma immunotherapies that include peptide-, protein-, and DNA-based cancer vaccines, dendritic cell-based immunization maneuvers, and adoptive T cell transfer therapies.  The article also discusses a number of key issues that continue to limit the efficacy of many current melanoma immunotherapies, and it highlights areas for future study in this field that may lead 1) to improved understanding of how melanomas dampen anti-tumor immune responses and 2) to strategies for improving anti-tumor immune responses elicited by melanoma immunotherapies.