Mary "Nora" L. Disis is an American physician-oncologist whose research focuses on cancer immunotherapy and cancer vaccines, particularly breast and ovarian cancer. She is the editor-in-chief of JAMA Oncology and director of the Cancer Vaccine Institute at the University of Washington.
She was part of the scientific team who discovered that the HER2/neu molecule is a tumor-specific marker, or antigen.
Education Disis attended Creighton University, graduating with chemistry and English degrees. She received her medical degree from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and completed her residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. She received a fellowship at the University of Washington Division of Medical Oncology in 1993. She has board certifications in Internal Medicine (1989) and Medical Oncology (1997).
Biography Mary "Nora" Disis received her medical degree from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and completed her residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. She received a fellowship at the University of Washington Division of Medical Oncology in 1993. She has board certifications in Internal Medicine (1989) and Medical Oncology (1997).
Disis became interested in medicine and research in high school, becoming "involved in lab-based research projects in college and medical school." She is a member of Sigma Xi. and a member of the Association of American Physicians.
She has discussed gender inequity in the science field. She commented on the gender gap and lack of leadership positions for women. In an interview with CoMotion, she discussed mentorship, innovation, and opportunities within biomedical research, noting that she was the only female oncology fellow in her class.
As an early investigator, her research helped establish HER2/neu as a tumor antigen.
Career Disis is the founder and director of the UW Cancer Vaccine Institute (formerly Tumor Vaccine Group), a member of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, editor-in-chief of JAMA Oncology, a deputy editor for JAMA and a past associate dean at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She holds the title of the Helen B. Slonaker Endowed Professorship for Cancer Research, professor of Medicine and Oncology, and adjunct professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pathology. Her work has included the development of cancer immunotherapies, vaccines, and diagnostic technologies, and she has contributed to multiple patents related to cancer immunotherapy. She cofounded the biotechnology company EpiThany, which focuses on cancer vaccine technologies. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and a member of the ASCO's Research Pipeline Workgroup.
She founded the Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) and served as Principal Investigator from 2007 through 2024.
Disis served as a Komen Scholar for Susan G. Komen from 2012 to 2021, where she participated as a reviewer in Komen's peer review process.
In 2015, she became the founding editor-in-chief of JAMA Oncology, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association. Under Disis' leadership, the journal launched its first issue in 2015 and became one of the American Medical Association's specialty journals. She is a deputy editor for JAMA. She has previously worked as an editor at the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
On July 1, 2015, she received the American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship. As an ACS Professor, she served as a spokesperson for the Society. Her research focused on vaccines to prevent colon cancer by identifying proteins that are overexpressed in early stages of the disease. In 2020, her professorship was renewed for another five years. The renewal included a lifelong professorship designation.
She is an Athena Distinguished Professor of Breast Cancer Research and has been a Breast Cancer Research Foundation investigator since 2016. In 2016, she was a Chair of the ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium Program Committee.
Disis has discussed developments in cancer immunotherapy and vaccine-based approaches to treatment. In 2023, CGTLive also reported on her comments regarding investigational immunotherapy approaches, including CAR T-cell therapies being studied for solid tumors.
In 2025, she was among investigators receiving funding support for research on ovarian cancer vaccines through a collaboration between the Rivkin Center and the Andy Hill CARE Fund.
She has been a reviewer for the NIH New Innovator Award, Ovarian Cancer Action, Helene Harris Memorial Trust, Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program, Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative, Canadian Institute of Cancer Research, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, State of California Breast Cancer Research Program, and American Federation for Aging Research.
Research Disis' research focuses on immune-based therapies for cancers, particularly breast and ovarian cancer. Her research interest is specifically focused on the development of vaccines for the treatment and prevention of cancer.
HER-2/neu Disis has conducted research on human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2, also known as ERBB2), a protein that is overexpressed in a subset of breast cancers. Her research has investigated HER2/neu as a tumor antigen and the use of HER2-specific immune responses in cancer treatment.
Disis and her collaborators have investigated vaccines targeting HER2/neu, including peptide-based vaccines and vaccines containing the intracellular domain of the HER2/neu protein. Clinical studies examined whether these vaccines could induce HER2-specific immune responses in patients with cancer.
Disis also participated in research combining HER2 vaccination with adoptive T-cell therapy. A phase I clinical study evaluated HER2/neu vaccine-primed autologous T-cell infusions in patients with advanced HER2/neu-expressing cancers.
In 2011, Newsweek profiled Disis's research on an experimental HER2/neu vaccine for metastatic breast cancer, describing the vaccine as an approach intended to stimulate T-cell responses against HER2/neu antigens expressed by cancer cells.
A later phase I/II clinical trial further evaluated HER2 vaccine-primed autologous T-cell infusions in patients with treatment-refractory HER2-overexpressing breast cancer.
In a phase I clinical trial published in 2023, she and her colleagues evaluated a plasmid DNA vaccine encoding the intracellular domain of ERBB2 in patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer. The study primarily assessed the vaccine's safety and ability to induce immune responses.
Selected publications
Awards and honors Merrill Egorin Award for Mentoring, ASCO-AACR Clinical Trials Workshop 1981 – Spirit of Creighton Award from Creighton University 2015 – American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor Award 2022 – Science Advancement and Leadership Award from the Seattle Chapter of the Association for Women in Science 2023 – Top 23 Women in Academic Entrepeneurship 2024 – Lifetime Achievement Award from the Puget Sound Business Journal 2024 – UW Medicine Inventor of the Year 2024 – ACS Award for Creative Invention from the American Chemical Society 2024 – Wayne Kuni Award for Innovation in Cancer Research 2025 – Seahawks Delta Community Captain 2025 – Champion of SITC Award from the Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer 2025 – Brava! Award from the Women's University Club
References