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Gustavo A. Arias-Pinilla

In Memoriam: Gustavo A. Arias-Pinilla

(10/21/1988 - 04/21/2022)Member since 2012
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Gustavo A. Arias-Pinilla, MBBS, MSc, PhD, an Associate member of the AACR, died April 21, 2022, at the age of 33.

Arias-Pinilla was born in Bogota, Colombia, on October 21, 1988. He earned his medical degree from Fundacion Universitaria Juan N. Corpas in Colombia in 2009 and his MSc in cancer biology from Kingston University in London in 2012. He earned his PhD from Kingston in 2017, completing a dissertation on the development and characterization of novel monoclonal antibodies against human pancreatic cancer cells for use in cancer diagnosis and therapy. Most recently, he held positions as a pancreatic cancer researcher at Kingston and an academic clinical fellow in Medical Oncology at The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom.

Arias-Pinilla developed several novel antibodies against overexpressed cell surface antigens for use in basic research, diagnosis and therapy of pancreatic cancer. Two of the antibodies have been licensed to Merck for use in cancer research. The others are undergoing further study to evaluate their potential use in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Arias-Pinilla was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2006. He achieved tremendous success in the lab and as a mentor to postgraduate students even as he underwent treatments. Kingston University plans to establish a postgraduate award in his memory.

In 2012, Arias-Pinilla became a member of the AACR, and became involved with AACR groups Minorities in Cancer Research, the Cancer Immunology Working Group, and the Tumor Microenvironment Working Group.

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