Steve Dubinett, MD

Steven M. Dubinett, Associate Vice Chancellor and Senior Associate Dean for Translational Research was named Interim Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA on September 1, 2021, and named Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA effective June 5, 2023. 

Dr. Dubinett earned his medical degree from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, followed by his residency in internal medicine at UCLA and a joint fellowship in pulmonary medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and tumor immunology at Harvard Medical School. While a pulmonary research fellow in the Department of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Dubinett helped lead the first clinical trial using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes to treat patients with cancer. While some of the patients with renal cancer and melanoma had very dramatic anti-tumor responses, the patients with lung cancer did not respond to the therapy. This experience helped form his research focus on immunity and inflammation in the development of lung cancer.

After joining the UCLA faculty in 1988, Dr. Dubinett began his research program focusing on understanding why lung cancer patients were not responding to immunotherapy. He has received uninterrupted peer-reviewed federal funding for translational lung cancer research for more than 30 years. Building on original discoveries relevant to immunity and inflammation in the pathogenesis of lung cancer, Dr. Dubinett has developed a translational research program, which now utilizes these laboratory-based discoveries in the translational research and clinical environment. Dr. Dubinett, experienced in mentorship, peer review, and academic administration, has trained more than 50-graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty, nearly all of whom have continued in academic or industry research careers.

Dr. Dubinett directs the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and is jointly appointed as Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Molecular and Medical Pharmacology. He has served as Chief of the Division of Pulmonary Critical Care, Sleep Medicine, Clinical Immunology, and Allergy since 2006.