Three UCLA Faculty Members Join National Academy of Medicine

Three UCLA faculty members—health economist Susan Ettner, physician-scientist Donald Kohn and cancer researcher Dennis Slamon—have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, joining 97 researchers and health professionals from the United States and other countries in the academy’s class of 2026. Their work spans the relationship between income and health, gene-based treatments for inherited immune disorders and the development of targeted breast cancer therapies. Election to the academy recognizes major contributions to medical science, health care and public health.

Founded in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine is one of three academies, alongside the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, that provide independent, objective analysis and advice on scientific, medical, health and public-policy issues. Members are chosen by their peers for outstanding professional achievement and a commitment to service. Academy president Monica M. Bertagnolli said the new members’ talent and commitment to advancing evidence-based guidance and solutions for major health care challenges would strengthen the academy’s work.

Ettner, a distinguished professor in general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine and in health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, is also dean emerita of UCLA’s graduate education. Her pioneering health economics research helped establish connections between socioeconomic status and health and advanced the field of behavioral health economics. According to UCLA, her work has helped inform policies intended to improve access to mental health and substance-use disorder treatment while reducing financial barriers to care. Among her foundational contributions, she was the first researcher to apply innovative statistical methods to estimate the causal relationship between income and multiple measures of physical and mental health.

Her research has also examined how insurance coverage can ease the financial burden of behavioral health treatment. Ettner led a comprehensive evaluation, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, of the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which requires certain health insurance plans to provide comparable coverage for mental health and substance-use disorder treatment and medical and surgical care. The evaluation found that the legislation significantly improved insurance coverage and treatment for mental health and substance-use disorders. “I am truly honored to accept this tremendous recognition of my work establishing the deep connections between socioeconomic status and health and the critical role of insurance policy in ensuring financial access to behavioral healthcare,” Ettner said. She also described the recognition as especially meaningful as a first-generation college graduate and University of California alumnus whose research ambitions were realized with support from an undergraduate faculty mentor.

Ettner joined UCLA in 1999 after serving on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. She has authored more than 230 peer-reviewed publications and served as principal investigator on 34 research grants or subawards. In 2021, she was recognized as one of the most highly cited researchers in her field. During her tenure as dean of graduate education, Ettner oversaw more than 12,000 graduate students across more than 130 academic and professional degree programs. She earned bachelor’s degrees from UC Santa Barbara and a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kohn, a distinguished professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics in the UCLA College and of pediatrics and molecular and medical pharmacology at the Geffen School of Medicine, has spent nearly four decades developing blood stem cell gene therapies. These treatments use a patient’s own genetically modified stem cells to correct the underlying causes of inherited immune and blood disorders. A member of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center and the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Kohn is also a pediatric bone marrow transplant physician. His work has focused on eliminating the need for matched donors and reducing risks associated with conventional transplants.

One of Kohn’s most significant achievements is a gene therapy for adenosine deaminase–deficient severe combined immunodeficiency, or ADA–SCID, a rare inherited disorder that leaves children without a functioning immune system. Kohn and his colleagues treated their first patient in 1993 and spent more than three decades refining a technique that inserts a healthy copy of the defective gene into blood-forming stem cells, enabling the body to produce healthy immune cells. Long-term results published in 2025 showed that the treatment restored and maintained immune function in 59 of 62 children. Kohn also led UCLA’s participation in a multicenter clinical trial of a gene therapy for severe leukocyte adhesion deficiency-I, another potentially fatal inherited immune disorder.

In March 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the latter treatment, known as Kresladi, after all nine children in the trial survived and showed sustained restoration of immune function. It became the first FDA-approved therapy for severe leukocyte adhesion deficiency-I and the first gene therapy Kohn helped develop to receive FDA approval. Kohn’s laboratory continues to investigate gene therapies and gene-editing technologies for sickle cell disease and other inherited disorders. “It’s a great recognition of a lifetime of work and research,” he said of his election. “We don’t do this to get awards — we do it because we’re trying to accomplish something for our patients.” He joined UCLA in 2009 and has served as president of both the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and the Clinical Immunology Society.

Slamon, professor and chief of hematology-oncology in the Geffen School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine and director of clinical and translational research at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, helped establish targeted cancer treatments as a cornerstone of modern care. His work demonstrated that treatments directed at specific molecular drivers of cancer can improve outcomes while limiting damage to healthy cells. In the 1980s, Slamon and his colleagues discovered that the HER2 gene plays a critical role in driving an aggressive form of breast cancer that represents approximately 20% of cases. That finding provided the biological basis for developing trastuzumab, marketed as Herceptin, a drug designed to target cancer cells carrying excess amounts of the HER2 protein.

Slamon led the first human clinical trials of trastuzumab at UCLA in 1990, and the drug received FDA approval in 1998. Since then, Herceptin has been used to treat nearly 3.5 million people worldwide, significantly improving survival for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. Slamon also helped pioneer CDK4/6 inhibitors, drugs that block proteins involved in cancer-cell division. His research contributed to the development of palbociclib, marketed as Ibrance, and ribociclib, marketed as Kisqali, which have substantially improved outcomes for patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, the most common form of the disease. Over more than four decades at UCLA, Slamon has continued to lead international clinical trials of next-generation HER2-targeted therapies and approaches to overcoming drug resistance.

“It is a tremendous honor to be elected to the National Academy of Medicine and to be recognized alongside so many individuals whose work has advanced medicine,” Slamon said. He credited the researchers, clinicians and patients involved in the work over the years, adding that seeing discoveries translate into treatments that have made a meaningful difference in patients’ lives has been the most rewarding part of his career. His honors include the 2026 Albany Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, the Sjöberg Prize and the Canada Gairdner International Award. Their election brings together three distinct areas of achievement: economic conditions and health, gene therapy for inherited immune disorders and molecularly targeted breast cancer treatment.

Subject of Research: National Academy of Medicine recognition of UCLA faculty research in health economics, gene therapy and breast cancer treatment

Article Title: National Academy of Medicine welcomes 3 new UCLA faculty members

Article References: National Academy of Medicine welcomes 3 new UCLA faculty members. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: National Academy of Medicine, UCLA, Susan Ettner, Donald Kohn, Dennis Slamon, health economics, gene therapy, ADA-SCID, leukocyte adhesion deficiency, HER2, breast cancer, targeted therapy