J. Silvio Gutkind
Showed that persistent mTOR activation exhausts epidermal stem cells and accelerates skin ageing, and targets PI3K–mTOR signalling in head-and-neck cancer, including to make tumours respond to immunotherapy
Distinguished Professor & Chair, Pharmacology, UC San Diego; Co-Director, Head and Neck Cancer Center, Moores Cancer Center · Chief, Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch, NIDCR/NIH (1997–2015) · Fogarty Fellow, NIH (1986–1989) · MSc Pharmacy (1980) & MSc Biochemistry (1983), MSc/PhD Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Univ. of Buenos Aires (1985)
Gutkind Lab, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center (La Jolla, California, USA) ↗ ORCID0000-0002-5150-4482 ↗
Portrait: UC San Diego
In 2009 (CAS2009), showed persistent Wnt signaling in skin switches on mTOR in epidermal stem cells, driving premature senescence — rapamycin rescued it. In 2026 (NAT2026), a study led by Cherie-Ann Nathan's group, with Gutkind as co-author, showed mTOR inhibitor everolimus reprograms the tumor microenvironment in TP53-mutant, immune-cold HNSCC — boosting T-cell/DC infiltration, cutting Tregs/MDSCs and PD-1/PD-L1.
Helped establish that GPCRs can function as bona fide oncogenes — reshaped how the field thinks about growth-factor signaling in cancer. Led NIDCR's Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch for ~2 decades.
Elected to National Academy of Medicine (2019); ACS Research Professor.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | A | mTOR mediates Wnt-induced epidermal stem cell exhaustion and aging CAS2009 Wnt-induced mTOR activation drives epidermal stem-cell exhaustion; reversed by rapamycin. |
| 2026 | A | mTOR inhibition augments antitumor immune effector response by reprogramming the TP53-mutant, immune-cold HNSCC tumor microenvironment NAT2026 Everolimus reprograms the TP53-mutant HNSCC immune microenvironment, restoring T-cell cytotoxicity. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 3
People with a profile here who share at least one study with J. Silvio Gutkind.
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- Cherie-Ann O. Nathan Head and neck surgeon and cancer researcher who tests whether drugs such as the mTOR inhibitor everolimus can help patients whose tumours resist immunotherapy.
- Priyatosh Nath Cancer researcher in Cherie-Ann Nathan's head and neck cancer group at LSU Health Shreveport, first author of a 2026 study showing that the mTOR inhibitor everolimus can turn immune-cold tumours hot in mice
- Rogerio M Castilho Dentist and cell biologist who showed, as a postdoc at the US National Institutes of Health, that Wnt signalling wears out skin stem cells through mTOR and that rapamycin can prevent it, and whose University of Michigan lab now studies how histone marks control epithelial healing and treatment resistance in head and neck cancer
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