Dr. Mellman is Vice President at Genentech and Founder at CGI Pharmaceuticals. He is a cell biologist-immunologist with a long-standing interest in membrane traffic and signal transduction. His lab is responsible for key observations resulting in the initial discovery of endosomes, the mechanisms of epithelial cell polarity, and the cellular basis of dendritic cell function in the immune system. Until 2007, Ira was Chair of the Department of Cell Biology and Scientific Director of the Cancer Center at Yale University School of Medicine. Ira has been Editor in Chief of the Journal of Cell Biology and a member of the editorial boards of Cell, the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the EMBO Journal, and the Annual Reviews.