Dr. Patnaik is a physician-scientist who leads a translational research program in prostate cancer. He is the Director of the Laboratory for Prostate Cancer Developmental Therapeutics/ImmunoOncology and Attending Physician within the Genitourinary Oncology Program at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. He holds a primary faculty appointment within the Department of Medicine, Section of Hematology/Oncology and secondary faculty appointments within the Committee for Cancer Biology and Clinical Pharmacology & Pharmacogenomics at the University of Chicago. Dr. Patnaik received his combined M.D./Ph.D degrees from Penn State College of Medicine, with a Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Biology. His Ph.D. work led to the original groundbreaking discovery that retroviruses and enveloped viruses utilize the cellular ubiquitin pathway to exit from infected cells (now also demonstrated for SARS-COV2). In recognition of this work, he received the John W. Kreider Commencement Award in Cell & Molecular Biology, National Prize at the Annual Medical Scientist Student Forum and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Young Investigator Award. Following his MD/PhD training, he completed a clinical residency in Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center, and M.M.Sc in Clinical Investigation from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Patnaik and his translational research program (laboratory and early-phase clinical trials) at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center focus on targeting oncogenic signaling, DNA repair and innate immune sensing pathways to enhance responsiveness to immunotherapy in advanced prostate and other immune-refractory cancers. In addition to his laboratory focus, Dr. Patnaik is a Principal Investigator on several early-phase cancer clinical trials (investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored), and serves as a national correlative science chair for an Alliance Foundation clinical trial in prostate cancer. Dr. Patnaik is a recipient of numerous competitive research grants and awards, which include the V Foundation Translational Cancer Research Award, National Cancer Institute R01 award, Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) Challenge Award, Bristol-Myers Squibb/International ImmunoOncology Network Award, National Cancer Institute Prostate SPORE Developmental Project Award, Cancer Research Foundation Young Investigator Award, American Cancer Society Research Grant and Phi Beta Psi Research Organization Award. He was also appointed as Deputy Editor for Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) journal in 2019, and serves on several national grant review committees for American Society of Clinical Oncology, DOD, and PCF. He also served on Clinical Trials Program Committee for the American Association for Cancer Research 2022 Annual Meeting.