On Oct. 1, 2018, James P. Allison, a native of Alice, Texas, son of a country doctor, and pioneer of cancer immunotherapy, was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine jointly with Tasuku Honjo. For Dr. Allison, the Nobel Prize recognized his breakthrough work in studying a protein known as CTLA-4, proving that it behaves like a brake on immune responses.

In November 2011, Dr. Allison was recruited back to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to study CTLA-4 with the help of a $10 million CPRIT grant.