UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and University of Pittsburgh Melanoma Researcher Receives Endowed Annual Award

PITTSBURGH – UPMC Hillman Cancer Center physician scientist and melanoma researcher Yana Najjar, M.D. is the 2025 recipient of the Sy Holzer Endowed Immunotherapy Research Award to advance innovative research in cancer immunotherapy.

Najjar is an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the Clinical and Translational Research Center at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. She specializes in the treatment of melanoma, focusing on prevention of melanoma metastases, rare melanoma subtypes and anti-PD1 resistant melanoma.

“Specifically, my research is focused on understanding how melanoma tumors propagate themselves to the next station of metastasis, and how these mechanisms may contribute to immunotherapy resistance,” said Najjar. “My goal is to develop rational combinations of immunotherapy, targeted therapy and other agents that may potentially remodel the tumor microenvironment to overcome mechanisms of resistance to immunotherapy.” 

The Holzer Fund was established in 2019 to honor Sy Holzer’s philanthropic work as the long-time president of PNC and his many years of service as chair of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Council. 

The Holzer Fund has been supported through leadership gifts made by many local and national individual funds, foundations and corporations. Once again, this year, the award is being matched by the Stanley M. Marks Endowed Research Fund at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.

Najjar received her bachelor’s degree in biology and her medical degree at the American University of Beirut. She then completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute and residency at the Cleveland Clinic. She completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the University of Pittsburgh. 

Najjar has authored numerous publications and has received several research awards, including from the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health and the Society for Immunotherapy in Cancer.  She has developed several investigator-initiated clinical trials focused on overcoming mechanisms of resistance within the tumor microenvironment, and her lab concentrates on these studies’ correlative analyses. She serves on the Melanoma Steering Committee of Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and is Chair of the Immunotherapeutics Sub-committee of the Developmental Therapeutics Committee of ECOG.