As Director of Melanoma Clinical Research and Early Drug Development at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the primary focus of his research has been early phase studies of novel agents in melanoma and sarcoma. Dr Tawbi has designed and conducted several Phase I and Phase II studies in both diseases. He participated in the early studies of targeted agents (vemurafenib, dabrafenib, and trametinib) and immunotherapy agents (nivolumab and pembrolizumab). He has been interested in the study of special populations including patients with organ dysfunction and patients with melanoma brain metastases. Given that patients with melanoma brain metastases have been traditionally excluded from clinical trials, Dr Tawbi has participated, conducted and led multicenter Phase II studies dedicated to this population and have recently shown that the combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab in untreated melanoma brain metastases is safe and has a high rate of durable responses exceeding 55%.