Baran D. Sumer

Baran D. Sumer, M.D., is a Professor and Chief of the Division of Head and Neck Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center's Department of Otolaryngology. He has been on the faculty since 2007 and holds the T.C. Lupton Family Professorship in Patient Care. His clinical roles include Director of the Head and Neck Oncology Disease Oriented Team at the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is affiliated with multiple institutions, including the North Texas VA Medical Center and Parkland Health & Hospital System.

Dr. Sumer earned his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University, followed by residency training in otolaryngology and a fellowship in head and neck oncologic surgery at Washington University in St. Louis. His research focuses on advancing diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for head and neck cancers, including fluorescent imaging, biosensing, and immunotherapy. He leads projects on pH-sensitive nanoparticles for tumor imaging and immunotherapy delivery, collaborating with Jinming Gao, Ph.D., in the Cancer Moonshot initiative through the UT Southwestern Immuno-Oncology Translational Network (IOTN).

His research has yielded over 125 publications and awards, including grants from NIH/NCI, CPRIT, and industry partnerships like OncoNano Medicine. Key areas of interest include nanomedicine, radiation therapy optimization, and patient-reported outcomes in cancer care. Dr. Sumer serves as a reviewer for journals such as Nature Biomedical Engineering and Annals of Surgical Oncology.