Baran D. Sumer

Baran D. Sumer, M.D., is a Professor and Chief of the Division of Head and Neck Oncology in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he has served since 2007. He is also Director of the Head and Neck Oncology Disease Oriented Team at the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and holds the T.C. Lupton Family Professorship in Patient Care. His clinical work spans UT Southwestern Medical Center, Parkland Health & Hospital System, Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, and the North Texas VA Medical Center.

Dr. Sumer earned his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University and completed an internship in general surgery, residency in otolaryngology, and fellowship in head and neck oncologic surgery at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, with a focus on transoral laser surgery and microvascular reconstruction.

His research focuses on advancing diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for head and neck cancer, including fluorescent imaging, biosensing, photodynamic therapy, and nano-immune-engineering. He is particularly known for developing pH-sensitive nanoparticles for tumor imaging and immunotherapy. His recent publications reveal a strong trend in immunotherapy, tumor microenvironment modulation, fluorescence-guided surgery, and nanoparticle-based drug delivery, often in collaboration with Dr. Jinming Gao.

Among his recognitions are being named a top otolaryngologist by D Magazine and receiving the Texas Instruments Corporate Award for Research, the Triological Society Francis Lederer Award, the FUSION Grant for Nanotechnology Research, and the SEBM Best Paper Award.

Dr. Sumer is principal investigator on multiple NIH R01 and CPRIT-funded research projects and co-PI on the UT Southwestern Immuno-Oncology Translational Network (IOTN) i3 Center under the Cancer Moonshot. He co-founded OncoNano Medicine Inc. and leads a lab focused on nano-immune-engineering for cancer immunotherapy. He serves as an editor for Annals of Surgical Oncology and reviewer for journals including Nature Biomedical Engineering and Laryngoscope.

His lab, located at https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/labs/sumer/, drives translational research from bench to bedside, with technologies like pegsitacianine in Phase 2 clinical trials and PC7A nanovaccines advancing toward human studies.