What I'm Working On

I am currently the Principal Investigator for the Gulf South Clinical Trials Network. The goal of the Gulf South Clinical Trials Network is to increase access to prevention, early detection, and treatment clinical trials for minority and underserved patients through a state-wide clinical trials program in Louisiana.

 

Biography

Augusto Ochoa, MD is the deputy director at the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center and chair for the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology. As the deputy director, Dr. Ochoa has made remarkable strides in training researchers and developing leaders. His primary objective has been to train young investigators in translational research programs aimed at addressing health disparities associated with cancer within their region. Dr. Ochoa also serves as the director of the Gulf South National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP), a multi-institutional program providing crucial clinical trial opportunities to patients throughout Louisiana.  His basic research program has focused on identifying and overcoming the mechanisms used by cancer to block successful immunotherapies.  In particular his group has shown that certain fatty acids can stimulate a strong protective anti-tumor responses, and could be used to improve the efficacy of novel cancer immunotherapies. 

Prior to his work at LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center, Dr. Ochoa completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Immunobiology Research Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he became an assistant professor in 1986. He also served as Head of the Immunotherapy Laboratory for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) from 1989 to 1996, and Head of the NCI Signal Transduction Laboratory from 1996 to1997. 

At Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, Dr. Ochoa is a practicing physician specializing in allergy/immunology. He is also the 2022 recipient of the Harry Hynes Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Trials and Community Research presented by the National Cancer Institute. Over the past decade, Dr. Ochoa has worked at building clinical research and clinical trials capabilities with community oncology groups in the region. Dr. Ochoa has been a member of the NCI’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC) for Clinical Sciences and Epidemiology and is also a member of the Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network and a member of The President and First Lady's Cancer Moonshot Committee.  

Dr. Ochoa is an Al Copeland Cancer Crusaders Endowed Chair.