Brainy Band Fronts a Nobel Prize Winner on Harmonica --- The CheckPoints rock group has a deep lineup of immunotherapy all-stars.

“On a recent night in Chicago, Taylor Swift was in town, along with the annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

A few blocks from Soldier Field, where Swift was set to perform, doctors and researchers were crowding into Buddy Guy's Legends club to see The CheckPoints, a cover band of immunotherapy all-stars.

"Glad you came here instead of that other concert," Dr. Thomas Gajewski, the band's lead guitarist and a professor at the University of Chicago Medical Center, said from the stage.

The band's peer-reviewed fans love The CheckPoints's esteemed lineup: On keyboards, Dr. Patrick Hwu, president and chief executive officer of Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. Nobel Prize winner James Allison plays harmonica. Dr. Jedd Wolchok, of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, drove to Chicago instead of flying so he could bring his tuba.

For those who failed immunology, checkpoint inhibitors are a type of drug that block proteins that prevent the immune system from attacking cancer cells. Allison's prizewinning laboratory work led to the first checkpoint inhibitor to treat advanced melanoma, ushering in a new era of immunotherapy cancer drugs a decade ago.

He has also played harmonica with Willie Nelson and is pals with U2 guitarist, The Edge.

The band started some 15 years ago, playing early rock 'n' roll and blues covers. After further research, The CheckPoints broadened their repertoire to include Fleetwood Mac, Nirvana and Meghan Trainor.

"Patrick and Tom said they wanted to hear some music that was written after they were born," said Allison, chair of immunology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. "Some of it I won't like, and the harmonica won't play it."

Moffitt Cancer Center has its own rocker-scientists, the ReMissions and so does MD Anderson, The Checkmates. The National Institutes of Health's band, the Affordable Rock 'n Roll Act, includes former NIH director Francis Collins on lead vocals and guitar.

The CheckPoints gig in Chicago was one of at least two they perform every year. The other is at the annual conference for the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, where they are the house band. The Sunday night show in Chicago cost $30, which was donated to a fund of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer that supports early career scientists.

"I've been to every single show since 2013," said Kimberly Shafer-Weaver, who works for U.S. Oncology Medical Affairs at Merck and first saw The CheckPoints back in grad school. "Everybody knows on Monday not to talk to me because I won't have a voice."

Jenny Tang, wearing a newly bought The CheckPoints T-shirt, said she has been to four shows. She is the senior director of clinical operations at Aulos Bioscience and went to graduate school at the University of California Los Angeles. Dr. John Timmerman, the band's rhythm guitar player, had been her adviser and mentor.

When Tang's mother was diagnosed with the blood cancer non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2012, Timmerman became her mom's doctor and cured her cancer, Tang said: "Any chance I get to support a band of amazing scientists getting together and rocking out, it's a good time."

Because members of The CheckPoints work around the U.S., practices are limited to their time together at conference gigs. Sometimes they have to rush from presentations to rehearsals. They started out playing in hotel conference rooms.

"We signed up for as many immunologist conferences as we could, not necessarily to go to the lectures but to play in the basement of the hotels," said Dr. Rachel Humphrey, the band's lead singer and founding chief executive officer at Normunity, an immunotherapy drug company.

Humphrey and other band members were among those who helped prove the potential of immunotherapy when it faced doubts about its efficacy in the mid-2000s. The global market for cancer immunotherapy reached $191 billion last year, according to Market.us.

"The band played a role when many people were giving up and major companies were pulling out," said Dr. Bernard Fox, chair for cancer research at Providence Cancer Institute in Portland, Ore. He showed up to the Chicago gig in a vintage tie-dye CheckPoints T-shirt.

Band members all have a connection to immunotherapy. Finding a reliable bass player, tough for a lot of bands, is especially difficult. Dr. Brad Reinfeld, who graduated this spring from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and is now training at UCLA, answered an online ad for a bassist. He got a free trip to Chicago for an audition at Gajewski's house and was signed on the spot.

Friends have asked Reinfeld what it's like to be in a band with legendary researchers, especially after Allison won his Nobel Prize in 2018 and was all over the news. "I'd constantly get text messages from friends," Reinfeld said. "And people being, like, 'Aren't you in a band with this guy?'"

They played "Don't Stop Believin' " by Journey, a favorite cover. "When no one thought immunotherapy would work, we never stopped believing in it," said Hwu, the keyboard player. "And it's got a great piano part."” [1]

1. Brainy Band Fronts a Nobel Prize Winner on Harmonica --- The CheckPoints rock group has a deep lineup of immunotherapy all-stars. Abbott, Brianna. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 27 June 2023: A.1.