[3] Upon completing her fellowship at NCI in 1989, Topalian intended to leave but was persuaded to stay and work with tumor immunologist Steven Rosenberg.
[5][4] She remained at the institute's Surgery Branch for 21 years before joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins University to lead the Melanoma Program in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.
[3] Her work with the program led to a landmark publication in 2012 showing that nivolumab (Opdivo) produced dramatic responses in people with advanced melanoma and in those with lung cancer.
[5] As the Director of the Melanoma Program, Topalian researches modulating immune checkpoints such as PD-1 and PD-L1 in cancer therapy, and discovering biomarkers predicting clinical outcomes following treatment.
[8] While continuing to study human anti-tumor immunity, Topalian was elected to the American Association of Physicians[10] and named the co-recipient of the Taubman Prize Awarded for Ground-Breaking Work in Cancer Immunotherapy.