Dr. Dunn is a board-certified neurosurgeon who specializes in neurosurgical oncology.  At MGH, he is the Director of the Center for Brain Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy.  His practice centers on the management of patients with primary and metastatic brain cancers as well as general neurosurgical conditions.  He has a comprehensive background employing technological adjuncts such as awake surgery, cortical mapping, laser ablation, fluorescence-guided surgery, and stereotactic radiosurgery.   He is a fellow and member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), member of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) and Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), and member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO). 

Born in London, Dr. Dunn grew up in central Missouri and graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University.  He received his MD and PhD degrees in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis where his doctoral work in cancer immunology was performed with Dr. Robert Schreiber.  He completed his neurosurgical training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he conducted postdoctoral research in functional cancer genomics with Dr. William Hahn at the Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  Prior to joining MGH, Dr. Dunn was an Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery and a Bursky Scholar in the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs at Washington University where he was also the Director the Neurological Surgery Residency Training Program. 

Dr. Dunn’s NIH-funded research program focuses on understanding the immune response to brain tumors and the fundamental basis of CNS immunobiology in order to improve the lives of patients with brain cancers.  His work on the Brain Tumor Immunity cycle involves preclinical models as well as translational work and has resulted in the development of novel personalized cancer vaccine clinical studies.  He is a co-chair of a clinical trial through the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Neuro-Oncology focused on recurrent glioblastoma.

Dr. Dunn is also a Captain in the United States Navy Reserves Medical Corps.