Dr. Finn is University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor of Immunology and Surgery and Founding Chair of the Department of Immunology, a position she held from 2001 to 2013. She was Program Leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute from 1991 to 2014.

After receiving her PhD in Immunology at Stanford University in 1980, and completing her postdoctoral training there, Dr. Finn moved to Duke University and in 1991 to the University of Pittsburgh. She gained prominence through her original focus on transplantation biology and later through her basic and applied research focused on tumor antigens and the development of cancer vaccines. She has an extensive track record of research accomplishments reported in over 170 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. She is the discoverer of the MUC1 tumor antigen, and has published extensively and continuously for the last 25 years on her basic and preclinical work on the development and evaluation of MUC1 cancer vaccines.

She has been a co-investigator on a dozen clinical trials of various MUC1 vaccines in pancreatic, colon, breast, prostate, and lung cancers. Dr. Finn and her team also identified cyclin B1 as a tumor antigen and published several papers on its excellent potential as a cancer vaccine. She is on the editorial board of various cancer journals and on the advisory board of numerous cancer centers and several companies.

She is an active member of the American Association of Immunologists where she served seven years as Council member and one year as President; a member of the American Association for Cancer Research; and past Chair of the Steering Committee of the AACR Cancer Immunology (CIMM) Working Group.