Dr. Jewett was the professor and the Director of the Tumor Immunology Laboratory in the Division of Oral Biology and Medicine at UCLA, and served on the faculty of the Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology, also at UCLA. She was a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) and of the UCLA Tumor Immunology subgroup. Dr. Jewett was well-known nationally and internationally for her contributions to the fields of NK cell biology, tumor immunology, and cancer immunotherapy. She received numerous honors and awards and held memberships in many professional organizations and societies. She chaired a number of important senate and non-senate committees at UCLA and for the University of California Regents, and was instrumental in shaping graduate studies for health professionals at UCLA. Dr. Jewett also chaired and taught several graduate-level courses, and her laboratory was sought out by many foreign and domestic scholars who spent years training in NK studies under her guidance.

In addition, Dr. Jewett served on the editorial boards of many prestigious journals and was a reviewer for several National Institutes of Health study sections. She held multiple patents, delivered more than 200 invited lectures and presentations nationally and internationally, and published over 100 high-impact journal articles, reviews, commentaries, and book chapters in the field of cancer. Her research collaborations spanned numerous countries, including China, Slovenia, Mexico, Poland, Germany, Thailand, Japan, Portugal, South Korea, and Sweden. She organized several national and international conferences on cancer immunity. Over the course of her career, Dr. Jewett trained more than 150 graduate students and health professionals, many of whom went on to become leaders in their respective institutions. She also served on review panels for grant agencies in countries such as England, France, the Netherlands, Qatar, Poland, and Israel. Her work was supported by numerous grants, including funding from the NIH.

One of Dr. Jewett’s major contributions to science and NK cell biology was the identification, characterization, and establishment of the concept of split anergy in NK cells. Equally impactful was her discovery that NK cells play a critical role in the elimination, selection, and differentiation of both cancer stem cells and healthy stem cells. Most recently, she identified, characterized, and patented a novel method to expand and activate—or “supercharge”—large numbers of NK cells for use in cellular-based immunotherapy for cancer treatment. She also developed a probiotic-based formulation intended to prevent and treat cancer when used in combination with the supercharged NK cells.