New Haven, Conn. — Yale Cancer Center (YCC) is proud to announce several leadership appointments, including two new senior positions to help bolster YCC’s research mission in the coming years.
Megan King, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Cell Biology, joins Joseph Contessa, M.D., Ph.D., as Co-Leader of the Radiobiology & Radiotherapy Research Program at YCC. King’s research is generating unique insights into chromatin organization and dynamics, with a particular focus on DNA repair and the biology of BRCA cancer susceptibility genes. Together with Contessa, King will lead the next wave of scientific discovery with our Radiobiology & Radiotherapy program members.
Carla Rothlin, Ph.D., Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Immunobiology and Pharmacology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholar, joins Lieping Chen, M.D., Ph.D., and Mario Sznol, M.D., as Co-Leaders of the Cancer Immunology Research Program. Rothlin has launched exciting new avenues of research in immunology. The joint leadership between Rothlin, Sznol, and Chen will accelerate discovery, innovation, and high-impact translation in Cancer Immunology and Immuno-Oncology at YCC.
Katerina Politi, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pathology, joins David Stern, Ph.D., and Daniel Petrlyak, M.D., to lead our Signal Transduction Research Program. Politi’s innovative research has characterized pivotal mechanisms that underlie sensitivity and resistance to targeted therapies and immune checkpoint inhibition and her ongoing work is defining novel approaches to overcome therapeutic resistance. Politi’s accomplishments and commitment to innovation, combined with Stern and Petrylak’s continued leadership, will ensure the success of YCC’s Signal Transduction Program.
Don Nguyen, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pathology and of Medicine (Medical Oncology), and a member of YCC’s Signal Transduction Research Program, has been appointed as the inaugural Assistant Cancer Center Director for Research Development. Nguyen’s laboratory has developed unique approaches and model systems to understand the biology of cancer metastases, thereby unleashing the potential for novel cancer therapies. In his new role for the Cancer Center, Nguyen will lead intramural funding programs, identify new funding opportunities to broaden the funding support of our membership, and craft strategies to promote new collaborations and areas of investigations within our Center. Nguyen’s leadership will further propel scientific progress at Yale.
Finally, Mark Lemmon, Ph.D., Co-Director of the Cancer Biology Institute (CBI), has been appointed Associate Cancer Center Director for Basic Science, to oversee basic science priorities and maximize interaction between basic, translational, population, and clinical investigators across the YCC community. Lemmon’s great success in leading the CBI, in conjunction with CBI co-Director Joseph (Yossi) Schlessinger, Ph.D., positions Lemmon as an ideal leader of YCC’s basic research community.
About Yale Cancer Center
Yale Cancer Center (YCC) is one of only 51 National Cancer Institute (NCI-designated comprehensive cancer) centers in the nation and the only such center in southern New England. Comprehensive cancer centers play a vital role in the advancement of the NCI’s goal of reducing morbidity and mortality from cancer through scientific research, cancer prevention, and innovative cancer treatment.