Winer arrives as Yale Cancer Center director

Eric P. Winer, MD, Alfred P. Gilman Professor of Medicine and of Pharmacology, arrived on Feb. 1 as director of Yale Cancer Center (YCC) and physician- in-chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven. The medical school and Yale New Haven Health System announced his selection in October 2021 after an extensive national search.

An internationally renowned ex- pert in breast cancer, Winer was the Thompson Chair in Breast Cancer Research, chief clinical development officer, and senior vice president for medical affairs at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

“Among a field of outstanding candidates, Eric stood out for his leadership and for his commitment to ensuring that Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital have a lasting and transformative impact on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer,” said Nancy J. Brown, MD, Jean and David W. Wallace Dean of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine.

In his new role, Winer is working to promote paradigm-changing dis- covery and to build an unparalleled clinical program that offers seamless, multidisciplinary care and clinical trials to all patients, eliminating dis- parities in access, care, and outcomes.

Winer has published more than 350 original manuscripts and served as the principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health-fund- ed SPORE in Breast Cancer for the last 10 years. He is president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. For over a decade, he served as chief scientific advisor and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. He currently co- leads the National Cancer Institute Breast Cancer Steering Committee.

Winer is an alumnus of both Yale College and Yale School of Medicine. After receiving his medical degree in 1983, he completed training in internal medicine, serving as chief resident at Yale New Haven Hospital. He completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Duke University School of Medicine and served on the Duke faculty from 1989 to 1997, before joining Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“I am thrilled to be returning to Yale,” said Winer. “As a community, I believe we can become a premier cancer center in the next five years. I look forward to building upon the strong clinical and research programs already in place and to enhance collaborations between laboratory and clinical investigators.”