Webster K. Cavanee Ph.D.

Dr. Cavenee is the Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Professor of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. He is a Past-President of the American Association for Cancer Research, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a Fellow of the International Union Against Cancer. His work on the genetic basis of cancer predisposition and progression has been recognized with many honors and awards, most notably the Rhoads Award of the American Association for Cancer Research and the Charles S. Mott Prize of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation.

Dr. Cavenee received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas Medical School and then did postdoctoral work at the Jackson Laboratory, MIT and the University of Utah. His research is directed at defining the genetic lesions in human cancer, determining their physiological significance and using such information for therapeutic approaches. His current interests include the malignant progression of astrocytic tumors, the mechanisms underlying intracerebral hemorrhage, the differentiation pathways of astrocytes, the basis of androgen independence of prostate tumors and the role of fusion transcription factors in pediatric neoplasms.

He has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Cavenee is a member of the American Society for Human Genetics, American Society for Microbiology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association for Cancer Research; and an elected fellow of the International Union Against Cancer, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons. He has published more than 275 scientific papers and is on the editorial boards of several journals.