Chair's Overview

On behalf of the Department of Cancer Biology, welcome to our website! 

In the fall of 2006, I was recruited from St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, to serve as Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology here in Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute (LRI).  I am excited to lead a new phase of development for this Department by building on its many existing strengths as well as by recruiting up to five new principal investigators to form an expanded yet cohesive team upholding the LRI’s mission: to promote human health by investigating the causes of disease, to discover novel approaches to prevention and treatment of diseases, to be productive collaborators with clinicians, and to train the next generation of biomedical researchers.

From a translational perspective, the Department of Cancer Biology is ideally located in a region rich with drug discovery and clinical advancements, having regular collaborations with the National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCCC), of which Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Center is part.  With the CCCC currently managing over 300 innovative clinical trials and its recent award from the NCI of $25.5 million toward research and clinical trials, our interactions are poised for making significant discoveries and offering new hope to patients with this ravaging disease.  In addition, Cleveland Clinic Innovations, a branch of the Cleveland Clinic, facilitates technology transfer and commercialization of important findings developed by Cleveland Clinic investigators.

It goes without saying that all clinical advancement relies upon solid, rigorous, and insightful research at the basic science level.  Established research programs within the Department focus on a number of interconnected areas of study, including the identification of molecular markers of cancer and potential therapeutic targets, the study of signal transduction pathways controlling oncogenesis, and the regulation of cancer cell death.  These projects are directly aimed at understanding and ultimately defeating human cancers, including those of the prostate, breast, colon, brain, and blood.  Certainly, much of what is learned from one project or in one tumor type may be relevant to other types of malignancies, as well as to our understanding of normal human development and physiology.

We currently have 10 research laboratories, which are housed on the 4th and 5th floors of the LRI’s main building, whose new construction was dedicated less than 10 years ago, in 1999.  This building’s stylish design has many amenities that make the work environment both aesthetic and functional.  A Departmental library, reading room, and computer room foster the scientific climate, and, among some, our Department is best known for its cappuccino machine!

Valuable in terms of both time and money, Research Core Services within the LRI offer centralized, in-house support to investigators by providing over 20 Clinic-subsidized Core Services, ranging from routine dishwashing and autoclaving to highly specialized mass spectrometry, at a reasonable cost.  These services allow every laboratory access to the latest equipment as technology progresses.  Services that are of particular interest to the cancer researcher are the Animal Tumor Core, Gene Expression Core, and Small Molecule Screening Core.

Collaborations with physicians and scientists throughout the Institute and beyond are facilitated by regular seminars and symposia that showcase internal and external speakers, including Nobel laureates and others who have significantly contributed to our knowledge of physiology and disease.

The Department also embraces an active mentorship program by training tomorrow’s biomedical researchers, whether they come to our laboratories via the joint appointments held by several staff with Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, or Kent State University as summer students or as graduate students in our pre-doctoral training program, or via the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM) as medical students seeking basic/translational science training.

Mentorship at the postdoctoral level is recognized as an important extension of career development for these individuals, and in the Department we presently have over [XX] Research Fellows and Research Associates from around the world, representing an international cadre of trainees.  The training program includes a seminar series, journal club, and meetings with the Taussig Cancer Center Translational Therapeutics group.  Trainees are also encouraged to attend other relevant Institute events, including weekly seminars and the annual retreat.

For all students and postdocs, the Research Education Office offers various resources including a Career Development Series that highlights presentation preparation, the grant review process, experimental design, and even immigration issues.  Also featured are links to granting agencies and other training resources, helping to make the most of the postdoc experience.

As you browse our website, please see that in the Department of Cancer Biology we enjoy the reality of stellar basic science providing integral insight to normal and diseased physiology, leading to productive interactions with clinical researchers and physicians in procuring drug development and clinical trials, all within the infrastructure of the Cleveland Clinic, which is designed to facilitate this bench to bedside process.

If you are interested in joining our Department, please use the link below for more information and feel free to contact us with your specific questions: www.lerner.ccf.org/cancerbio/jobs

 

Janet A. Houghton, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Cancer Biology
Lerner Research Institute