Leadership & Organization
Program Directors
Xavier Graña, PhD
Cancer Biology and Genetics Cluster Director
Fels Cancer Institute for Personalized Medicine
Professor of Cancer and Cell Biology, Lewis Katz School of Medicine
Jonathan Soboloff, PhD
Molecular and Cellular Bioscience Leader
Fels Cancer Institute for Personalized Medicine
Professor of Cancer and Cell Biology, Lewis Katz School of Medicine
The overall management of the training program is the responsibilities of Drs. Graña and Soboloff, members of the Fels Cancer Institute for Personalized Medicine and the Department of Cancer and Cell Biology. They will jointly make decisions after consultation with the Steering Committee in matters of program policy, curriculum, fiscal management, selection of trainees, planning of career development activities, and evaluation and assessment of the program, mentors and trainees. Both directors have complementary signaling expertise, extensive graduate student program administration experience, and cohesively bring together the strengths of two separate clusters, CBGN and MCBS, within the BMSC graduate program. In addition, they are both members of the FCCC and maintain close ties with FCCC investigators through collaborations and oversight of students at the FCCC campus.
Steering Committee
The Program Directors will be assisted in the governing of the Training Program by a Steering Committee. Members of the Steering Committee will include, in addition to Drs. Graña and Soboloff, Tomasz Skorski (Director, Fels Cancer Institute for Personalized Medicine, John Karanicolas (Postdoctoral T32 and training programs-Director at FCCC), Dianne Soprano (Associate Dean of the LKSOM Graduate School and MD/PhD program), and Kelly Whelan (Assistant Professor of Cancer and Cell biology).
Physician-Scientist Advisors to the Steering Committee
Trainee tailored clinical/translational sessions will be specifically developed for the trainee by the steering committee in consultation with the student mentor, the trainee and physician-scientists practicing in the disease area specific to the student’s project. To ensure that clinical and translational exposure occurs throughout the training of students in this T32 program, thesis advisory committees will include a physician-scientist. Dr. Koneti Rao
(Co-Director Sol Sherry Thrombosis Research Center and Director Benign Hematology, Hemostasis and Thrombosis) and Dr. Eman Hamad (Director, Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Program, Director, Cardio-Oncology Program) will aid in the placement of students at TU (in particular, students with interests other than cancer) and Dr. Igor Astsaturov (Associate Professor, Medical Oncology, Molecular Therapeutics Program at FCCC) will do so at FCCC and TU for students with projects related to cancer.
Internal Advisory Committee
The program directors will present an annual report of accomplishments and a plan for review to the Internal Advisory Committee annually. The Internal Advisory Committee was formed to provide critical review without conflict, as its members are not research mentors in this program. The input of the Internal Advisory committee will be helpful in preparing the annual report for presentation to the External Advisory Committee at the 4th quarter meeting. The committee members are Ellen M. Unterwald, Ph.D. (Director, Drugs of Abuse NIH T32, Director, Center for Substance Abuse Research), Dr. Grace X. Ma, (Associate Dean, Health Disparities, Director, Center for Asian Health), Dr. Scott K. Shore (Associate Dean Graduate Studies) and Dr. Stephanie Laggini Fiore (Assistant Vice Provost, Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Temple University).
External Advisory Committee
A report will be prepared annually by the program directors for presentation to the External Advisory Committee at the 4th quarter meeting. All members of this committee are T32 directors from neighboring institutions. At the annual meeting the program directors will describe the progress of the trainees, the activities sponsored by the program, accomplishments, changes to the mentors associated with program along with any points of concern. The External Advisory Committee will also meet separately with the trainees and a selection of mentors to obtain further feedback. The External Advisory Committee will prepare a recommendation that will be conveyed to the program directors.
The committee members are:
Marisa S. Bartolomei, PhD
Director, NIGMS T32 in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Jeffrey L. Benovic, PhD
Director, NIGMS T32 in Cellular, Biochemical and Molecular Sciences, Thomas Eakins Endowed Professor Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sydney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University
Miguel Garcia-Diaz, PhD
Director, NIGMS T32 in Pharmacology, Associate Professor Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Stony Brook School of Medicine