Oncology

Department of Oncology

Louis M. Weiner, M.D, Chair

The Department of Oncology is an intensively research-based department whose goal is to move fundamental discoveries in molecular and cellular biology, genetics, and behavioral sciences from the bench to the clinic.  The mission of the department is to provide a home for faculty and students in which their professional development can be enlarged by appropriate programmatic organization, professional and collegial mentoring, and focused educational programs.  Departmental members have in excess of $30 million annually in research grants.

The Department is closely intertwined with the Lombardi Cancer Center (an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center), and as a result, has access to superb infrastructure resources spanning most of biotechnology.  Major areas of departmental research include growth regulation of cancer, cell death, invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis, cancer prevention and control, molecular epidemiology, radiation carcinogenesis, developmental therapeutics and breast cancer.

Several training grants have been funded by the Department, including Ph.D.-granting program in tumor biology.  A series of specialized courses is offered supporting the needs of clinical fellows, translational researchers, Ph.D. candidates, and postdoctoral students.