University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI)

Leadership

Dorothea Becker, PhD

Dorothea Becker, PhD is a molecular biologist who received her training at The Rockefeller University and Harvard Medical School. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in 1991, she held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School and the MD Anderson Cancer Center. The focus of her research is the isolation and functional analysis of genes that govern melanoma progression. In the course of these studies, she has identified basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR-1), Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), and α-amyloid precursor protein (APP) as key regulators of the disease. Dr. Becker has organized international meetings, including a Keystone Symposium on Molecular Imaging and Applications to Biology and Medicine, a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory/Banbury Center Conference on Melanoma, as well as international conferences in Europe that focused upon Melanoma and Optical Imaging. Dr. Becker was also instrumental in forming the Melanoma Research Foundation, and in developing major research tools for the melanoma community, including melanoma and nevus tissue microarrays, and a large tissue repository for cryopreserved melanoma, nevus, and skin biopsies. As Co-Leader of the UPCI Melanoma Program, Dr. Becker oversees all basic research activities of the program. As part of this responsibility, she trains and serves as mentor to young physician-scientists who in addition to their clinical duties pursue basic research and translational studies in the laboratory. In addition, Dr. Becker organizes the monthly UPCI Melanoma Program workshop, which serves as a forum for the program members to present their work-in-progress, to discuss the findings of laboratory correlates to melanoma clinical trials, and to devise and implement translational melanoma studies.

Melanoma Program website: http://melanoma.upmc.com/
Laboratory website: http://beckerlab.upmc.com

John M. Kirkwood, MD

John M. Kirkwood, MD is a medical oncologist who received his training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, and Yale and Harvard Universities. He was recruited to the University of Pittsburgh as the first Associate Director for Medical Oncology, and Chief of the Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology. For 40 years, his research has focused upon the immunobiology and therapy of melanoma, especially upon the role of antibodies, cytokines, interferons, and peptide/protein vaccines for the therapy of melanoma. Dr. Kirkwood has led the Melanoma Committee of the ECOG for more than 20 years, and since 2002, he has co-chaired the Melanoma Prevention Working Group. In 2003, he formed the International Melanoma Working Group, which has met twice annually to harmonize the research upon melanoma across the continents. For the past decade, he has also played an active role in the Melanoma Subcommittee of the American Joint Commission on Cancer (AJCC), where he currently co-chairs the Advanced Melanoma working group of the AJCC. Dr. Kirkwood has been concerned to bring the most current information related to melanoma to investigators and practitioners across the world, and since 1995 he has co-chaired the annual ‘Perspectives in Melanoma’ meeting. Dr. Kirkwood is the Principal Investigator of the UPCI SPORE in Skin Cancer that was awarded in 2008. As Co-Leader of the UPCI Melanoma Program, Dr. Kirkwood directs and oversees all clinical activities of the UPCI Melanoma Clinic, serves as mentor to the residents and fellows in the clinic, and oversees all clinical trials at the UPCI Melanoma Center.

Melanoma Program website: http://melanoma.upmc.com/
Department website: http://www.dept-med.pitt.edu/hemaonc/faculty_info.aspx?fp=4980