2015
John Mendelsohn, MD
Currently Director of the Khalifa Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, John Mendelsohn, served as President of the institution from 1996-2011. Under his leadership, MD Anderson greatly expanded its clinical and research programs, ranked No. 1 in cancer care in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Hospitals,” and ranked first in NCI funding. Dr. Mendelsohn’s research pioneered therapy which targets the products of aberrant genes that cause cancer. He and his colleagues produced a novel monoclonal antibody, cetuximab (Erbitux), which can prevent activation of “receptor tyrosine kinase” signaling pathways in cancer cells. They performed the first clinical trial with a receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor in patients. Erbitux was approved by the FDA for treatment of advanced colorectal cancer and head and neck cancer. Today, there are many dozens of tyrosine kinase inhibitors approved and under study. Hundreds of thousands of patients have been treated with Erbitux and other receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Thus, Dr. Mendelsohn’s original hypothesis has not only been validated and expanded, but has changed how we treat cancer. Dr. Mendelsohn earned his B.A. and M.D. degrees from Harvard. After residency training at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston, and a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, he joined the University of California San Diego, where he was founding director of its cancer center. He then moved to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he chaired the Department of Medicine. Dr. Mendelsohn has directed programs that trained many dozens of medical oncologists and scientists. He served as founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal clinical Cancer Research, has authored nearly 300 scientific articles and chapters, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received numerous honors and awards. He recently served as Chair of the Institute of Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Forum and is currently Chairman of the Houston Grand Opera Board. Both he and his wife Anne are active on many fronts in the Houston community. They have 3 sons and 8 grandchildren.
Currently Director of the Khalifa Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, John Mendelsohn, served as President of the institution from 1996-2011. Under his leadership, MD Anderson greatly expanded its clinical and research programs, ranked No. 1 in cancer care in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Hospitals,” and ranked first in NCI funding. Dr. Mendelsohn’s research pioneered therapy which targets the products of aberrant genes that cause cancer. He and his colleagues produced a novel monoclonal antibody, cetuximab (Erbitux), which can prevent activation of “receptor tyrosine kinase” signaling pathways in cancer cells. They performed the first clinical trial with a receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor in patients. Erbitux was approved by the FDA for treatment of advanced colorectal cancer and head and neck cancer. Today, there are many dozens of tyrosine kinase inhibitors approved and under study. Hundreds of thousands of patients have been treated with Erbitux and other receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Thus, Dr. Mendelsohn’s original hypothesis has not only been validated and expanded, but has changed how we treat cancer. Dr. Mendelsohn earned his B.A. and M.D. degrees from Harvard. After residency training at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston, and a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, he joined the University of California San Diego, where he was founding director of its cancer center. He then moved to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he chaired the Department of Medicine. Dr. Mendelsohn has directed programs that trained many dozens of medical oncologists and scientists. He served as founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal clinical Cancer Research, has authored nearly 300 scientific articles and chapters, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received numerous honors and awards. He recently served as Chair of the Institute of Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Forum and is currently Chairman of the Houston Grand Opera Board. Both he and his wife Anne are active on many fronts in the Houston community. They have 3 sons and 8 grandchildren.