Kelvin Lee was named director of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.
A $15 million fund established by the Walther Cancer Foundation will support him in this role.
Lee’s position will begin in January 2021. He succeeds Patrick J. Loehrer, who served as cancer center director since 2009. Loehrer will continue to see patients with gastrointestinal and thymic malignancies and carry on his work focused on global oncology and health equities.
Lee was also named senior associate dean of cancer research at IU School of Medicine and the H.H. Gregg Professor of Oncology. He will also direct the cancer institute, an umbrella entity designed to facilitate collaboration among cancer disciplines at IU School of Medicine and Indiana University Health. He will have appointments with both the Department of Medicine and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
Since 2006, Lee was the Jacobs Family Chair of Immunology at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. The co-leader of the Cancer Center Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Program from 2006 to 2018, Lee led the group through three successful NCI cancer center support grant renewals before stepping down to take on the position of senior vice president for the Basic Sciences.
The IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center was designated a comprehensive cancer center by the NCI in 2019. The center’s nearly 250 researchers conduct all phases of cancer research, from laboratory studies to clinical trials to population-based studies that address environmental and behavioral factors that contribute to cancer.
As cancer center director, Lee will also play a key role in setting the future course for two significant centers at IU School of Medicine—the Vera Bradley Foundation Center for Breast Cancer Research and the Brown Center for Immunotherapy.
“I am very excited to join IU School of Medicine to continue to build the world-class effort in cancer research, education and care for the people of Indiana, nationally and globally. The renewal of the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center core grant and achievement of comprehensive designation speaks to the outstanding faculty and staff that are leading this charge,” Lee said in a statement. “I have also been incredibly impressed by the deep commitment of IU School of Medicine and IU Health in these efforts, and this was a major reason in my decision to join IU.
As a physician-scientist, Lee’s research interests are both laboratory and clinical based. In the lab, his research efforts are RO1-funded and primarily focus on multiple myeloma, as well as myeloid dendritic cell differentiation in cancer. Lee sees patients with multiple myeloma once a week in clinic and is the principal investigator on active clinical trials of immunotherapy in myeloma at Roswell Park.
