JEFFREY RATHMELL and W. KIMRYN RATHMELL were both appointed to leadership roles at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
W. Kimryn Rathmell was named director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Division of Hematology and Oncology, and her husband, Jeffrey, will lead a new Vanderbilt Center of Immunobiology.
Previously, W. Kimryn Rathmell was the Alexander Professor for Translational Science and associate director for Training and Education at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research focuses on the genetic and molecular signals that drive renal cell carcinomas and specializes in the treatment of patients with rare kidney cancers, as well as prostate, bladder and testicular cancer.
At UNC, she also served as a director for the Medical Scientist Training Program and led the mentoring activities of the Hematology and Oncology Division and the Lineberger Cancer Center.
In her current research, Rathmell and colleagues have identified factors that are critical to transitions in the progression of kidney cancer. She has also led or participated in a number of the Cancer Genome Atlas projects.
Rathmell has received the American Society of Clinical Oncology Leadership Development Award, the American Association for Cancer Research Landon INNOVATOR Award for Personalized Medicine, the Ruth and Philip Hettleman Award for Scholarly Achievement, the Doris Duke Clinical Translational Scientist Award, and the V Scholar Award from the V Foundation for Cancer Research.
Jeffrey Rathmell was named a professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt, and will also serve as co-leader of the Host Tumor Interactions Research Program. The Center for Immunobiology is supported by the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, the Department of Medicine, and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
Rathmell comes to Vanderbilt from Duke University Medical Center, where he served as associate professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and of Immunology in the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute, as well as director of Graduate Studies of Pharmacology.
In his laboratory research, Rathmell has examined the metabolism of blood cells. His work at Vanderbilt will focus on the field of immunometabolism and how nutrient and metabolic pathways can influence immune responses in normal and diseased settings.
He received the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research Scholar Award from the National Cancer Institute, the Scholar Award from the V Foundation for Cancer Research, was named a Research Scholar by the American Cancer Society, the Bernard Osher Fellow of the American Asthma Society and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Scholar.
