Gustavo Leone was named director of the Medical University of South Carolina Hollings Cancer Center. His appointment begins March 1.
Leone will continue to conduct laboratory and translational research at MUSC, focusing on identifying how disruption of critical cell cycle regulatory pathways contributes to uncontrolled cell growth. Currently his laboratory group focuses on studying how genes outside the tumor cell affect the community of cells around a cancer cell, a research area that may reveal new cancer treatment strategies.
HCC includes more than 120 faculty-level cancer scientists with an annual research funding portfolio of $44 million. A primary goal for Leone will be to support and enhance the infrastructure key to the center’s prestigious NCI-designated status and to build programming and recruitment efforts to attain NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center status.
Leone earned his doctoral degree from the University of Calgary and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University in 1998 before joining The Ohio State University as an assistant professor at OSU’s NCI-designated James Comprehensive Cancer Center.Leone advanced to full professor in molecular genetics in 2011 and held the Klotz Chair in Cancer Research. In his leadership positions as director of the Solid Tumor Biology Program and associate director for basic research, Leone also expanded mentoring, recruitment, and collaborative research efforts as a founding member of the Pelotonia Fellowship Program in Cancer Research.
