The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

[6]Ronald A. DePinho, M.D.Ronald DePinho, M.D., internationally recognized for basic and translational research in cancer, aging and age-associated degenerative disorders, is the fourth full-time president of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. His appointment began on Sept. 1, 2011.

DePinho was born in the Bronx, N.Y., in 1955. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences in 1977 from Fordham University, where he graduated summa cum laude as class salutatorian. He received his medical degree with distinction in microbiology and immunology in 1981 from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, followed by postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of Cell Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.

Prior to joining MD Anderson, DePinho spent 14 years at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston. There, he was founding director of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science [8] at Dana-Farber and was a professor in the Department of Medicine (genetics) at Harvard and an American Cancer Society Research Professor. Previously, he held numerous faculty positions during 10 years at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

DePinho’s independent scientific career began at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he was the Feinberg Senior Scholar in Cancer Research. There, he established the first National Cancer Institute-supported shared transgenic and gene targeting facility, which enabled his laboratory and many other researchers to model and study the genetic basis of cancer and other complex diseases.