Cancer center names interim director

Leonidas Platanias, MD, PhD, has been named interim director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

“Leon has provided great leadership over the past decade, recruiting numerous faculty and helping build the Lurie Cancer Center’s international prominence,” Eric G. Neilson, MD, vice president for Medical Affairs and Lewis Landsberg dean, said in a press release. “As interim director, he will carry forward the Lurie Cancer Center’s reputation as one of the nation’s premier cancer research facilities.”

Platanias, who previously served as deputy director of Lurie Cancer Center, arrived at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in 2002 as the Jesse, Sara, Andrew, Abigail, Benjamin and Elizabeth Lurie professor of oncology. Prior to joining the medical school, he was chief of the division of hematology/oncology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition to his duties as interim director, he will continue his molecular biology and biochemistry research, which is focused on signaling pathways in cancer cells.

“I am honored to become interim director of one of the leading cancer centers,” Platanias said. “We have experienced remarkable achievements under the outgoing leadership of Steve Rosen, MD, and are now well positioned for the next phase of growth.”

Platanias is a member of the Cancer Immunopathobiology and Immunotherapy study section at the NIH. He also completed terms in the Cancer Molecular Pathobiology study section and the Molecular Oncogenesis study section, where he was one of the founding members.

Platanias’ research is funded by multiple R01 grants from the NCI and a Merit Review grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is also the principal investigator of the NCI T32 training grant in signal transduction and cancer.

A nationwide search to find the cancer center’s next permanent director will begin soon.