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Penn appoints chair of department of cell and developmental biology
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Nancy A. Speck, PhD, a leader in the field of blood-cell development, has been named chair of the department of cell and developmental biology in Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania.
Speck also is associate director of Penn’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine, co-leader of the hematologic malignancies program at Abramson Cancer Center and an investigator with Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute.
Nancy A. Speck
Speck has made many contributions to better understand developmental hematopoiesis, as well as translating these findings to fighting leukemia. Her contributions to the field include identifying proteins Runx1 and CBFβ, mutations of which are regularly found in leukemia. Speck’s biochemical and molecular characterization of these factors — before and after linking them to leukemia — has enabled rapid progress in understanding their role in normal and malignant blood-cell development.
“Nancy has distinguished herself as a research scientist, teacher and mentor,” J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, executive vice president for the health system and dean of Perelman School of Medicine, said in a press release. “She has made many significant contributions to our understanding of how blood cells develop and how the process goes wrong in certain types of leukemia. Her long record of leadership and discovery in the classroom and the lab will be immensely valuable to cell and developmental biology research at Penn. She has already laid out a bold and collaborative vision for the department, which is widely regarded as one of the best in the country.”
Speck started her own laboratory at Dartmouth Medical School, progressing from assistant professor of biochemistry to professor. She then held the James J. Carroll Chair of Oncology at the school before joining the Penn faculty in 2008 as professor of cell and developmental biology.
Speck succeeds Jon Epstein, MD, who has assumed the role of executive vice dean and chief scientific officer of Penn Medicine.