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University of Alabama at Birmingham appoints cancer center director
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Michael J. Birrer, MD, PhD, has been named director of University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Birrer’s appointment will be effective Aug. 1. He will succeed Edward E. Partridge, MD, who will retire from University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) after a 48-year career.
Birrer — a medical oncologist who specializes in early detection and treatment of gynecologic cancers — serves as director of medical gynecologic oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and director of the gynecologic research program at Gillette Cancer Center. He also served as professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and led the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center program in gynecologic cancers.
“Mike Birrer is an outstanding physician–scientist who balances a vision of transformation and leadership,” Selwyn M. Vickers, MD, FACS, senior vice president for medicine and dean of the school of medicine, said in a press release. “He understands drivers for excellence in clinical care and has a vision for growing precision medicine in cancer care, as well as a well-established commitment to fundamental scientific discovery. His strategy in moving cancer research from bench to bedside and back to the bench is also a fundamental element of our cancer center’s mission to provide the highest-quality cancer care while advancing our understanding of cancer and translating that knowledge into better prevention, detection and treatment.”
Birrer began his career in 1988 as an investigator at the NCI. He became a senior investigator and chief of the molecular mechanisms section of NCI’s Center for Cancer Research. He became deputy chief of the cell and cancer biology branch at the Center for Cancer Research in 2000. He joined Massachusetts General Hospital in 2008.
Birrer’s research interests include the molecular origins of gynecologic cancers, as well as the identication and characterization of aberrations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in these cancers.
“UAB is a first-rate institution with a comprehensive cancer center that is all around one of the best in the nation, offering tremendous opportunities for growth and service to the cancer patients of Alabama, the United States and abroad,” Birrer said in the release. “It is a great honor for me to lead such a prestigious cancer center.”