City of Hope recently announced the appointments of four new scientists to its research faculty.
Jianjun Chen, PhD, joins the staff as Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Systems Biology. Before joining the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Dr. Chen had been serving as Associate Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine for a few years after moving from the University of Chicago. Dr. Chen received his PhD from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China, and then conducted postdoctoral training with Dr. Janet D. Rowley at the University of Chicago. He launched his independent laboratory in 2009 in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago.
Andrea Bild, PhD, has been appointed Professor in the Division of Molecular Pharmacology within the Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research. Dr. Bild comes to City of Hope from the University of Utah, where she was Associate Professor and Director of Genome Sciences. She obtained her BS at the University of Florida and her PhD at the University of Colorado and completed her postdoctoral training at Duke University. Dr. Bild’s research program focuses on cancer and uses large-scale translational genomic and pharmacologic studies to interrogate and treat tumor heterogeneity and evolution to refractory states. She has led multiple collaborative groups with the goal of characterizing and treating cancer.
Michael Kahn, PhD, joined the faculty as Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Molecular Medicine. Dr. Kahn comes to City of Hope from the University of Southern California, where he was the first appointed Provost Professor, with joint appointments in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Keck School of Medicine and the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology in the School of Pharmacy. He was also the co-leader of the Gastrointestinal Oncology program at the University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, as well as the Center for Drug Discovery and Development at the University of Southern California. Dr. Kahn’s research program is focused on the integration of basic science with translational medicine.
Nora -Heisterkamp, PhD, has been appointed Professor in the Department of Systems Biology. Prior to joining City of Hope, Dr. Heisterkamp was at the University of Southern California, where she was Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Heisterkamp is a pioneer in cancer genetics and uncovered the structure of the so-called Philadelphia chromosome, the first known genetic lesion that was discovered as a cause of cancer in humans. ■
