David Gius, MD, PhD, has been named Co-leader of the Women’s Cancer Research Program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, a position he has served in interim since February 2014. Dr. Gius, a nationally recognized radiation oncologist and researcher, is a Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
The Women’s Cancer Research Program embraces a multidisciplinary approach to integrate its basic, translational, and clinical components. The program seeks to define the common mechanisms responsible for the risk and progression of tumors arising from the reproductive tissues of women, including the breast, ovary, endometrium, myometrium, uterine cervix, and vagina. In doing so, the goals of the Women’s Cancer Research Program are to identify molecular markers that contribute to the disease process and outcome, to develop targeted molecular approaches, and to translate these agents from preclinical models to the bedside. In collaboration with Co-leader Seema Khan, MD, Dr. Gius will continue to increase the Women’s Cancer Research Program’s translational research activity.
Dr. Gius’ laboratory research concentrates on the connection between aging, cellular metabolism, and cancer, focusing on the role that the Sirtuin gene family plays in regulating a cell’s ability to recover from stress. In other laboratory studies, Dr. Gius is testing chemical agents that could yield promising new drug treatments for women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer.
Dr. Gius joined Northwestern in 2012 from Vanderbilt University’s Ingram Cancer Center. He is a member of the National Institutes of Health Radiation and Therapeutics and Biology Study Section. ■
