Primo Nery Lara, Jr, MD
Primo Nery Lara, Jr, MD, has been named Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated University of California (UC) Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. He will lead a team of more than 300 scientists, with an estimated $90 million in annual research funding, and a clinical enterprise that serves more than 10,000 adult and pediatric patients throughout the region every year.
Known to most as “Lucky” Lara, the new Director began his career at UC Davis as a hematology-oncology fellow specializing in cancers of the lung, prostate, and bladder and was invited to join the faculty in 1999. Dr. Lara’s main research interests are in the field of developmental therapeutics and in cancer clinical trials development. He has served as the cancer center’s Associate Director for translational research since 2008 as well as chaired or co-chaired many clinical trials. Dr. Lara has also authored or contributed to more than 200 peer-reviewed scholarly papers.
As Director, Dr. Lara plans to build upon the multidisciplinary programs and projects across UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center to develop novel approaches to diagnose, monitor, and treat cancer in the realms of comparative oncology, biomedical engineering, and nanotheranostics. ■
