Dr. Gary Gilliland, MD, PhD, has been named the inaugural Vice Dean and Vice President for Precision Medicine, at Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Dr. Gilliland is a cancer genetics expert and pioneer in the development of targeted therapies.
“We are proud to be among the first institutions in the country to create a position to oversee the tremendous opportunities and challenges that face us as our physicians and scientists work to hone the promise of the burgeoning and exciting field of precision medicine,” said J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. “Dr. Gilliland’s experience as a leader in both academic medicine and the pharmaceutical industry will help Penn Medicine forge a roadmap for the most effective and efficient ways to conduct research and deliver care in this new field.”
Prior Experience
Dr. Gilliland joins Penn Medicine from Merck, where he was Senior Vice President of Merck Research Laboratories and Oncology Franchise Head. Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Gilliland was a long-time member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School, where he served as Professor of Medicine and a Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. He was also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Director of the Leukemia Program at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and Director of the Cancer Stem Cell Program of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
As an investigator studying hematologic malignancies, Dr. Gilliland made seminal discoveries that have contributed to the understanding of the genetic basis of leukemias and other hematologic cancer. He has worked to help apply these findings into the development of new investigational cancer treatments.
Dr. Gilliland’s work has earned him numerous honors, including the William Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology, the Emil J. Freireich Award from the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation. ■
