Transcriptional control of bladder cancer heterogeneity

Biography - David J. McConkey, Ph.D., inaugural director of the Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute and Professor in the Department of Urology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and completed his doctoral thesis work at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.  He performed his postdoctoral research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute before joining the faculty at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where he served as Director of Urological Research from 2008-16. He is co-Principal Investigator of the M.D. Anderson Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Bladder Cancer, which is now in its third continuous cycle of funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He is also Chair for Translational Medicine for the Genitourinary Cancers Committee in the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG). Research in Dr. McConkey’s laboratory is focused on using genomics to define the molecular mechanisms involved in bladder cancer progression and developing novel therapies for muscle-invasive disease. His mission is to make the Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute a hub of an institutional and international community of researchers who share a commitment to advancing the scientific understanding of bladder cancer and improving its treatment.

Dr. McConkey has published more than 200 articles in peer reviewed journals and is on the editorial boards of Clinical Cancer Research and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He served on 90 advisory committees at M.D. Anderson and won numerous teaching awards for his work. In 2016, Dr. McConkey was awarded the JPB Foundation Bladder Cancer Research Innovation Award from the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) where he also serves as a member of their Scientific Advisory Board.  Dr. McConkey is an active member of the American Urological Association (AUA), the Society for Urologic Oncology (SUO), and its research arm, the Society for Basic Urological Research (SBUR).

Host: Professor Jenny Southgate