John D. Minna, M.D.
Dr. Minna is Director of the Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He holds the Max L. Thomas Distinguished Chair in Molecular Pulmonary Oncology and the Sarah M. and Charles E. Seay Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research.
He graduated from Stanford Medical School, was a resident in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a Research Associate at the NIH, Chief of the Section of Somatic Cell Genetics, and then Chief of the NCI-VA and then NCI-Navy Medical Oncology Branches at the National Cancer Institute (1975-1991).
From 1991 until the present he has been a Professor of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology and Director of the Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research at UTSW. His work has focused on understanding the molecular pathogenesis of lung cancer and translating this into the clinic and developing personalized medicine for lung cancer. As part of this he has led a joint Lung Cancer NCI Special Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant between UTSW and the MD Anderson Cancer Center. He also directs a NASA Special Program of Research Excellence (NSCOR) to study the effects of high energy particle radiation (found in space) and low dose gamma radiation (found on earth) on lung carcinogenesis.
Minna is part of the NCI Cancer Target Discovery and Development Network (CTD2N), and several State of Texas Cancer Prevention and Research Institute (CPRIT) grants to discover new therapeutic targets in lung cancer including manipulation of nuclear hormone receptors. He heads the Molecular Therapeutics of Cancer Program for the UTSW Simmons Cancer Center. Currently he is trying to discover the molecular signatures in lung cancer predictive of response to therapy as well as how to target this therapy and using a new model system of immortalized human bronchial epithelial cells to dissect the steps in lung cancer pathogenesis.
Minna has served on the Scientific Advisory Boards for several Cancer Centers as well as for the National Cancer Institute, and the Board of Directors for American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and American Society of Oncology (ASCO). He received the Bristol Meyers Award for Lung Cancer Research, the Rosenthal Cancer Research Prize, the Alton Ochsner Award for Smoking Related Research in 2004, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award in 2005, and ASCO Statesman Award in 2007.
