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Winter 2014 : Waun Ki Hong and Helen Piwnica-Worms elected to Institute of Medicine

Waun Ki Hong and Helen Piwnica-Worms elected to Institute of Medicine

MD Anderson IOM membership now totals seven

Waun Ki Hong, M.D., head of Cancer Medicine, and Helen Piwnica-Worms, Ph.D., vice provost, science, have been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies.

Helen Piwnica-Worms, Ph.D.

“Membership in the Institute of Medicine is powerful recognition of the impact Drs. Hong and Piwnica-Worms have had in advancing our understanding and treatment of cancer,” says Ethan Dmitrovsky, M.D., provost and executive vice president at MD Anderson.

Piwnica-Worms oversees the institution’s preclinical research. Her own research focuses on new drug combinations for triple-negative breast cancer and is tied into MD Anderson’s Breast and Ovarian Cancer Moon Shot.

Waun Ki Hong, M.D.

Hong’s clinical and translational research has been instrumental in opening new approaches to cancer prevention and treatment. MD Anderson’s Lung Cancer Moon Shot incorporates his leadership in targeted therapies.

Piwnica-Worms and Hong join five other MD Anderson leaders in the IOM: Ronald DePinho, M.D., president; John Mendelsohn, M.D., former president and director of the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy; Ellen Gritz, Ph.D., chair of Behavioral Science; James Allison, Ph.D., chair of Immunology; and Lynda Chin, M.D., chair of Genomic Medicine and scientific director of the Institute for Applied Cancer Science.

"Membership in the Institute of Medicine is powerful recognition of the impact Drs. Hong and Piwnica-Worms have had in advancing our understanding and treatment of cancer."

Ethan Dmitrovsky, M.D.

provost and executive vice president

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