Steven Artandi, M.D., Ph.D. was appointed director of the Stanford Cancer Institute — an initiative that aims to improve cancer treatment at Stanford — on Oct. 1. He was previously a professor of medicine and biochemistry at the School of Medicine and will succeed outgoing director Beverly Mitchell, M.D., who has led the Institute for the past 10 years.
“Stanford has incredible talent and research,” Artandi said. “The ability to bring talents together to improve the lives of cancer patients has been amazing.”
Artandi joined Stanford Medicine in 2000 following a fellowship in medical oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to his appointment as director, Artandi led a lab conducting research on the telomerase enzyme, a protein that has been found to be active in cancer cells. In 2015, he received an outstanding investigator award from the National Cancer Institute.
As director, Artandi said he hopes to engage faculty across many different departments and schools and encourage collaboration between post-doctorates, graduate students, medical students, fellows and undergraduates. He believes Stanford’s unique strengths are in its genomics programs and innovation of new technologies such as immunotherapy.
“Our overall goal is to improve the lives of our patients through a broad mission of basic and translational research, as well as population-based research to enhance patient care,” Mitchell said. “Artandi is a fantastic scientist who works on problems very relevant to cancer, and he’s excited to take on a big job.”
The selection committee was co-directed by professor and chair of the Department of Surgery Mary Hawn, M.D., and professor and chair of the Department of Pathology Thomas Montine, M.D., Ph.D.
“We are delighted to have Dr. Artandi as the next director for the Stanford Cancer Institute,” Montine said in an article from the Stanford Medicine News Center. “His leadership will doubtless help the Institute continue to improve outcomes for patients facing cancer diagnosis and treatment.”
Contact Fan Liu at fliu6 ‘at’ stanford.edu.