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2004 PC Project Grant Award

Sancy Leachman, M.D., PhD.

University of Utah

Core Resource Award:
Coordinating clinical, genetic and patient-related activities in support of PC patients and researchers

Biography

Sancy Leachman earned her M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and was awarded the prestigious Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award in 2000.

She is director of the Tom C. Mathews Jr. Familial Melanoma Research Clinic and an assistant professor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Utah, School of Medicine.   She is a dermatologist using basic science research and state of the art technology to combat skin cancer. In her laboratory she is examining the role of differential gene expression and genetic predisposition in the development of melanoma, with an emphasis on the familial melanoma syndrome. Through her investigations, she hopes to develop agents that will serve as diagnostic tools, prognostic indicators, or therapeutic modalities in the treatment of melanoma. Her clinical interests include skin cancers, especially melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma and pigmentary disorders that result from abnormalities of melanocytes.

She was a key figure in developing the multidisciplinary melanoma program at Huntsman Cancer Institute and now serves as deputy director of the group. The program brings together researchers and physicians with an interest in melanoma in order to bring knowledge and expertise from the laboratory into the clinical realm. By applying the latest scientific technology to the problem of human cancer, she and her colleagues strive to improve the medical community's ability to diagnose and treat skin cancers.

She joined Huntsman Cancer Institute from Yale University School of Medicine, where she was a fellow in dermatology working on a DNA vaccination study to prevent and treat papillomavirus-induced squamous cell carcinoma.