HIebert to lead VICC basic science efforts
Scott Hiebert, Ph.D., has been named associate director for Basic Science Programs atVanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
Hiebert, professor of Biochemistry and Leader of the Signal Transduction and Cellular Proliferation Program, succeeds Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., who was recently named director of the Cancer Center.
“Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center is winning international recognition for the strength of our basic research enterprise, and I am excited by the opportunity to help shape those efforts,” Hiebert said. “Our researchers are devoted to making a difference in the lives of cancer patients by focusing on the basic scientific discoveries that help us understand the molecular underpinnings of cancer. Those laboratory-based discoveries help us identify targets for new therapies and drugs that can be translated into clinical care for patients.”
Hiebert will help oversee the Cancer Center’s research program, which includes more than 300 faculty members and more than $140 million in research funding from public and private sources. It is one of only 39 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the country and the only one in Tennessee.
“Scott Hiebert has demonstrated strong leadership skills and we are pleased to have someone with his insight and passion for discovery steering our basic research programs,” Pietenpol said. “He has a great commitment to fostering collaboration in the most promising areas of cancer research and is an outstanding mentor for trainees and junior faculty.”
Hiebert received his Ph.D., from Northwestern University before pursuing postdoctoral studies at Duke University as an American Cancer Society fellow and Howard Hughes Research Associate. In 1991 he accepted a position at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis where he became an associate member of the Department of Tumor Cell Biology. In 1997 he came to Vanderbilt-Ingram as associate professor of Biochemistry. He has since been promoted to full professor of Biochemistry and in 2002 assumed leadership of the Signal Transduction and Cellular Proliferation Program. He is internationally recognized for his research focused on the mechanistic basis of acute leukemia.
Hiebert has served as a member of review panels, including the American Cancer Society Molecular Oncogenesis section and is a member of the National Cancer Institute Subcommittee C-Basic and Preclinical review panel. He is highly published in the cancer field and currently has grants from the National Cancer Institute and from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.