Alumna Offers Advice to MD/PhD Students at Annual Retreat

BUSM’s MD/PhD program welcomed back one of their distinguished alumni to deliver the keynote address at their annual retreat on Sept. 16. Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue, MD, PhD, (BUSM’98) returned to campus to talk about her career path and scientific discoveries.  She spoke on “Current Concepts in Understanding Intratumoral Genetic Heterogeneity (and Life beyond your MD/PhD),” and offered advice to BU’s MD/PhD student body.

Iacobuzio-Donahue is the Associate Director for Translational Research at the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. After graduating from BUSM, she completed her residency training in pathology at Johns Hopkins University where she pioneered a program that empowered patients at their end of life to contribute to cancer research through organ donations. After moving from Johns Hopkins University to Sloan Kettering, she continued this interest and became the Director of the Rapid Medical Donation Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

She is an internationally recognized scientist whose focus on how genetic mutations can drive metastasis and treatment resistance in cancer has led to significant advances and publications. Iacobuzio-Donahue spent the day talking with faculty members and students in an effort to enhance collaboration and communication with BUSM’s cancer researchers. Her words left a lasting impression.

Submitted by Ryan Quinton (MD/PhD student government) and the co-directors of the MD/PhD program Vickery Trinkaus-Randall, PhD, and Steven Borkan, MD.