Ramon Parsons, MD, PhD

About Me

Ramon E. Parsons, MD, PhD, is Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute (TCI) and Dean for Cancer Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also the Ward-Coleman Chair in Cancer Research, Director of the Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center, and Chair of the Department of Oncological Sciences at Icahn Mount Sinai.

In 2017, Dr. Parsons was appointed Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute—a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center—after serving as Deputy Director and Co-Leader of the Cancer Mechanisms program. Dr. Parsons joined Icahn Mount Sinai in 2013.

Previously, he was on the faculty of the departments of Pathology and Medicine at Columbia University. He was named Assistant Professor in 1995 and later became the Avon Foundation Chair for Breast Cancer Research in 2002. He was named Professor in 2007 and Leader of its Breast Cancer Program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2005. Dr. Parsons is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, American Society for Clinical Investigation, American College of Physicians. He was Chair of the AACR Special conferences committee for two terms from 2011-2017, which initiated and planned more than 75 scientific meetings on different cancer-related topics.

Dr. Parsons maintains an active laboratory and has received multiple awards for his research, including the 2011 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research. He is internationally recognized as an expert in the fields of cancer genetics and signal transduction with an emphasis on tumor suppressor genes including PTEN.

Language

English

Position

DIRECTOR, THE TISCH CANCER INSTITUTE, PROFESSOR & CHAIR | Oncological Sciences, PROFESSOR | Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology

Research Topics

Cancer, Cancer Genetics, Chromatin, Diabetes, Epigenetics, Epithelial Cells, Gene Regulation, Growth Factors and Receptors, IGF-1 Receptor, Insulin, Insulin Receptor, Knockout Mice, Lipid Signaling, Mass Spectrometry, Microarray, Molecular Biology, Oncogenes, Phosphorylation, Protein Kinases, Protein Phosphatases, Tumor Suppressor Genes, Tumorigenesis

Multi-Disciplinary Training Areas

Cancer Biology [CAB], Disease Mechanisms and Therapeutics (DMT)

Video

Education

AB, Columbia University

MD, PhD, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Postdoctoral Training, Johns Hopkins University

Awards

2017

Elected, National Academy of Medicine

2015

Elected, Society of Scholars of the Johns Hopkins University

2011

AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research

Research

The Parsons laboratory seeks to investigate tumor suppressor and oncogene signaling pathways that are altered in human solid tumors using a multidisciplinary approach that includes genetics, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and pathology. Thematic topics that are currently under investigation include dissection of the regulation and function of the PTEN tumor suppressor, determination of the impact of altered PTEN signals in cancer progression and altered energy metabolism, molecular pathogenesis of breast carcinoma initiation and progression, and examination of epigenetic and chromatin reprogramming as consequence of altered cancer signal pathways. Past accomplishments include discovery of PTEN, elucidation of the frequent alteration of the PI3K/PTEN pathway in a wide variety of cancers, generation of mouse models of cancer due to PTEN mutation, and identification of PREX2 as a regulator of PTEN function.

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Publications

Publications:106

Selected Publications

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