Epigenetics Expert Appointed Director of Cincinnati Cancer Center

Shuk-Mei Ho, PhD, has been appointed director of the Cincinnati Cancer Center, effective June 15, 2013. The Cincinnati Cancer Center is a collaborative initiative of the University of Cincinnati, UC Health and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. 

Ho is currently the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Chair of Environmental Health and Professor in the UC College of Medicine, a role she has held since October 2005 and will continue to fill. A recognized translational scientist, Ho is internationally known for her expertise in the role of hormones, endocrine disruptors and epigenetics in cancer development as well as gene-environment interaction cancer research.

"In addition to being a driven translational scientist, Shuk-Mei has been shown her skill as an administrative leader by aggressively growing an already successful academic department, bringing million in funds to UC, and creating research partnerships that bridge UC and Cincinnati Children’s,” said Thomas Boat, MD, CCC Governing Board member and Christian R. Holmes Professor and Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice President for Health Affairs at University of Cincinnati. 

Ho has recruited 21 environmental health faculty members since 2005—many with a cancer research focus—and secured more than $27 million for UC for research and infrastructure improvements.

The Cincinnati Cancer Center encompasses the activities of University of Cincinnati Cancer Institute—one of four institutes of UC and UC Health—and the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute at Cincinnati Children’s. 

"We’ve established three initial programmatic research themes that will serve as the driving force for our work. Success of these initial programs—as well as future programs—will be determined by scientific excellence and emergence of productive collaborations among Cincinnati Cancer Center members,” says Ho. "I’m excited and honored to lead such a brilliant group of Cincinnati-based scientists as we work toward our ultimate aspiration of creating a world-class comprehensive center designated by the National Cancer Institute and leading in research innovation to eliminate cancer.”

Ho’s appointment follows our recruitment last year of Vijaya Gandhi, PhD, MBA, as associate director for administration at the Cincinnati Cancer Center. 

In Ho’s role as Cincinnati Cancer Center director, she will work closely with an administrative team and research program leaders to develop cross-institutional and cross-departmental research teams and to ensure alignment with the National Cancer Institute’s guidelines for research programs and initiatives.