Leonidas C. Platanias, MD, PhD is the Director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Jesse, Sara, Andrew, Abigail, Benjamin and Elizabeth Lurie Professor of Oncology, and the Associate Dean for Cancer Programs at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He was appointed Director of the Lurie Cancer Center on October 1, 2014. Under his leadership, the Lurie Cancer Center has developed several innovative programs and approaches; and have been working to expand their basic science and clinical/translational research.

For over 25 years, he has dedicated his research to the mechanisms of cytokine signaling in cancer and the development of novel approaches to target such pathways for the treatment of leukemias and other malignancies. His work has been funded continuously by the NIH. His research has identified and defined several pathways engaged by cytokine receptors and established their functions in key cellular and biological responses. The contributions made by his research group in the cytokine field were recognized by the Seymour and Vivian Milstein Award for outstanding contributions in cytokine research (ICIS) in 2013. His team also defined several map kinase and mTOR-signaling networks that control initiation of mRNA translation in malignant cells and have developed approaches to target key pathway elements for the treatment of malignancies. He has an extensive track record of training, having trained many post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and junior faculty over the years and he serves as the PI of the Training Program in Signal Transduction and Cancer.

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