Dr. Kenneth Pienta has been appointed associate dean for clinical and translational research at the Medical School and director of the Michigan Institute of Clinical and Health Research.
The Board of Regents approved the appointment at its December meeting.
“Dr. Pienta is already a valued member of the U-M team,” says Steven Kunkel, senior associate dean for research, Medical School. “As an accomplished physician scientist whose research career has spanned the entire translational research continuum, from basic science discovery to patient care, Dr. Pienta is ideally suited to lead MICHR and assist me in creating a common vision for clinical and translational research at Michigan.”
Pienta is a professor of internal medicine and urology; director of the Urologic Oncology Program, Comprehensive Cancer Center; and director of Experimental Therapeutics for the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology. He also is affiliated with the Cellular and Molecular Biology Program and the Center for Computational Medicine and Biology.
Since 1995 Pienta has been the director of the Prostate Specialized Program of Research Excellence. He has a proven, peer-reviewed track record in developing a translational research program that successfully incorporates bench research, agent development and clinical application. He has international expertise in the development of novel chemotherapeutic programs for prostate cancer.
Pienta is the author of more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and has been the principal investigator on numerous local and national clinical trials.
In 2005 Pienta was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He is a two-time American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor Award recipient, and he serves on the boards of the Paget Foundation, Bone and Cancer Foundation, and Southwest Oncology Group.
Pienta came to the University in 1994 as an associate professor of medicine and surgery. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Chicago and his medical oncology fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University. He was an assistant professor of medicine at the Wayne State University School of Medicine from 1991-94.
