Loma Linda University Cancer Center appoints Binghui Shen as Director of Basic Cancer Research

Loma Linda University Cancer Center today announced the appointment of Binghui Shen, PhD, as Director of Basic Cancer Research, effective November 1.

Shen, a prominent researcher in DNA repair and genome integrity, has served as Chair of the Department of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics for the Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope since 2004. He has also served as leader of City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center's basic research program: Molecular and Cellular Biology of Cancer (MCBC) since 2011. That organization, located in Duarte, California, earned recognition from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a designated cancer center in 1981 and NCI designation as a comprehensive cancer center in 1998.

Mark Reeves, MD, PhD, Director of the Loma Linda University Cancer Center, said Shen is passionate about building teams to perform cutting-edge research, and he is prominent in his field because of discoveries about how DNA replication is regulated.

"We're looking forward to his service here because he is a world-class investigator and a proven builder of programs, which will be key as he recruits top scientists to join the cancer center's basic research program," Reeves said.

Shen has been continuously supported by the NCI for the past three decades. He will leverage his established reputation in the field of genome integrity and cancer biology to establish his own research team at the Loma Linda University Cancer Center. Here, they will work to identify cancer markers and targets to feed translational research pipelines, with extramural grant support from NCI.

"I am deeply grateful to the Loma Linda University Cancer Center and the Department of Basic Sciences at the School of Medicine for granting me the opportunity to establish a joint research laboratory with a talented young investigator who focuses more on the translational side of research. Together, we aim to develop products that will be impactful for clinical applications and provide high-caliber training for the next generation of cancer scientists." Shen said. "Working with the cancer center leadership and excellent faculty at Loma Linda University, I am eager to build a robust basic cancer research program by promoting collaborative, programmatic research and recruiting exceptional, cutting-edge talent as we collectively aim for NCI designation."

Shen holds a PhD from Kansas State University and completed postdoctoral research fellowships at UC Irvine and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He earned a bachelor's degree from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. He served as a member of the Radiation Therapeutics and Biology Study Section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has published some 200 peer reviewed research articles, including a recent article in Science that elucidates the cellular survival mechanism under DNA replication stress.