Webster Cavenee, PhD

Board Member

Dr. Webster Cavenee is a co-founder and Board Member of GCAR.

Recognized for his accomplishments in the genetic basis of cancer predisposition, Dr. Cavenee is generally credited with providing the first genetic evidence for the involvement of tumor suppressor genes in the genetic transmission of cancer predisposition, as well as tumor progression, oncogenic cellular signaling and the use of genetic approaches for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. 

He has held faculty positions at the University of Cincinnati, McGill University (where he was the Founding Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Montreal Branch) and the University of California San Diego where he is now Director Emeritus of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California at San Diego.

Dr. Cavenee is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Medicine, the German Academy of Science Leopoldina, and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He has published more than 400 scientific papers and received more than 130 honors and named lectures.

He received his Ph.D. with honors from the University of Kansas Medical School. He also partook in National Institutes of Health and Anna Fuller Fund postdoctoral research at the Jackson Laboratory, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Utah.