Biography

Dr. Barry P. Sleckman is currently the director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), a position he has held since 2020. He has carried out National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded cancer research in immunology and DNA damage responses for over 30 years at Washington University in St. Louis and then Weill Cornell in New York City and now at UAB. Dr. Sleckman’s laboratory defined novel pathways that regulate the assembly of immunoglobulin and T cell receptor genes and discovered mechanisms that prevent unrepaired DNA breaks generated during this assembly from being aberrantly repaired as potentially transforming chromosomal translocations and deletions. His laboratory also established a new paradigm whereby damage responses to DNA breaks generated during antigen receptor gene assembly regulate normal cell type specific functions not directly involved in DNA repair.

Dr. Sleckman has been involved in leadership at NCI-Designated Cancer Centers for over 20 years, including at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University, where he served as co-leader of two research programs and as associate director for shared resources and then associate director for basic science. He has been involved in graduate education as director of the graduate program in immunology at Washington University and also at Weill Cornell. Dr. Sleckman initiated and directed the first physician-scientist training program in pathology at Washington University and has been active nationally as a proponent of the physician-scientist pathway.

In addition to his research and leadership, Dr. Sleckman is active on several advisory boards. He serves on the scientific advisory board of the Burroughs Welcome Fund; is chair elect of the V Foundation for Cancer Research scientific advisory board; and serves on the external advisory boards of several NCI-Designated Cancer Centers. He has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and he is a fellow in the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.

Recently, Dr. Sleckman has focused on developing new programs to support biomedical research and investigators at the O’Neal during challenging times and, more broadly, in advocating for support of biomedical and cancer research funding, including testifying to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on the subject in April 2025. Dr. Sleckman has been an active AACI member since becoming director of the O’Neal in 2020 and co-chaired the clinical trials session at the 2024 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting.