Biography

Dr. Diane M. Simeone is a professor of surgery at UC San Diego Health, where she serves as Chugai Pharmaceutical Chair of Cancer and the director of the University of California San Diego Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center (UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center). She is a practicing surgeon scientist who has driven innovation in cancer by building a continuum between scientific discovery and new approaches for cancer detection and treatment.

She received her bachelor of science degree at Brown University and her MD at Duke University, followed by a general surgery residency at the University of Michigan (UM), which included a two-year research fellowship. Dr. Simeone spent nearly 27 years at UM, where she served as the University of Michigan (now Rogel) Cancer Center’s program leader of the GI Oncology Program, director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center, division chief of HPB Surgery, and co-PI of the GI Cancer SPORE.

While serving as a clinically active pancreatic surgeon, she spearheaded the development of the UM Translational Oncology Program at the newly acquired Pfizer campus in Ann Arbor, growing the program from six to 36 highly productive interdisciplinary faculty. In 2017, she was recruited to NYU to serve as the Perlmutter Professor of Surgery, director of a new pancreatic cancer center, and associate director of translational research at the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center (PCC). There she helped re-establish the comprehensive status of the PCC, build multidisciplinary clinics, and enhance the PCC translational research portfolio.

Dr. Simeone has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for 28 years, investigating the molecular mechanisms driving pancreatic tumorigenesis and therapeutic resistance, and identifying new therapeutic targets and early detection strategies (250 publications, h-index 83). She has mentored over 50 trainees and faculty, with many having achieved impactful faculty academic positions.

National roles held by Dr. Simeone include past president of the Society of University Surgeons, president of the American Pancreatic Association, and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN). She has served on many scientific advisory boards, including the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Pancreatic Cancer Task Force, and serves on the Yale Cancer Center EAB. She is the national PI of IMPACT PANC, a 30-center adaptive platform trial for the treatment of first and second line metastatic pancreatic cancer, and serves as the founder and PI of PRECEDE, a 60-center worldwide longitudinal 10,000-patient study of individuals at heritable risk of pancreatic cancer, committed to improving survival through early detection. Both of these efforts have a core principle of addressing recalcitrant challenges in cancer by building a novel model of data-sharing and collaboration.

Dr. Simeone is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and served on the NCI Subcommittee A-Cancer Centers Scientific Review Group. She was recently elected to the Biocom Board of Governors and is focused on advancing pathways for academic/industry partnerships to drive innovation in health care.