Mayo Clinic is seeking an exceptional scientist and Chair for the Department of Cancer Biology to lead a strategic transformation and expansion of the Department, enhance and deepen its scientific activities, expand its collaborative activities across the Mayo Clinic enterprise campuses, and assure its impact within Mayo Clinic and nationally. The Chair will lead a strategic assessment of the Department and develop an inspirational, innovative and transformative strategic plan and vision, aligned with the strategies of the institution, the Mayo Clinic Research Shield, and Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and in the context of Mayo Clinic Bold. Forward. 

About Mayo Clinic

For over 160 years, the mission of Mayo Clinic has been to inspire hope and to promote health and healing through the integration of clinical practice, research, and education on behalf of the patients, communities, and learners we serve from across the nation and the world.  Each of Mayo Clinic’s three Destination Medical Center (DMC) campuses in the United States are fully engaged in clinical practice, innovative research, and education and training.  These three campuses – referred to as the Mayo Clinic enterprise - include Rochester, Minnesota (MCR); Jacksonville, Florida (MCF); and Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona (MCA).  In addition, Mayo Clinic fully owns and operates a community-based rural health care delivery system (the Mayo Clinic Health System; MCHS) which extends through 49 rural communities in southern Minnesota, western Wisconsin, and northeastern Iowa. 

For the past seven years, Mayo Clinic has been ranked as the No. 1 health system in the nation and the world, with the most #1 ranked medical specialties, by U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, and other healthcare quality organizations. Each of the Mayo Clinic hospitals on the three Mayo Clinic campuses have also been consistently ranked as the #1 hospital and the #1 cancer center and cancer hospital in their respective state.  Mayo Clinic also has the largest integrated organ transplant program in the nation and conducts more clinical trials driving research and testing new therapies and interventions compared to any other institution in the United States. In 2025, with a staff of more than 85,000, including more than 7,300 physicians and scientific investigators, Mayo Clinic cared for more than 1.3 million unique patients who came from all 50 U.S. states and 135 countries.             

Mayo Clinic: The 2030 Bold. Forward. Strategic Plan

Health care has operated in an environment where patients have had the least control. Technology, data-driven knowledge, artificial intelligence (AI), consumerism, and “platform thinking” will establish the next generation of health care. To thrive in this environment, healthcare organizations must break through the old paradigm and transform scientific research and healthcare access and delivery on behalf of the patients we serve. By remaining true to its primary value, "the needs of the patient come first," and the RICH TIES core values of Respect, Integrity, Compassion, Healing, Teamwork, Innovation, Excellence, Stewardship, Mayo Clinic is driving the transformation of biomedical research and health care through its 2030 Bold.Forward Strategic Plan with the framework Cure, Connect, and Transform.

Cure.
Cure is dedicated to accelerating discovery, translation, and delivery of more cures for both chronic and acute diseases. Mayo Clinic is differentiating itself through the conduct of highly innovative discovery science and its translation to enable the delivery and diffusion of the next generation of diagnoses, treatments and cures. This includes new in vivo and in vitro medical, surgical, and radiologic therapies and interventions delivered physically within our healthcare facilities and digitally and virtually in patient’s homes and community settings. 

Connect.
Connect is focused on connecting people with data to create new knowledge and delivering scalable, end-to-end solutions. This means making our healthcare delivery systems more accessible for patients, but also easier for providers, researchers, and other partners to collaborate to conduct research and clinical practice to create new solutions.  In new programs such as Mayo Clinic Care Beyond Walls, Cancer Care Beyond Walls (CCBW), and Clinical Trials Beyond Walls (CTBW), Mayo Clinic is creating a digital care delivery model that maintains a human touch. 

Transform.
Transform means creating a new future for healthcare focused on a scalable, AI-enabled platform for the conduct of research and care delivery. Mayo Clinic is driving the “platform transformation” of health care by creating Mayo Clinic Platform - what we believe is the first true large-scale platform in health care - and building highly innovative research and clinical programs, including the Mayo Clinic Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Program.

Mayo Clinic Platform

To drive the “platform transformation” of healthcare, Mayo Clinic has created Mayo Clinic Platform (MCP), healthcare’s first comprehensive, dynamic, scalable, AI-enabled research engine and patient care platform. Through MCP, Mayo Clinic has created the world’s largest collaborative, distributed, federated healthcare data network (MCP Connect), with a cloud-based data architecture holding the longitudinal healthcare records of 54 million patients from across the world.  Four MCP Connect network members are ranked among the world’s top 10 healthcare systems (Mayo Clinic, University Health Network (UHN) – University of Toronto/Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Sheba Health System of Israel, and Singapore National Health (SingHealth)). From Mayo Clinic alone, MCP holds the fully digitized longitudinal healthcare records from 15M Mayo Clinic patients, including 705 million patient encounters, 3.2 billion laboratory results, 1.65 billion clinical notes, 8.1 billion radiographic images (X-ray, CT, MRI, PET), the world’s largest repository of digitized pathology slides (20 million), and 662 million diagnoses. The clinical data in MCP is further linked to repositories of patient biospecimens and highly annotated epidemiologic and research data sets, facilitating scientific discovery and translation to clinical endpoints and the ability to build AI-driven predictive models to improve patient care. While each MCP partner holds its own secured privacy-protected patient healthcare data in its “node” in the network, the creation of a shared data architecture for the network and an anonymized, de-identified data layer facilitates rapid collaboration across the globe. 

By applying our knowledge and expertise in the biological, medical, physical, engineering, computational sciences and AI, to the world’s largest healthcare dataset in MCP, we are driving innovative research in many diseases, discovering new cures, enhancing access to clinical trials, and transforming how we deliver cancer care within our facilities and “beyond our walls” in patient homes and community settings. We are also making significant investments on our campuses to transform healthcare for all by seamlessly integrating physical spaces and digital capabilities and by harnessing AI, robotics and automation to meet patients' unmet and evolving needs. Our vision is to use our shared platforms to ensure that healthcare is accessible to all — at any place and any time — transcending geographic and physical barriers. We are sharing our knowledge globally, impacting policy and partnering with others to create a healthier world. 

Mayo Clinic Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Program

The Mayo Clinic GenAI Program is an extensive, multifaceted initiative focused on integrating generative AI and agentic AI into clinical practice, research and administration across the Mayo Clinic enterprise. With our technology partners (Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Cerebras), Gen AI is leveraging the vast patient data in Mayo Clinic Platform to create foundation models, generative AI solutions, and AI agents that improve clinical practice, personalize patient care, accelerate research, discover new therapeutics and cures, reduce administrative burden, and transform healthcare. Mayo Clinic Gen AI investigators have developed 97 AI algorithms in clinical use, with more than 270 algorithms in development. 

To drive AI solutions, Mayo Clinic has partnered with Microsoft and NVIDIA to develop one of the most advanced computing infrastructures of any academic healthcare system in the world, with 264 graphics processing units (GPUs) and 168 GPUs in the cloud.  In July 2025, Mayo Clinic completed a pivotal step in development of our computing power with deployment of the NVIDIA SuperPOD DGX B200 in Mayo Clinic’s Discovery Square in Rochester, MN that is accessible across the Mayo Clinic Enterprise. With scalability up to tens of thousands of GPUs, the efficient liquid-cooled DGX GB200 rack-scale design leverages NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchips to tackle the state-of-the-art AI models needed for today’s advanced generative AI applications that train on massive datasets such as multimodal imaging (CT, MRI, PET) and genomic sequencing data. This computing capability allows us to accelerate AI-driven drug discovery, create visual applications, perform high-resolution imaging analysis, and train state-of-the-art foundation models that have trillions of parameters and must train on as much as a petabyte of data.

With our partners, Mayo Clinic has developed several AI-powered foundational models. With Microsoft Research, we have developed foundation models that can automatically generate reports from radiology images (CT scans and MRIs).  With Cerebras Systems, Mayo Clinic has built one of the first genomics foundational models (STRAND) that combines public data with Mayo Clinic’s patient data of germline genetic sequencing in more than 100,000 patients.  And with NVIDIA and Aignostics, the Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology initiative is using AI to analyze its extensive archive of 20 million digitized slides and has developed a leading pathology foundation model (ATLAS), trained on more than 1.2 million histopathology whole-slide images to accelerate and enhance the accuracy of diagnostic digital pathology. 

Research at Mayo Clinic

In an evolving scientific landscape driven by data and technological advances, Mayo Clinic’s research strategy embodies an unwavering commitment to deliver innovative, effective cures with speed, precision and purpose. To achieve this, Mayo Clinic Research is advancing a set of strategic priorities for research aligned with its Bold. Forward. vision to shape the future of healthcare.

Mayo Clinic is accelerating scientific discovery by enhancing and streamlining access to its vast biospecimen collection, creating a more unified, collaborative environment, and empowering researchers across disciplines and sites. In parallel, teams are building infrastructure to support the discoverability and utility of digitized data through centralized platforms – including Mayo Clinic Platform and the Mayo Clinic Research Atlas - fostering greater collaboration and innovation within Mayo Clinic and beyond. These foundational capabilities are driving a broader paradigm shift: from reactive treatment to proactive prevention and interception of disease. Building on this vision, Mayo Clinic is pioneering new means of early detection, diagnosis, and treatment for cancer and non-cancer disorders, and for end-organ failure, with goals to extend organ health spans.  We are developing new solutions for cure and diagnostics through sophisticated technologies and designing novel clinical trials to test next-generation therapies. These efforts are converging to revolutionize the clinical trial landscape. Through automation, digital strategies and deeper integration with clinical practice, Mayo Clinic is significantly reducing clinical trial activation timelines, expanding patient access and improving trial outcomes.

The Genesis initiative is a strategic imperative for the research shield which will drive bold advancements in transplantation and prevention of end-organ failure by creating new capabilities in in-vivo cellular engineering, advanced cell therapies, and bio artificial organ systems. Multidisciplinary teams across heart, lung, liver, kidney, bone marrow, brain and soon pancreas are tackling the most pressing scientific and clinical challenges, supported by cutting-edge tools like epigenetic editing, RNA therapeutics, and machine perfusion. Early-phase “moonshot” projects emerging from the Mayo Clinic Advanced Innovation Research program are already pioneering breakthroughs such as HLA-depleted hearts, bioengineered lungs, liver digital twins, and ischemia-free heart transplants. The Department of Cancer Biology will play a critical role in the success of these programs by driving innovative scientific discovery and enabling technologies and translational platforms that bridge discovery science with clinical application. By building strategic external partnerships and expanding its ecosystem of collaborators, Mayo Clinic is accelerating discovery-to-translation pathways to deliver next-generation solutions to prevent end-organ failure and to deliver cures for patients.

These initiatives – and the talented people behind them – will bring life-changing innovations and cures to patients faster than ever before. That’s why Mayo Clinic remains dedicated to recruiting and retaining a diverse, dynamic research workforce and expanding its research infrastructure. With over 1,174,000 square feet of research space across campuses in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota and continued investment in growth, Mayo Clinic is positioned to lead the next generation of medical discovery and deliver transformative care to patients worldwide.

Highlights of the Mayo Clinic Research Enterprise:

• A total of 1,406 research-intensive investigators at Mayo Clinic including 322 career scientists (full-time investigative scientists), 136 collaborative scientists, 84 clinician investigators (established physician-scientists with >50% research effort), 864 clinicians engaged in research, and greater than 5,000 research staff.
• In 2024, Mayo Clinic research expenditures exceeded $1.35B with federal funding accounting for 37.8%, industry 15%, and philanthropy 10%.
• In 2025, Mayo Clinic received over $787 million from external research awards supplemented with over $568 million from Mayo-based funding, including practice operations, endowments, and diversified activities.
• In 2024, Mayo Clinic investigators published 11,220 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts.
• Investments in research each year result in hundreds of new clinical trials. In 2025, Mayo Clinic had over 1,800 open, actively accruing clinical trials, the largest number of any institution in the United States.
• Nearly 10,500 active studies involving human participants are in progress: nearly 6,000 research grants and contracts.

The Department of Cancer Biology

The Department of Cancer Biology drives discovery and innovation by seeking to uncover the fundamental biologic, genetic, epigenetic, and other system biologic mechanisms driving oncogenesis and translate those insights into novel cures and diagnostics for cancer patients. Its mission is to identify and understand the fundamental causes of cancer, develop new methods to prevent and treat it, and train the next generation of biomedical researchers. Research is conducted collaboratively across Mayo Clinic’s destination medical centers—Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; and Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona—and with partners throughout the U.S. and internationally. Made up of 19 primary faculty members, the Department of Cancer Biology is one of ten discovery science departments at Mayo Clinic, engaged in driving innovative basic discovery science to translational applications. Others include Artificial Intelligence & Informatics; Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Comparative Medicine; Immunology; Molecular Medicine; Molecular Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics; Physiology & Biomedical Engineering; Neuroscience; and Quantitative Health Sciences.

The Department plays a central role in fulfilling Mayo Clinic’s tripartite mission of patient care, education, and research. It contributes to nationally and internationally recognized biomedical research, translates discoveries into clinical practice, and helps shape the future of cancer diagnostics and therapies. The department is an integral part of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center (MCCCC), a National Cancer Institute-designated center with a multisite presence across Mayo’s campuses. Department faculty participate in the MCCCC Research Program of Cancer Genomics, Signaling, and Metastasis (CGSM), the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapeutics (CII) Research Program, the Cancer Risk Assessment, Early Detection, and Interception (REDI) Research Program, and the Cancer Prevention, Control, and Survivorship (CPCS) Research Program.

A defining feature of the Department is its collaborative ecosystem. The department integrates expertise in cell biology, genomics, cell signaling, computational biology, bioengineering, and clinical science (particularly survivorship) to explore the molecular basis of cancer transformation and to translate findings to new diagnostics and therapeutics. Faculty work closely with other discovery science and clinical departments at Mayo Clinic to ensure discoveries move efficiently from laboratory to bedside. This translational framework accelerates the identification of tumor biomarkers, development of novel therapeutic compounds, and launch of clinical trials informed by mechanistic insights. At the heart of the department’s work lies the study of the molecular mechanisms of cancer formation.

Education and mentorship are core departmental activities. Faculty members mentor postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students, research scientists and visiting scientists. Faculty also support career development through workshops, writing opportunities, and seminars. As active participants in the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, faculty teach and mentor students across campuses using on-site and virtual lectures. Graduate students gain exposure to diverse cancer biology research areas and access to Mayo Clinic’s robust educational network.

In summary, the Department of Cancer Biology is a multisite, collaborative research hub focused on understanding and combating cancer at the molecular level. Department faculty are leaders in translating basic science into precision therapies and clinical innovations. Through its integrative, discovery-driven approach, the Department of Cancer Biology is advancing the global mission to reduce cancer incidence, improve patient survival, and ultimately, achieve lasting cures.

Destination Medical Center Campuses

Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona:

The "Valley of the Sun" as Phoenicians refer to it, is surrounded by mountain parks—in fact, South Mountain Park and Preserve is the largest municipal park in the U.S.—so it's easy to get out and enjoy the flora, fauna and some incredible views (and sunsets). And, although Phoenix is in the Sonoran Desert, there are six lakes in close proximity where water lovers can kayak, paddleboard, Jetski, waterski, boat, fish or just lounge on the shore.  Scottsdale frequently earns praise as a highly desirable place to live. The city's more than 200,000 residents enjoy a vibrant mix of culinary hot spots, arts and entertainment, professional and collegiate sports teams, and community resources. 

Over the next four years, Mayo Clinic is making significant investments in both the physical and technological future of health care, through doubling the size of the Mayo Clinic campus in Phoenix, inclusive of practice, education, and research activities. A 120-acre biotechnology corridor called Discovery Oasis is currently in development.  Biotech innovators will be invited to co-locate in the biotech corridor and contribute to a new collaborative. Arizona State University, the first collaborator in the corridor, is a proven asset in the development of a world-class talent pipeline that is feeding the growing healthcare technology sector in Arizona. 

Jacksonville, Florida:

Jacksonville is the largest city in area in the continental United States – a beautiful coastal Florida city that features excellent year-round climate, over 20 miles of beaches and outstanding outdoor recreational, cultural and family-oriented amenities. The “River City by the Sea” has an excellent school system, reasonable cost of living and a thriving business environment. Medical professionals and patients are drawn to Jacksonville by an extraordinary network of high-profile healthcare facilities. Jacksonville continues to grow as more people relocate from all over the U.S. and abroad, to see what the great River City has to offer!

The Mayo Clinic Florida campus recently completed a major hospital expansion that includes the opening of the Duan Family Building on July 7, 2025. This 228,000-square-foot facility introduces the first carbon ion therapy program in the Western Hemisphere, expected to begin treating patients in 2028 pending FDA approval. Mayo Clinic has recently acquired 201 acres north of the current 392-acre campus to establish a Healthcare Innovation District and Biotechnology Park: Discovery Coast. The goals of Discovery Coast are to: 1) Accelerate the Bold. Forward. 2030 Strategy; 2) Generate and Diversify Income; and 3) Advance Translational Research and Academic Partnerships particularly in cancer and neurologic disorders. This innovation hub will enable the development of talent and expertise, extending influence throughout the campus, across the North Florida region, and beyond. Discovery Coast is envisioned to serve as a unique healthcare ecosystem leveraging advanced technologies and fostering immersive learning/testing environments to develop a community that creates novel discoveries and partnerships.

Rochester, Minnesota:

Mayo Clinic is located in the heart of downtown Rochester, Minnesota, a dynamic city just 75 minutes south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The city is consistently ranked among the best places to live in the United States because of its affordable cost of living, healthy lifestyle, excellent school systems and exceptionally high quality of life. Rochester is changing to become the world’s premier destination medical center as new buildings fill the skyline that pave the way for initiatives that are unleashing fresh possibilities and make the city a fantastic place to learn, live and play. Distinguished by its culture of caring, spirit of innovation, and fascinating history, Rochester is renowned for its scenic beauty, relaxing pace, and abundant dining, shopping, and entertainment options.

The Bold. Forward. Unbound. initiative is a $5 billion, six-year transformation of Mayo Clinic’s downtown Rochester campus, adding approximately 2.4 million square feet across five new buildings. This expansion reimagines care delivery through flexible, future-oriented designs such as adaptable clinical spaces and integrated digital technologies.   The initiative also involves extensive infrastructure upgrades and phased demolition to support a more connected, patient-centered environment.

To stimulate the translation of discovery science to human applications, facilitate collaboration with biotechnology industry, and expand innovation networks, Mayo Clinic has developed biotechnology research parks and healthcare innovation districts adjacent to each Mayo Clinic campus. Discovery Square is a 16-block district of downtown Rochester, fostering collaborations between biotech industries and MCR investigators.  One Discovery Square opened in 2019 with infrastructure for wet and dry laboratories and houses the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics (CRB).  CRB is producing several novel cancer therapeutics (gene and virus therapies, cancer vaccines, novel CAR-T agents) which are being tested by Mayo Clinic investigators in clinical trials. In addition to CRB, Discovery Square is now home to 35 biotechnology companies, including Boston Scientific and Phillips.

Mayo Clinic is particularly seeking an exceptional discovery scientist with an outstanding record of scientific accomplishment who can lead the Department to its future; an inclusive leader who can support the continued success of the current Department faculty while recruiting new faculty and mentoring all; and a strategic thinker and transformative leader, as reflected in Mayo Clinic’s L-LIFE leadership competencies (Appendix 1). This leader will not only deepen and transform the Department towards the rapidly changing science of the future and the exciting integration of new technologic approaches (including the institution’s investment in Mayo Clinic Platform, AI and Data Sciences), but also promote the discovery and effective translation of leading-edge biomedical sciences in alignment with Mayo Clinic’s, the Research Shield’s and Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center’s well-established strategies.

While there is a preference for the new Chair to locate on the Mayo Clinic Florida campus (given that this was the historic home of the Department and given the new investments in cancer-focused research and laboratory space and facilities), candidates for this enterprise position will be allowed the opportunity to select which Mayo Clinic campus they would prefer to base their own programs and leadership from.  Nonetheless, this leadership position is responsible for overseeing the ongoing performance of the Department across the Mayo Clinic enterprise and expanding its faculty and staff across the enterprise through recruitment, mentoring, and retention of exceptional faculty and staff. The leader will work to ensure the alignment and development of critical resources to achieve goals for the Department across the entire Mayo Clinic enterprise.

At Mayo Clinic, one’s leadership style is important to achieve desired results. Mayo Clinic leaders must inspire trust by exemplifying the deeply rooted values of the institution and a genuine commitment to serving the common good. Effective Mayo Clinic leaders promote collegial dialogue, collaborative problem-solving and consensus-based decision-making to create and achieve shared goals and commitments. They provide an environment that values belonging/inclusion and enables people to develop their talents and do their best work, individually and together. In addition, Mayo Clinic’s tradition of integration requires leaders to facilitate alignment and teamwork across disciplines and across sites to ensure the highest quality research outcomes.

• Ph.D., M.D., M.D./Ph.D. or equivalent degree in a relevant discipline
• Academic rank of Associate Professor or Professor 
• Proven track record of robust, sustained and ongoing/current grant funding through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other competitive external agencies and national/international renown 
• An exceptional and innovative investigator (physician-scientist or scientist) with demonstrated scientific excellence and previous leadership/administrative/management experience in academic medicine or biopharma
  • Leadership experience and expertise to establish and articulate a vision for the Department, advance its scientific priorities, and develop/implement/promote innovation
  • Experience with the development, implementation and/or execution of strategic and business plans
  • Evidence of effective professional relationship building, both internal and external, and demonstrated skills in creating and sustaining matrix organizations
  • Evidence of senior leadership roles intra and extramurally, such as board memberships, senior advisory committees, professional organizations and editorial boards