Donita Brady has been named the seventh Presidential Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, effective July 1.  She will be Presidential Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine.

The announcement was made today by Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price.

“Rarely does a young scientist come along who is as impressive, as accomplished and as innovative as Donita Brady,” Gutmann said. “Her discoveries have already opened new doors in cancer research, and we are proud to welcome her to our Department of Cancer Biology. On the 250th anniversary of Penn Medicine, it is auspicious timing indeed that this pioneering researcher joins one of the world’s most revolutionary medical schools.”

Brady’s groundbreaking research studies the links between cancer and copper, with enormous potential for the development of future cancer treatments. She and a team of Duke University researchers discovered that reducing the body’s supply of copper also blocks the growth of certain kinds of cancers –- specifically, cancers with a mutation in the BRAF gene that require copper for the growth of cells and tumors. 

This class of cancers includes melanoma, one of the most common and deadly forms of skin cancer, as well as colon, lung and thyroid cancers. Brady’s research, which has already been featured in first-author studies in such leading journals as Nature and Molecular and Cellular Biology, therefore has significant implications for the production of new treatments, including the use of existing drugs for Wilson’s disease, a rare genetic disorder in which the body accumulates too much copper. 

“Donita Brady embodies our highest aspirations for the distinction of the Penn faculty,” Price said. “We look forward to her dynamic contributions to advancing research discoveries and interdisciplinary inquiry across campus.” 

Brady is currently a senior research associate in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at the Duke University School of Medicine, following a five-year postdoctoral fellowship that began in 2008. She earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology in 2008 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.S. in chemistry in 2003 from Radford University.