FACULTY
Joe Ramos
Director, LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Louisiana Cancer Research Center
- jramos@lsuhsc.edu
- Medicine
| Degree | Major Emphasis | Institution | Year |
| Junior Year | Chemistry | University of St. Andrews, Scotland | 1988 |
| Bachelor of Arts | Biology | University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA | 1989 |
| Ph.D. | Cell Biology | University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA | 1996 |
| Postdoctoral | Cell Signaling | The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA | 1998 |
Biography
Dr. Ramos holds dual roles as Director of the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center and Director
and Chief Executive Officer of the Louisiana Cancer Research Center. Both organizations
benefit from Dr. Ramos’ years of cancer research experience and commitment to collaborative
efforts to promote cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship.
Ramos leads the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center as it seeks to join the prestigious group of 72 NCI Designated Cancer Centers in the United States supported by the National Cancer Institute. This designation recognizes cancer centers that take a comprehensive approach
at reducing the cancer burden for the populations they serve by developing high impact
research programs to better prevent, detect, treat, and ensure the best quality of life for
those living with cancer. NCI Designation will enable LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center to become the premier
cancer center in Louisiana by providing cutting edge clinical trials, educating the
next generationof diverse researchers, and delivering evidence-based patient-centered research data
to dramatically reduce the burden of cancer throughout the state.
Ramos also oversees the Louisiana Cancer Research Center (LCRC) and leads it in its
mission to work across institutional boundaries to reduce the impact of cancer throughout
Louisiana and the Gulf region. Participating organizations are LSU Health New Orleans, Tulane University,
Xavier University and Ochsner Health. Dr. Ramos oversees the partnership between LSU
LCMC Health Cancer Center and LCRC to fully align their efforts to tackle the profound
challenge cancer presents across the state.
Previously, Dr. Ramos was with the University of Hawaii at Mānoa where he has held
various leadership positions including Deputy Director and Interim Director. The University
of Hawaii Cancer Center has had continuous NCI designation for 25 years and has a deep history
of engagement in health disparities and clinical research.
Dr. Ramos is a respected expert on cancer signaling and metastasis. The Ramos lab mission is to determine the underlying mechanisms that control cancer cell invasion and to exploit
this knowledge in drug development. Dr. Ramos’ research has focused on understanding how
oncogene activated signal transduction pathways affect cell adhesion and migration
with an emphasis on defining the molecular functions of the Ras/ERK MAP kinase pathway and
integrins in proliferation and cancer cell invasion. Dr. Ramos is currently examining
the dysregulation of cell signaling in glioblastoma, skin cancer, and bladder cancer and
developing drugs to block growth and invasion of these tumors. Because of his research, we better understand how cell adhesion mechanisms drive developmental and pathological processes
and have validated some of these mechanisms as targets for novel therapeutic interventions.
He holds patents on some of these compounds. He serves on several national and internationalgrant review boards and is an editor at the journal Plos One. His work has been supported
by the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, and the U.S. Department
of Defense, among others. He holds a doctorate in cell biology from the University of
Virginia Medical School in Charlottesville, Virginia and did his post-doctoral research at
The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California
Areas of Interest
| Cancer Biology |
| Signal Transduction |
| Invasion and Metastasis |
| Therapeutic Development |
| Cancer Disparities |
|
Community Engagement
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