Jenny Grandis co-directs the Head and Neck Cancer Laboratory at UCSF with Dan Johnson and Patrick Ha. She is a physician scientist who received her clinical and research training at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research efforts are focused on elucidating and targeting key signaling pathways and genomic alterations in head and neck cancer with the goals of enabling precision medicine studies based on strong studies in relevant models. She leverages access to head and neck cancer (HNC) patients and their biospecimens to optimize translational research studies that include developing novel therapies in the laboratory for clinical application as well as generating and interrogating relevant preclinical models to determine the underlying mechanisms of clinical findings. She helped lead the national efforts to determine the genetic and epigenetic landscape of HNC (as corresponding author of a 2011 Science paper and co-leader of the TCGA HNC Working Group) and now routinely deploys these findings to help guide the delivery of HNC precision medicine. She directed the Head and Neck Cancer Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute from 1998-2014, where she was a Distinguished Professor. She served as PI of the NCI-supported Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Head and Neck Cancer at the University of Pittsburgh from 2002-2014 and currently serves as Co-PI of the SPORE in a MPI format (through 2020). Since 2008, she has been an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor. At UCSF, she is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical and Translational Research and Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where she also directs the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).

Jenny is particularly focused on training the next generation of investigators and has greatly enjoyed mentoring dozens of medical students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. She is married to Don Grandis, a cardiologist at UCSF and has two grown children, Ben and Anna. She enjoys running, hiking and the beauty of the Bay Area. Other hobbies include reading, cooking, baking and quilting.

Patrick Ha, MD is a Professor and the Chief of Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. He also holds the Irwin Mark Jacobs and Joan Klein Jacobs Distinguished Professorship in Head and Neck Surgery. Prior to joining UCSF’s Department of OHNS in 2015, Dr. Ha was a clinician scientist and an associate professor on the full time faculty at Johns Hopkins working at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

Patrick’s clinical expertise covers the full breadth of head and neck surgery, including a focus on thyroid and parathyroid surgery, as well as endoscopic laser and transoral robotic approaches for throat cancers. His current area of research is focused on the molecular changes occurring in salivary gland adenoid cystic carcinoma, and he has held multiple NIH grants towards this aim, including a current R01 award. In addition, he serves on the editorial board of several journals including Head and Neck and Oral Oncology and on NIH study section panels. While at Johns Hopkins, he held the role of associate residency program director and won several teaching awards for his work with medical students and residents.

He now co-directs the UCSF Head and Neck Cancer Signaling Lab along with Dan Johnson and Jenny Grandis, where he maintains his focus on adenoid cystic carcinoma as well as leading the Oral Head and Neck Cancer Research Group, which brings together scientific experts across UCSF to collaborate on head and neck cancer research.

Daniel Johnson co-directs the Head and Neck Cancer Laboratory at UCSF with Jenny Grandis and Patrick Ha. He received his PhD in Biochemistry from Princeton and did his postdoctoral training in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF. From 1993-2016 he was a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was Scientific Director of the Acute Leukemia Working Group, recipient of an excellence in mentorship award, and a co-leader of the School of Medicine Career Mentoring Program for junior faculty. Since joining the UCSF Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery as Professor in 2016, he has focused his research exclusively on head and neck cancer (HNC). He is particularly interested in the molecular mechanisms of cell death activated by novel therapeutic targeting agents. He further seeks to elucidate the cellular defects that contribute to cell death blockade and resistance to targeting agents, with the goal of devising strategies to overcome this resistance. He places an important focus on translating findings from the lab into investigator-initiated clinical trials. To facilitate this translation he has developed and maintained long-standing collaborations with clinician scientists with expertise in head and neck cancer (Jennifer Grandis, MD, Julie Bauman, MD) and acute myeloid leukemia (Robert Redner, MD). This has allowed him to successfully foster the development of clinical trials in both HNSCC and AML that are based in whole, or in part, on findings from my laboratory. He has greatly enjoyed serving as primary mentor for a diverse group of individuals, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows, and junior faculty, and has enjoyed particular success in helping advance his mentees to positions as independent investigators.

Daniel is married to Sylvia Johnson and has three children, Rachel, Josiah, and Matthew. He enjoys woodworking, mentoring Jr. and Sr. High youth, and singing.

Jenny Grandis co-directs the Head and Neck Cancer Laboratory at UCSF with Dan Johnson and Patrick Ha. She is a physician scientist who received her clinical and research training at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research efforts are focused on elucidating and targeting key signaling pathways and genomic alterations in head and neck cancer with the goals of enabling precision medicine studies based on strong studies in relevant models. She leverages access to head and neck cancer (HNC) patients and their biospecimens to optimize translational research studies that include developing novel therapies in the laboratory for clinical application as well as generating and interrogating relevant preclinical models to determine the underlying mechanisms of clinical findings. She helped lead the national efforts to determine the genetic and epigenetic landscape of HNC (as corresponding author of a 2011 Science paper and co-leader of the TCGA HNC Working Group) and now routinely deploys these findings to help guide the delivery of HNC precision medicine. She directed the Head and Neck Cancer Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute from 1998-2014, where she was a Distinguished Professor. She served as PI of the NCI-supported Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Head and Neck Cancer at the University of Pittsburgh from 2002-2014 and currently serves as Co-PI of the SPORE in a MPI format (through 2020). Since 2008, she has been an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor. At UCSF, she is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical and Translational Research and Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where she also directs the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).

Jenny is particularly focused on training the next generation of investigators and has greatly enjoyed mentoring dozens of medical students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. She is married to Don Grandis, a cardiologist at UCSF and has two grown children, Ben and Anna. She enjoys running, hiking and the beauty of the Bay Area. Other hobbies include reading, cooking, baking and qui