William Plunkett, Ph.D. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Dr. Plunkett holds the Barnts Family Distinguished Chair for Cancer Research, is Co-director of the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, and is Professor and Deputy Chair in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics with a joint appointment in the Department of Leukemia. Dr. Plunkett's research interests are directed at the biological bases for the mechanisms of action of anti-leukemia agents. In particular, he has focused on using a knowledge of drug actions to design combination strategies that make use of mechanistic interactions.

Biochemical modulation strategies employing nucleoside analogues have been useful in hematological malignancies. Further, treatment of indolent B cell malignancies have been developed using agents that initiate DNA repair with nucleoside analogues that inhibit repair processes. Recently, his investigations have been directed at agents that dysregulate cell cycle checkpoint pathways that are activated by cytotoxic drugs.

Dr. Plunkett has been elected the chairman of the Gordon Research Conference on Purines & Pyrimidines, and as President of the Graduate Faculty of the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He is the recipient of the Service to Mankind Award from the Leukemia Society of America, the Faculty Achievement Award for Clinical Research from MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the 1st Sowell-Huggins Professorship in Cancer Research from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He has served on grant review study sections for NIH (Experimental Therapeutics), the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of America, the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute of Canada.