Ronald Buckanovich, MD, PhD

Professor of Medicine
Director of the Ovarian Cancer Center of Excellence
Co-Director of the Women’s Cancer Research Center
Magee-Womens Research Institute
UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
University of Pittsburgh

Ronald Buckanovich graduated from Cornell University in 1990 with a B.S. in Genetics and Biochemistry. He then completed the Medical Scientist Training Program and started his lifelong study of ovarian cancer. He received his PhD in 1996 from Rockefeller University and his M.D. in 1998 from Cornell University. Dr. Buckanovich then went on to complete an Internal Medicine residency and a Hematology-Oncology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. During his fellowship he continued his research on ovarian cancer, identifying dozens of novel clinical targets and helped to develop a novel therapeutic to enhance tumor vaccine therapy. Dr. Buckanovich joined the University of Michigan and ascended to the ranks of Associate Professor. There he also served as associate director for the Hematology Oncology Fellowship. In 2017 Dr. Buckanovich was recruited to the Magee-Womens Research Institute and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center of the University of Pittsburgh as a Professor of Medicine and serves as the Director of Ovarian Cancer Center of Excellence and Co-Director of the Women’s Cancer Research Center. His lab has identified a novel population of cancer stem–like cells (CSCs), which may be responsible for ovarian cancer metastasis, chemotherapy resistance, and ultimately disease recurrence. His laboratory also identified and characterized a novel population of cancer associated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)—normal cells recruited by the cancer to help the cancer grow. His laboratory is now studying the factors that regulate CSCs and MSCs including regulators of asymmetric division and quiescence. His laboratory work has resulted in the initiation of four translational clinical trials for the treatment of ovarian cancer. In addition, his group has identified two novel compounds that are now being developed for first-in-human clinical trials; one that blocks the ability of cancer cells to metastasize, and a second that selectively kills the cancer stem–like cells to reverse chemotherapy resistance. Based on the knowledge he has gained studying the tumor microenvironment, his group is now also looking at ways to enhance anti-tumor immune therapy by targeting host cells in the tumor.

In addition to his laboratory studies, Dr. Buckanovich has a busy clinical practice, specializing in the treatment of ovarian and uterine cancers. He is currently the principal investigator of two clinical trials at the University of Pittsburgh. He has been an author or co-author of 70 original research articles. In recognition of his work, Dr. Buckanovich received a Clinical Investigator Award from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health New Innovator – Directors Award, Society of Gynecologic Oncology Best Basic Science Award, and he has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigators.