Whitney Grither, MD, PhD

Dr. Whitney Grither is currently a Gynecologic Oncology Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on the study of the cellular and physical tumor microenvironment in ovarian cancer. She received her undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University and then joined the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University in St. Louis where she completed her MD training and earned her PhD in Biochemistry. During her PhD, Dr. Grither studied under the mentorship of Dr. Gregory Longmore, where she worked to uncover new pathways important in breast and ovarian cancer metastasis, and went on to design and validate novel small molecule inhibitors for targeting a protein of interest in these disease states. She remained at Washington University for her Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency and has started Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship in 2023. With OCRA’s grant support, Dr. Grither’s research will focus on identification of new pathways by which ovarian cancer cells communicate with the surrounding microenvironment, with the goal of improving biochemical and cell biologic understanding of these cell-cell interactions in this unique metastatic milieu.