Bellaire resident Dr. John Hancock has been named the executive director of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School’s Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, following a national search.
“Dr. Hancock brings great leadership and expertise to this thriving institute and is committed to work closely with the IMM’s many outstanding center directors and faculty. I have every confidence that he will build upon the IMM’s successes to take it to even greater heights,” said Dr. Giuseppe Colasurdo, president ad interim of UTHealth and dean of its Medical School.
Hancock had been serving as interim director of the IMM since January 2011. He also is vice dean for basic science research at the UTHealth Medical School and holds the John S. Dunn Distinguished University Chair in Physiology and Medicine. He joined the UTHealth Medical School in 2008 as chair of the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, a position he still retains, and said he is looking forward to his new role.
“I am excited and highly privileged to have been given the opportunity to lead and build the research enterprise of this outstanding institute,” Hancock said. “I look forward to working with all IMM faculty and our many enthusiastic supporters and donors as we continue to grow and strengthen the IMM research centers and extend our strong collaborative scientific programs with the Medical School.”
Hancock received his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees from the University of Cambridge and his Ph.D. from the University of London. Following his medical and surgical internships as a house physician and a house surgeon at St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School, he entered the U.S. equivalent of a two-year medical residency rotation through major London teaching hospitals, obtaining general medical training in cardiology, neurology, hematology, oncology and intensive care.
Hancock was formerly deputy director of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland, where he held chairs in molecular cell biology and experimental oncology. Before moving to Australia in 1995, he was research director at a biotech company in California.
Hancock’s laboratory studies basic mechanisms of mammalian cell signaling, and his research interests include the function of Ras proteins. He is a fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians and a member of The Royal College of Physicians. He has citizenship in Britain, Australia and the United States. He is on the faculty of The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.
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