Danny Welch

Danny R. Welch, Ph.D.
Professor & Chair of Cancer Biology
Kansas Bioscience Authority Eminent Scholar
The Kansas University Medical Center

Danny R. Welch, Ph.D. is a cancer biologist whose laboratory discovered six of the 30 known metastasis suppressor genes. His laboratory has also recently discovered how some of those metastasis suppressors function and is designing therapies to take advantage of their mechanisms of action. His research laboratory has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles, 28 book chapters and he is co-editor of the recently published textbook on metastasis (Cancer Metastasis: Biologic Basis and Therapeutics).

After receiving a B.S. (Biological Sciences) from the University of California-Irvine and Ph.D. (Biomedical Sciences-Tumor Biology) from The University of Texas-Houston, Welch led research teams at The Upjohn Company and Glaxo Research Laboratories before joining the Penn State University College of Medicine in 1990. In 2002, Dr. Welch’s laboratory moved to the University of Alabama - Birmingham where he was the Leonard H Robinson Professor of Pathology. He also held roles as Professor of Cell Biology and Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology as well as a senior member of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, Center for Metabolic Bone Disease, Gene Therapy Center, Skin Diseases Research Center, Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Center. He was also Director of the graduate program in Cancer Biology as well as the Howard Hughes Med-into-Grad graduate program. In 2011, Dr. Welch moved to The University of Kansas Medical Center as the inaugural chair of the Department of Cancer Biology and as Associate Director for Basic Research at the Kansas University Cancer Center. He is also adjunct Professor of Pathology and Physiology. In his career, Dr. Welch has proudly trained 12 Ph.D. students and 23 postdoctoral fellows in addition to serving on the doctoral advisory committees of 48 others.

In addition, Dr. Welch is currently a Susan G. Komen for the Cure Scholar and a  member of the American Cancer Society Council for Extramural Research Programs. He serves as Deputy Editor for Cancer Research and was Editor-in-Chief for Clinical and Experimental Metastasis. He has served on numerous other editorial boards as well. He has also served on many grant peer-review panels, including as Chair of the American Cancer Society Review Panel on Carcinogenesis, Nutrition and the Environment and as Chair of the NIH study section on Cancer Genetics. He is a Past-President of the international Metastasis Research Society and served as a member of the Board of Directors for the American Cancer Society Pennsylvania Division.