Doris Benbrook, Ph.D., a Presbyterian Health Foundation Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, has been named Associate Director for Translational Research at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Center in Oklahoma.

In the role, Benbrook will oversee planning and initiatives designed to facilitate the translation of ideas from basic science discovery to clinical trials. She will also play a pivotal role in overseeing the advancement of ideas through the development pipeline. As a key member of Stephenson Cancer Center’s leadership team, she will provide strategic guidance as the center advances toward its goal of achieving NCI Comprehensive Designation.

“Research conducted at Stephenson Cancer Center has the potential to enhance patient care outcomes. I am eager to contribute my expertise and experience in translating scientific breakthroughs into clinical trials. This leadership position offers an incredible opportunity to establish a structured approach for promoting translational research. The implementation of this process could have a significant and far-reaching impact on healthcare outcomes,” said Benbrook, whose faculty appointment is in the Section of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, in the OU College of Medicine.

Benbrook has been with the OU College of Medicine for more than 30 years, focusing her research on understanding cancer development and progression and developing no- to low-toxicity drugs to intercept and treat cancer and other diseases. In 2022, her decades of team-building, leadership and working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration resulted in a new drug being studied in humans for the first time in a Phase 1 clinical trial at Stephenson Cancer Center.

Called OK-1 (more formally, Sulfur Heteroarotinoid A2, or SHetA2), the drug marks a historic first for the campus and state: It was developed entirely in Oklahoma without the support of a pharmaceutical company. OK-1 is derived from the natural compound vitamin A and modified to kill cancer cells while being less toxic to healthy cells.

Preclinical testing of OK-1 was funded by several National Cancer Institute programs, including Rapid Access to Intervention Development (RAID), Rapid Access to Preventive Intervention Development (RAPID), and PREVENT Cancer Preclinical Drug Development. The funding also supported the Good Manufacturing Production of drug capsules required for clinical trials by the FDA. Two Oklahoma entities have also supported Benbrook’s work over the years: Presbyterian Health Foundation and the OU College of Medicine Alumni Association.

Throughout this process, Benbrook developed a curriculum to assist others in the translation of their drugs and devices for clinical applications. In recognition of her efforts, she was awarded the title of Master Mentor by the Oklahoma Shared Clinical and Translational Resources, a federally funded program on the OU Health Sciences campus. Benbrook also holds several national leadership roles that provide networking opportunities to develop and participate in multi-institutional trials, including serving as co-leader of the GYN Target Group of the MW Clinical Prevention Trials Network and member of the NRG Oncology and GOG Partners Investigator Council Translational Research Committees.

She has considerable knowledge of NCI-Designated Cancer Centers through her membership in the NCI Cancer Centers Study Section, which she now chairs. She also currently serves as a partnering principal investigator for a Department of Defense grant, and she is one of multiple principal investigators on the NCI Route 66 Endometrial Cancer SPORE grant, in collaboration with the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis and the University of New Mexico Cancer Center.

Benbrook earned a doctorate in biochemistry from Loyola University Medical School in Illinois and conducted postdoctoral and research fellowships at Burnham Institute in California and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, England.

Two More Associate Directors Named

Stephenson Cancer Center named two other OU College of Medicine faculty members to leadership positions.

Danny Dhanasekaran, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Cell Biology, has been named Associate Director for Shared Resources at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center. In this role, he will oversee Stephenson Cancer Center’s shared resources and related infrastructure to ensure stability and reliability of operations, accessibility for members, cost-effectiveness and service quality control. The shared resource infrastructure provides access to specialized technologies, services and expertise that enhance researchers’ scientific interaction, productivity and impact.

Dhanasekaran will also hold a new Senior Director for Research Strategy position, helping develop strategic goals and initiatives aimed at advancing research programs, infrastructure and interdisciplinary collaborations. His responsibilities include identifying emerging research opportunities and aligning Stephenson Cancer Center priorities with broader institutional and funding agency goals.

Dhanasekaran, who arrived at OU in 2010, is an experienced investigator with research interests in the roles of growth factors, cell surface receptors, G-proteins, MAPKs, receptor and non-receptor kinases, as well as non-coding RNAs in the development and spread of various cancers. He has a long history of funding from the National Institutes of Health and serves as principal investigator for the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant, designed to build research capacity and help early-career researchers establish independently funded laboratories. The grant was recently renewed for its Phase III infrastructure funding cycle.

Pankaj Singh, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Oncology Science, has been named Associate Director for Basic Research, in which he will oversee planning and initiatives designed to promote basic discovery science through a transdisciplinary and collaborative approach. His responsibilities include developing strategic goals, initiatives and activities that facilitate basic discovery science, and he will help recruit investigators who will enhance basic discovery expertise and capacities at Stephenson Cancer Center. He will work closely with the Associate Directors for Translational and Clinical Research to facilitate the translation of basic discovery into direct benefit for patients and the general public. Singh also serves as Senior Director for Oncology Science at Stephenson Cancer Center.

Singh, who was recruited to the OU Health Sciences campus in 2022, also serves as Senior Director for Oncology Science at the cancer center. His research interests include tumor-stromal interactions, metabolic alterations, and signaling that regulates aggressiveness, therapy response and cancer cachexia, with a focus on pancreatic cancer. He also serves as the principal investigator of the Acquired Resistance Therapy Network Center grant on pancreatic cancer, as well as several other National Cancer Institute awards.