Cancer Specialist to Lead Basic Science Department
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Cancer specialist Michael Henry, Ph.D., has been appointed as the inaugural chair of the Department of Biomedical & Translational Sciences, effective June 1, 2025.
“Dr. Henry brings an impressive academic and scientific background to this key position,” said Alfred Abuhamad, MD, executive vice president for Health Sciences. “A senior scientist with 21 years in academic medicine, he has extensive administrative, teaching and leadership experience. He also has worked in industry and is an entrepreneur.”
He is currently professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa, where he is interim director of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. He holds secondary appointments in internal medicine, radiation oncology, pathology, surgery and urology. Dr. Henry has broad teaching experience across the basic sciences, and he has mentored biomedical graduate and undergraduate students as well as medical students.
His expertise in prostate cancer should dovetail well with the school’s existing program, Dr. Abuhamad said.
Dr. Henry’s research seeks to understand the molecular and cellular basis of prostate cancer progression and metastasis to develop new methods for diagnosis and treatment. Current efforts are focused on biomechanical influences on circulating prostate cancer cells and the role of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in metastasis.
He is principal investigator or co-principal investigator on three current NIH-supported grants and one DOD Prostate Cancer Research Program grant totaling more than $15 million. He has published 80 original research studies in peer-review publications and he has authored over a dozen invited reviews and book chapters. He holds six patents.
Dr. Henry earned his B.S. in genetics at the University of Georgia. He undertook a National Science Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship prior to completing his doctorate in biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and worked as a senior scientist at Millennium Pharmaceuticals for four years prior to entering academic medicine at the University of Iowa. In 2016, he co-founded and serves as president of SynderBio, Inc.
He served on the Executive Committee of the Carver College of Medicine and is a faculty advisor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology.
“I am excited about Dr. Henry joining our departmental leadership,” Dr. Abuhamad said.
Dr. Abuhamad also extended thanks to Richard Conrad, MD, Ph.D., J.D.; Julie Kerry, Ph.D.; and Jerry Pepe, Ph.D., for their “extraordinary leadership of our basic sciences” over the last several years prior to the establishment of the new combined department. “We are indebted to them,” he said, “for their dedication to the institution and students.”