The New York Genome Center (NYGC) welcomes Jerome B. Posner, MD, as a newly appointed Clinical Member. Dr. Posner is widely recognized as the foremost leader in the field of neuro-oncology. Dr. Posner comes from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), where he founded the field of neuro-oncology, was former Chairman of the Department of Neuro-Oncology, and is the Emeritus Cotzias Professor.
Dr. Posner’s work has made innumerable contributions to all aspects of neuro-oncology, and his laboratory is renowned for discovering and characterizing several autoantibodies associated with paraneoplastic syndromes. He has classified and codified the diagnosis and management of neurological complications from cancers that arise outside the nervous system (systemic cancer), and has participated in clinical trials of the management of primary brain tumors.
Dr. Robert Darnell, NYGC’s Founding Director and CEO, said “We are extremely fortunate to have the wisdom and experience of Dr. Posner on our team. He is widely recognized in the New York community and worldwide as among the greatest neurologists of our time. His insights and compassion as a physician will provide an extraordinary perspective in our efforts to generate a multi-institutional approach to clinically actionable genomics.”
At NYGC, Dr. Posner will focus on cancer genomics, will give strategic advice in planning clinical initiatives, will work with the newly formed Northeast Neurology Group at NYGC and will be a key member of NYGC’s multi-institutional Tumor Board. He will be closely involved with NYGC’s Cancer Alliance joint study with IBM, designed to create a comprehensive, open cancer data repository to scale access to precision medicine. In addition, he will provide expertise in the analysis of pathways and clinical data.
“I am excited to be involved with the important translational cancer research being done at the New York Genome Center. I look forward to collaborating closely with the many talented and esteemed scientists and clinicians that are here,” said Dr. Posner.
Dr. Posner is Professor-Emeritus of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and has held many leadership positions throughout his long and distinguished tenure at Weill Cornell and MSKCC. He is a recipient of many honors and awards, including the Javitts Award for Neuroscience Research from the National Institute for Neurologic Disease and Stroke. Dr. Posner worked very closely with Dr. Fred Plum throughout his career, with whom he co-authroed the classic book on mechanisms and clinical treatment of consciousness, “Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma.” He is the author of over 300 clinical and research articles, and served as the George C. Cotzias Chair of Neuro-Oncology and the Evelyn Frew American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor at MSKCC. At Weill Cornell, he was Professor of Neurology and Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience.
Dr. Posner received his BS and MD at the University of Washington. A member of the National Academy of Medicine, he has also served on the advisory council of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS).
