Newswise — PHILADELPHIA - Kojo S.J. Elenitoba-Johnson, MD, has been named the founding director of Penn Medicine’s Center for Personalized Diagnostics (CPD) and chief of the newly created division of the Molecular and Genomic Pathology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an international leader in the field of hematopathology, molecular pathology, and mass spectrometry-driven proteomics. His previous work identified several recurrent genetic abnormalities linked to the development and progression of a number of lymphomas and other hematopoietic malignancies.
Elenitoba-Johnson was also named the inaugural Peter C. Nowell, MD, Professor. Nowell, the Gaylord P. and Mary Louise Harnwell Emeritus Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, along with his research partner, the late David Hungerford, discovered the Philadelphia chromosome in 1960. This finding, an abnormally small chromosome in the cancerous white blood cells of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, was considered a watershed moment in cancer research, demonstrating the genetic basis for cancer, which ran counter to the prevailing thought at the time.
“Kojo is an outstanding investigator whose research has already had significant impact, and I am excited by the prospect of future innovations, building upon the impressive legacy of Dr. Nowell,” said J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, executive vice president for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine.
The CPD is a collaborative enterprise between the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, the Abramson Cancer Center and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The CPD sits in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and unites top experts in genomic analysis, bioinformatics, and cancer with oncologists who treat patients and design clinical trials to test new therapies. Together, their efforts provide cancer patients with cutting-edge diagnostic and therapeutic options.
Since the launch of operations in February 2013, the CPD has performed more than 4,000 advanced diagnostics on patients, representing a wide range of cancers: lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, acute myeloid leukemia, brain cancers, melanoma, and other cancers such as breast and thyroid. All new and relapsed Abramson Cancer Center patients receive this testing – conducted via simple blood tests and/or biopsy of tumor tissue or bone marrow – as part of their evaluation and diagnostic process. Interpretation of results is communicated one-on-one to patients and their caregivers by physicians and genetic counselors.
"The CPD empowers clinical oncologists to take an individualized approach to cancer care, giving them the tools to redefine diagnosis, provide better prognostication, adjust treatment plans according to the genetic makeup of the cancer, and identify a more appropriate selection of targeted therapies,” notes David B. Roth, MD, PhD, the Simon Flexner Professor and chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and director of the Penn Medicine Precision Medicine Program.
Elenitoba-Johnson earned his medical degree from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, in Lagos, Nigeria. He completed his residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at the Brown University School of Medicine, where he served as chief resident. He then moved on to the National Cancer Institute to complete a fellowship in hematopathology, as well as the Leadership Development for Physicians in Academic Health Centers program at the Harvard School of Public Health. Before arriving at Penn, Elenitoba-Johnson held the Henry C. Bryant Professorship at the University of Michigan and served as director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory there.
His research focuses on the pathogenesis of human malignant lymphomas, biomarker discovery by genomic and proteomic profiling, and cancer. Elenitoba-Johnson has been recognized with numerous awards, including the American Society of Investigative Pathology Scholarship in 1993; the Outstanding Graduating Resident Award from Brown University in 1995; the Society for Hematopathology Pathologist in Training Award in 1998; the Outstanding Teaching Award in Anatomic Pathology from the University of Utah (1999 and 2003); and the Ramzi Cotran Young Investigator Award from the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology in 2006. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2011), and is the recipient of the Outstanding Investigator Award given by the American Society for Investigative Pathology (2012).
Elenitoba-Johnson is a member for the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. He is also an associate editor for the Journal of Hematopathology. He is a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Society of Hematology, American Society for Investigative Pathology, United States and Canadian Academy of Pathologists, and the Association of Molecular Pathologists (AMP). He served as the chair of the Hematopathology Division of AMP from 2008 to 2009. He has authored or co-authored more than 130 peer-reviewed research publications and has contributed more than 40 chapters to professional textbooks in pathology.
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