Dr. William Pao

Workplace: Roche pRED

Biography: William Pao obtained his MD and PhD degrees at Yale University, did his housestaff training in Internal Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Campus, and completed his medical oncology and postdoctoral fellowship training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). He joined the faculty at MSKCC and was eventually recruited to Vanderbilt, where he became Professor of Medicine, Director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, and Director of Personalized Cancer Medicine at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. During his academic career, his laboratory made seminal contributions to the understanding of molecular mechanisms of solid tumor pathogenesis. His work identified new molecular mechanisms of sensitivity and resistance of lung cancers to EGFR inhibitors, leading to new diagnostics and therapies for patients. His work helped change the standard of care in lung cancer. Prior to his current position, William was the Global Head of the Oncology Discovery and Translational Area (DTA) for pRED.

Current activities / Scientific Goals: William Pao is the Head of Roche’s Pharmaceutical Research & Early Development (pRED) unit, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, and a member of Roche’s Enlarged Corporate Executive Committee. In this position, he oversees the development of new molecules to treat a variety of diseases (immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, neuroscience, rare diseases, and oncology), spanning stages from target assessment to proof-of-concept clinical trials.