Rate My Professor Romald Gartenhaus

Ronald B. Gartenhaus, M.D., serves as Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Palliative Care within the Department of Internal Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. He holds key leadership roles as Associate Director for Veterans Health at the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and Director of the Richmond VA Cancer Center at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center, positions he assumed in July 2019. Previously, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, he was a tenured Professor of Medicine, co-leader of the Molecular and Structural Biology Program at the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, and supervisor of Hematologic Malignancy Clinics at the Baltimore VA Medical Center. His earlier career included faculty appointments at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine starting in 1993, followed by positions at MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine and Northwestern University Medical School prior to joining Maryland in 2004. Gartenhaus completed his medical residency at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, medical oncology training at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and an IRTA postdoctoral research fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Gallo, specializing in retrovirology.

An accomplished physician-scientist, Gartenhaus is renowned for his contributions to the understanding of lymphoma biology, with a focus on post-transcriptional and translational mechanisms of gene regulation and oncogenic signaling pathways amenable to targeted therapeutic intervention. His laboratory pioneered the identification of the MCT-1 oncogene in T-cell lymphoma. He has authored over 80 original research articles in high-impact journals, including notable publications such as "The potential of arsenic trioxide in the treatment of malignant disease: past, present, and future" (Leukemia Research, 2004), "Telomere uncapping by the G-quadruplex ligand RHPS4 inhibits clonogenic tumour cell growth in vitro and in vivo consistent with a cancer stem cell targeting mechanism" (British Journal of Cancer, 2007), "Expression of alternatively spliced human T-lymphotropic virus type I pX mRNA in infected cell lines and in primary uncultured cells from patients with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1992), and more recent works on eIF4A1 inhibitors and USP11 in lymphoma. Holding two U.S. patents, his research has been continuously funded for over 15 years by NIH grants, VA Merit Review Awards, and national foundations. Gartenhaus has served on NIH and VA study sections, editorial boards including as associate editor for PLOS Genetics, and as a mentor directing postdoctoral programs and training numerous researchers. In 2017, he was awarded a sabbatical as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem to study adaptive immunity and cancer.