Kimryn Rathmell MD, PhD

Dr. W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, is the Cornelius Craig Professor of Medicine and Director for the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Vanderbilt University, studying the molecular biology of renal cell carcinomas and rare tumors of the kidney. She studied chemistry and biology as an undergraduate at the University of Northern Iowa, completed her MD and PhD in Biophysics at Stanford University, internal medicine training at the University of Chicago, and fellowship in medical oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. 

In 2003, she joined the Departments of Medicine and Genetics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she served as co-director of the medical scientist training program, Associate Director for Education and Training for the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the founding Director of the Junior Faculty Mentoring Program in Oncology. She was a founding member of the Department of Urology in 2012. During her tenure at UNC Chapel Hill she was awarded a V Foundation Scholar Award, a Doris Duke Clinical Translational Scientist Award, and was named as a Forbeck Scholar. She has organized numerous meeting programs, served on the ASCO Ethics Committee establishing guidelines for conflict of interest reporting and management of drug shortages, and has served the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) as secretary-treasurer from 2014-2017 and as an associate editor for the JCI. In 2017, she was elected vice president of ASCI, and will serve as the organization president in 2019.

At Vanderbilt, Dr. Rathmell leads the Hematology & Oncology Division. She is PI for T32 and K12 training grants, in addition to holding laboratory funding from the NIH, the Department of Defense, and various foundations. Her research examines the molecular underpinnings of tumors arising in the kidney, with funded studies examining chromatin biology, immune modulation, tumor metabolism, and angiogenesis. She has been a leader of the Cancer Genome Atlas Analysis Working Groups for clear cell (Nature, 2013), papillary (NEJM, 2016), and chromophobe (Cancer Cell, 2014) renal cell carcinomas, and the current pan-Kidney working group. Clinically, she conducts diagnostic and therapeutic investigations in a clinic devoted to renal cell carcinoma.