Mark Cohen, MD

Dr. Mark Cohen is currently Associate Chair in Surgery for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Associate Professor of Surgery and Pharmacology, Director of the Medical School Pathway of Excellence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Director of Endocrine Surgery Research, and a Principal Investigator in the UMCCC Translational Oncology Program at the University of Michigan. After completing a B.S. in Chemical Engineering with Honors, he completed a Howard Hughes Research Fellowship and then went on to receive his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He then completed his general surgery residency as well as an NIH-sponsored T32 fellowship in endocrine and oncologic surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Before coming to the University of Michigan in 2012, he was Associate Professor of Surgery and Pharmacology, Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Surgery at the University of Kansas, and on the Executive Board for the Center for Technology and Commercialization. His clinical interests include endocrine surgery, specifically thyroid surgery for benign and malignant disease, minimally invasive parathyroid surgery and adrenalectomy, as well as surgery for advanced melanomas including hyperthermic isolated limb perfusion. He is boarded by the American Board of Surgery, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and holds committee and executive council positions in 4 national surgery organizations. In addition to his clinical efforts, concentrated on cancer patients with endocrine tumors and melanoma requiring surgical treatment, Dr. Cohen has a lab at NCRC focused on translational targeted cancer-drug development and drug delivery systems in thyroid cancer, head and neck squamous cell cancer, adrenal cancer, melanoma and breast cancer. On campus he has worked with Fast Forward Medical Innovation and the Center for Entrepreneurship to develop new courses in Innovation for medical students, residents, fellows and surgery/pharmacology faculty. He completed a collaborative MTRAC grant recently to develop a novel natural therapeutic for improved targeted treatment of adrenocortical cancers and won the inaugural Michigan/MEDC Shark Tank. His research has lead to the creation of two pharmaceutical therapeutics companies for clinical development of his drug compounds for use in patients with advanced cancers. He has served on the Study Section Review Panel for the last 6 years on the NSF SBIR Phase 1 and Phase 2 Programs in Drug Delivery and Biomedical Devices. His research has been funded by the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and the National Institute of Health, leading to just over 100 national presentations, 70 peer-reviewed publications, 8 book chapters, and 4 patents awarded.