Paula Vertino, Ph.D.

Paula Vertino, Ph.D. (1980) is currently a tenured associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia where she also serves as the co-director of the Cancer Genetics and Genome Instability Program of Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute.

As a student at East High School, Paula played varsity field hockey, volleyball, basketball and softball. She was also a member of the Concert Band and the Math Team. Following high school, Paula graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she was a Phi Beta Kappa inductee. She went on to earn her doctorate at the Roswell Park Graduate Division of the State University of New York at Buffalo followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in oncology at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.

Paula was an Avon Breast Cancer Scholar, an American Cancer Society Research Scholar and was recently named a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar. Dr. Vertino is a nationally-known breast cancer researcher who has been recognized for her pioneering work on gene silencing in human cancer. Her lab recently discovered a novel gene, TMS-1, which is abnormally silent in some patients with breast cancer. Her work is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society and the Georgia Cancer Coalition. She has extensive publications to her credit, is a sought-after speaker, and is a visiting professor at major medical campuses across the country.