image: John Turchi, PhD, has been named executive director of the Tom and Julie Wood Center for Lung Cancer Research.
Credit: Tim Yates, IU School of Medicine
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center has named John Turchi, PhD, the inaugural executive director of the Tom and Julie Wood Center for Lung Cancer Research.
Turchi, who joined the IU faculty in 2005, is a leading lung cancer researcher whose innovative work aims to improve clinical outcomes for treatment-resistant lung cancer. In 2009, Turchi founded NERx Biosciences, a biotechnology company to develop new targeted therapeutics for treating cancer.
In addition to serving as the Wood Center executive director, Turchi will retain the title of Tom and Julie Wood Family Foundation Professor of Lung Cancer Research and professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine. Turchi was named a Wood Professor in 2011 with the family's first gift to lung cancer research.
"I am deeply honored to be named the executive director of the Tom and Julie Wood Center for Lung Cancer Research. I am both humbled and excited with this opportunity to lead such a dedicated team," Turchi said. "Together with our exceptional physicians and researchers, I am confident that we will make significant strides in advancing lung cancer research and improving patient outcomes. I look forward to the incredible progress we will achieve that was all made possible by the generous, transformative gift from Julie Wood and her family."
The Wood Center was established in March 2024 with a $20 million gift from Julie Wood. The gift honors her late husband, Tom Wood, the well-known Indianapolis auto executive who died of lung cancer in 2010. The Wood family has given more than $28 million to IU lung cancer research, placing their family among the top four donors to the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center with over 300 investigators who work to develop better approaches to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
The Wood Center, which is part of the cancer center, is a key component of IU's bold expansion of research in novel therapies and personalized care for lung cancer patients with a significant infusion of resources and numerous collaborative partners in academia and industry.
"Dr. Turchi has been an exceptional leader in lung cancer research and innovation at IU for many years, making him the ideal inaugural director for the Wood Center," said Kelvin Lee, MD, director of the cancer center and associate dean for cancer research at the IU School of Medicine. "With Dr. Turchi’s leadership, the cancer center is primed to make significant advances in lung cancer discoveries."
As director of the Wood Center, Turchi will expand efforts in basic science and translational research to understand the complexities of lung cancer at a cellular level, develop innovative lung cancer therapies and biomarkers, support early-phase clinical trials for IU-developed treatments, and expand the lung cancer precision genomics efforts and program. Additionally, Turchi will lead more than a dozen IU lung cancer scientists to achieve these endeavors.
About the Indiana University School of Medicine
The IU School of Medicine is the largest medical school in the U.S. and is annually ranked among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers high-quality medical education, access to leading medical research and rich campus life in nine Indiana cities, including rural and urban locations consistently recognized for livability. According to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, the IU School of Medicine ranks No. 13 in 2024 National Institutes of Health funding among all public medical schools in the country.
Writer: Candace Gwaltney, cmgwaltn@iu.edu
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