Christine M. Lovly, MD, Ph.D
Dr. Christine M. Lovly is a medical oncologist and scientist at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee. She has a special interest in thoracic malignancies, including lung cancer and malignant pleural mesothelioma, and splits her time between clinical patient care and laboratory research.[1]
Education and Career
Dr. Lovly received a bachelor of arts in Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, then earned her medical degree and a Ph.D. as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She then completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine, as well as a Medical Oncology subspecialty at Vanderbilt University. During her final year of fellowship, she was named the Jim and Carol O’Hare Chief Fellow.[1]
She became a part of Vanderbilt’s faculty after completing her fellowship, assuming a role as Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology in July 2012. She is the author of several peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts.
Professional Memberships and Activities
Dr. Lovly is an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). She is also deputy editor for the website My Cancer Genome, a Vanderbilt-initiated, freely available website that provides health care practitioners, patients, and advocates with up-to-date information regarding genetically informed cancer medicine.[1]
Dr. Lovly has been awarded the ECOG-ACRIN Young Investigator Award and the GO2 Foundation Asclepios Award honoring research pioneers in the fight to end lung cancer. She also received the Women Leaders in Oncology Recognition for exemplifying leadership in oncology and serving as a mentor and advocate.
Research
Dr. Lovly’s laboratory research focuses on understanding molecular subsets of lung cancer and developing improved therapeutic strategies for its treatment. Her lab within Vanderbilt School of Medicine focuses on the themes of stratification of lung tumors into clinically relevant molecular subsets, with a particular interest in those tumors that harbor EGFR mutations, ALK gene rearrangements, and small cell lung cancer and determination of the molecular mechanisms leading to primary and acquired resistance to anti-cancer therapies. Her goal is to enhance understanding of the key genetic and molecular events contributing to the development and progression of lung cancer. To accomplish this, she utilizes a variety of techniques, including genomic and proteomic studies, in silico modeling, and high throughput / high content imaging screens to obtain deep mechanistic insights into these events.[2]
Dr. Lovly’s research has received independent grant funding from Uniting Against Lung Cancer and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
