Dr. Ratain is a graduate of Harvard College (A.B., 1976) and Yale University School of Medicine (M.D., 1980). His postgraduate training was completed at Johns Hopkins Hospital (Internal Medicine, 1980-3) and the University of Chicago Hospitals (Hematology/Oncology, 1983-6). He has been a faculty member in the Department of Medicine at The University of Chicago since 1986, and is currently the Leon O. Jacobson Professor of Medicine, Director of the Center for Personalized Therapeutics and Chief Hospital Pharmacologist. In addition, he serves as the Associate Director for Clinical Sciences in the University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, and leads the University of Chicago’s phase I oncology trials program. Dr. Ratain is also one of the cofounders of Vi3C (Value in Cancer Care Consortium, www.vi3c.org), and currently serves as its Director and Treasurer.
Dr. Ratain’s research focuses on the development of new oncology drugs and diagnostics, and he is an international leader in phase I clinical trials, pharmacogenomics, and clinical trial methodology, with over 300 original publications. He served as the first chair of the Steering Committee of the National Institutes of Health Pharmacogenetics Research Network, as well as one of the first co-chairs of the National Cancer Institute Investigational Drug Steering Committee. He currently serves as co-Editor of Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, and is a past Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Research Achievement Award in Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Research from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the Rawls-Palmer Progress in Medicine Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the Translational Research Professorship from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a Honorary Fellowship from the American College of Clinical Pharmacology, and the Award in Clinical Excellence from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association Foundation.
