Rutgers Cancer Institute Research Leader Eileen White Named Rutgers Board of Governors Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

Eileen White, PhD

The Rutgers Board of Governors has named Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey Deputy Director Eileen White, PhD, the Board of Governors Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences for her contributions to science and leadership in the fields of apoptosis, autophagy and cancer metabolism.

Dr. White is also chief scientific officer, associate director for basic research and co-director of the Duncan and Nancy MacMillan Cancer Immunology and Metabolism Center of Excellence at Rutgers Cancer Institute in addition to serving as associate director of the Ludwig Princeton Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at Princeton University. In 2021, she was elected as a member to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and as a fellow to the American Association for Cancer Research Academy.

White, an expert in cancer metabolism, has made numerous landmark contributions to her field. The White Laboratory at Rutgers Cancer Institute focuses on translational research modulating the apoptosis pathway for cancer therapy and on the role of cellular metabolism in cancer progression and treatment. White discovered and identified critical metabolic pathways through which cancer cells survive, reproduce, and evade immune responses, paving new ways to inhibit tumor growth and improve anti-cancer immune responses.

“As New Jersey’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rutgers Cancer Institute is distinguished by the cutting-edge research put forth by our team – including the groundbreaking discoveries led by Dr. Eileen White,” notes Rutgers Cancer Institute Director Steven K. Libutti, MD, FACS, senior vice president, oncology services, RWJBarnabas Health. “Through her leadership and vast expertise in cancer autophagy and cellular metabolism, she has significantly contributed to the collective body of knowledge that is improving current solid tumor therapies and laying the groundwork for novel therapies to come.”

White completed her undergraduate work at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a PhD in Biology from SUNY Stony Brook. She was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Bruce Stillman at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She served on the Board of Scientific Counselors and Board of Scientific Advisors for the National Cancer Institute and the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research. White has received a MERIT Award from the National Cancer Institute, an investigatorship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Red Smith Award from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

She is also an elected Fellow of the American Society of Microbiology and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and she has served as a member of the Scientific Review Boards for the Starr Cancer Consortium and the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.

Rutgers Board of Governors professorships are awarded to faculty members whose academic accomplishments are recognized nationally and globally as being exceptionally outstanding and exemplify the most celebrated and decorated academic scholars at Rutgers.