Ze’ev Ronai steps down as cancer center director at Sanford Burnham Prebys

Ze’ev Ronai, PhD, is stepping down as director of the National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center at Sanford Burnham Prebys, effective August 1. Cosimo Commisso, PhD, deputy director of the cancer center, will serve as interim head while a national search is conducted for a new cancer center director.

Ronai is moving to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where he will focus on translational research.

“During my 20 years at Sanford Burnham Prebys, I’ve had the honor of developing new research directions, institutionally, as well as in my lab,” said Ronai.

“As the director of the cancer center, I was fortunate to position it as the only center in the nation with the runway to advance basic discoveries to early therapeutics, a runway made possible through the integration of the cancer center with the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics. The distinct status of our cancer center serves several collaborations with other cancer centers nationwide, and is much appreciated by the NCI.”

Ronai came to Sanford Burnham Prebys in 2004 as a professor, establishing the Signal Transduction Program. Appointments as associate and later deputy director of the cancer center followed, along with scientific director and chief scientific advisor. He was named  director of the cancer center in 2021.

Prior to SBP, Ronai was a professor at the Ruttenberg Cancer Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. During his tenure at SBP, Ronai established the Technion Integrated Cancer Center in Haifa, Israel. More recently, Ronai chaired the programmatic vision committee in melanoma at the Department of Defense.

“What defines Ze’ev is his determination, and the concept that science is not for sprinters, but for long-distance runners,” wrote Maria S. Soengas, PhD, a Spanish immunologist in a profile of Ronai published in 2013 in the journal Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research.

Ronai’s lengthy career has garnered international recognition for his studies focused on the rewiring of signal transduction pathways, the role of ubiquitin ligases in controlling fundamental cellular processes and the development and progression of melanoma, including how tumors escape the immune system and resist therapy.

Melanoma is the deadliest of skin cancers. While it accounts for only 1% of skin cancer cases in the United States, melanoma causes a large majority of skin cancer deaths. More than 100,000 new melanoma cases are diagnosed annually in the U.S., with more than 8,200 annual deaths.

Ronai has been recognized for his research contributions by the Society for Melanoma Research, which awarded him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

“The institute is grateful to Ze’ev at so many levels,” said David Brenner, MD, president and CEO of Sanford Burnham Prebys. “He is a highly accomplished cancer biologist, whose work has enhanced our understanding of melanoma. He has reorganized and developed our cancer center to increase collaborations on translational research. And he has led institute-wide programs in education and in diversity.”

Ronai was born in Haifa, Israel in 1956. He received his bachelor’s degree and doctorate from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Following postdoctoral training at Columbia University and tenure at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, he joined Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Among his numerous awards and honors, Ronai was a keynote speaker at the annual Society for Melanoma Research meeting (2023), NCI Director Grand Rounds (2023), Distinguished Lecture speaker (Lady Davis, Canada, 2013; UCI Cancer Center, 2014; Univ. Maryland 2020), the Karolinska Nobel Forum Stockholm (2016, 2004, 2001) and the Princess Takamatsu Prize (1995).

He has several patents for the diagnosis and treatment of cancers, and has published more than 320 scientific papers, with more than 29,000 citations.

The NCI-designated cancer center at Sanford Burnham Prebys is one of only seven Basic Laboratory Cancer Centers in the NCI’s national network. These centers focus primarily on laboratory research: developing, conducting, translating and advancing fundamental discoveries to clinical testing and, ultimately, new and better treatments in collaboration with other centers and institutions.

The cancer center has been a defining element of Sanford Burnham Prebys almost since the institute was founded in 1976 as the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation. The center received its initial NCI designation in 1981. It has successfully renewed its 5-year Cancer Center Support Grant eight times, and received a rare merit extension last year.