Jennifer Sims-Mourtada, Ph.D.

Senior Clinical Scientist

Dr. Jennifer Sims-Mourtada, Ph.D., is the Associate Director of the Cawley Center for Translational Cancer Research and the Director of Translational Breast Cancer Research at the Helen F Graham Cancer Center and Research Institute. She earned her Ph.D. in Immunology in 2004 from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Houston and completed her postdoctoral training in Experimental Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, one of the world's leading cancer research institutions. Prior to joining Christiana Care in 2011, Dr. Sims-Mourtada served as Director of Research and Development for RadioMedix Inc., a biotechnology company specializing in cancer therapeutics.

Dr. Sims-Mourtada holds affiliated faculty appointments in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware and The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. She oversees the Community Research Advisory Board for the translational research program and serves as the Scientific Director of the Helen F. Graham Tissue Procurement Center, which supports cutting-edge research efforts. Additionally, she leads the Moseley Translational Research Fellowship, providing valuable training for early-career scientists and physician-scientists. Dr. Sims-Mourtada has served as Principal Investigator (PI) or Site PI on numerous grants funded by the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Moseley Foundation.

In addition, she is Associate Editor for Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine and regularly reviews for several high-impact scientific journals. She has been a regular member of the NIH Radiation Therapeutics and Biology (ONC-R) study section since 2008 and serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for other NIH panels. She also contributes her expertise as a reviewer for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Breast Cancer Program, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and Breast Cancer Now.

With an extensive background in cancer biology and biomarkers, Dr. Sims-Mourtada is an expert in cancer associated inflammation, cancer stem cells, breast cancer biology, and cancer diagnostics. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in the field and holds patents in cancer diagnostics and radiotherapeutics.

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