Timothy J. Ley, MD, a professor of medicine and of genetics at WashU Medicine and the Lewis T. and Rosalind B. Apple Chair in Oncology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, has been elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society. The society was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743 to “promote useful knowledge.” Its members come from all branches of science and the humanities and have included several founders of the United States, more than 270 Nobel Prize winners (including WashU Medicine’s Carl and Gerti Cori), and luminaries such as Robert Frost, Marie Curie and Charles Darwin.
“Franklin’s American Philosophical Society is the oldest American organization dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to its mission,” Ley said. “It was an incredible honor to be elected.”
Ley is an authority on cancer genomics, especially of acute myeloid leukemia. His research focuses on mutations and changes in gene activity associated with the initiation and progression of this disease. He is currently studying how triggers for acute myeloid leukemia affect the maturation of blood cells, research that may lead to new treatments for blood cancers.
Working with collaborators at WashU Medicine and the McDonnell Genome Institute, Ley led the team that sequenced the genome of an acute myeloid leukemia patient, the first time this had been accomplished for any cancer. That work helped lay the foundation for precision medicine in cancer, which allows clinicians to tailor therapies to individual tumors based on their genetic makeup.
Ley has served as chief of the section of stem cell biology in the Division of Oncology and is co-director, with Deborah Lenschow, MD, PhD, of the Physician Scientist Training Program in the John T. Milliken Department of Medicine. He has mentored more than 60 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers and has been honored by the American Society of Hematology and WashU Medicine for his mentoring work.
Ley’s research has been widely recognized with awards, including the Erasmus Hematology Prize; the National Cancer Institute’s Alfred G. Knudson Award for Cancer Genetics; the American Society of Hematology’s E. Donnall Thomas Prize and Henry Stratton Medal; WashU’s Second Century Award and the Carl and Gerti Cori Faculty Achievement Award; and the Léopold Griffuel Prize, awarded by the Fondation ARC in France for important basic cancer research discoveries. He is also an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ley earned his bachelor’s degree from Drake University and his medical degree from WashU Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by hematology-oncology fellowship training at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and WashU Medicine. He joined the faculty of WashU Medicine in 1986.