The University of Florida has appointed Duane Mitchell, MD, PhD, as director of the UF Health Cancer Institute in Gainesville, effective Sept. 21.
Dr. Mitchell currently serves as the Phyllis Kottler Friedman Professor in the university’s department of neurosurgery and director of the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute, according to a Sept. 2 news release.
Dr. Mitchell has built an international reputation for immunotherapy approaches targeting malignant brain tumors, including glioblastoma, advancing cancer vaccines and other therapies from lab research into clinical trials. He has held continuous National Institutes of Health funding for cancer research since 2009, secured more than $80 million in research support as principal investigator, and holds more than 25 patents for cancer therapeutics.
Dr. Mitchell succeeds Thomas George, MD, who has served as interim director since November 2025. Elizabeth Shenkman, PhD, will become interim director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She currently serves as the institute’s co-director.
The UF Health Cancer Institute earned National Cancer Institute designation in 2023 and now serves more than 3.4 million residents across North, Central and Northeast Florida, with 268 active cancer-related research projects and nearly 1,000 patients enrolled in interventional clinical trials in 2025.
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