The Wistar Institute has appointed Penn ovarian cancer researcher Ronny Drapkin, M.D., Ph.D., as its next President and CEO, where he will lead the institute’s early-stage discovery research in cancer, immunology, and infectious disease.
A physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Drapkin will take the helm on November 30, 2026, succeeding Dario Altieri, M.D., who is stepping down after a decade leading the institute. Based in Philadelphia’s University City, Wistar is the nation’s first independent biomedical research institute and houses the Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center, the only NCI-designated basic research cancer center in Pennsylvania.
As president and CEO, Drapkin will lead Wistar’s early-stage discovery research in cancer, immunology, and infectious disease, grow its workforce education and training programs, and build support for the institute’s mission by working with donors, trustees, corporate and academic partners, and policymakers. He steps in at a high point for the institute. Wistar has grown to 43 principal investigators, including six hired this year, and under Altieri its annual budget quadrupled, its endowment tripled, and it added two new research centers. The board pointed to Drapkin’s background across laboratory science, clinical medicine, team science, and institutional leadership as the right fit for research that is growing more interdisciplinary, data-driven, and translational.
About Ronny Drapkin
Drapkin is the Franklin Payne Professor of Pathology in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Penn, a title he has held since 2024. He is a physician-scientist trained in anatomic pathology, cancer biology, and tumor genomics. His lab studies how ovarian cancer starts and progresses, and it played a leading role in showing that high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma, the deadliest form of ovarian cancer, mainly originates in the fallopian tube. That finding changed how the field understands the disease and shaped prevention approaches, including risk-reducing strategies for women with inherited BRCA1/2 mutations. His group has since built precancer atlases of the fallopian tube to map the molecular changes that come before cancer. More recently, his lab has found that nerve signaling within tumors can drive ovarian cancer growth and spread.
Since joining Penn in 2015, he has directed the Penn Ovarian Cancer Research Center and the Gynecologic Cancer Research program at the Basser Center for BRCA. He also co-directs the Ovarian Cancer Translational Center of Excellence at the Abramson Cancer Center. Beyond Penn, he has served as deputy dean of the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Academy since 2022. He also directs the BioTrust Collection, co-directs the Johns Hopkins–Penn Specialized Program of Research Excellence in Ovarian Cancer, and has been an Adelson Medical Research Foundation investigator since 2012. His honors include election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Rosalind Franklin Prize for Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research.
Before Penn, Drapkin spent more than 13 years at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. He started as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of David Livingston and rose from instructor to associate professor. He also joined the Harvard faculty as the first recruit to the joint Brigham and Women’s–Dana-Farber Center for Molecular Oncologic Pathology. He completed his anatomic pathology residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. in biochemistry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, after a B.A. in biochemistry with high honors from Brandeis University. He already knows Wistar well: he has been an affiliate of its Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center since 2016, and his work with Wistar faculty has produced multiple publications and jointly funded projects.
About The Wistar Institute
The Wistar Institute is the nation’s first independent nonprofit biomedical research institute, internationally recognized for its contributions to immunology, infectious disease, and cancer research. It has held NCI-designated Cancer Center status since 1972. Its history includes the development of the standard rubella vaccine and the creation of the Wistar rat, the first standardized laboratory animal model. Today, its specialized centers, including the Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center, drive work in targeted therapeutics, vaccines, and molecular diagnostics. Wistar also runs biomedical technician training programs that supply the region’s life sciences workforce, and its tech transfer and commercialization efforts help move early discoveries toward the clinic.
