The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) has named medical oncologist Jens Rueter, M.D., to the newly created position of medical director for the Maine Cancer Genomics initiative (MCGI).
Through the MCGI, JAX is partnering with community hospitals to help Maine cancer patients and their physicians access precision cancer care using the latest advances in genetic technologies to determine the best treatment for an individual’s cancer.
Rueter will be based at The Jackson Laboratory Project Management Office at The Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care of MaineGeneral Health in Augusta.
“We are excited to have Dr. Rueter join JAX as our new medical director for the Maine Cancer Genomic Initiative,” says JAX President and CEO Edison Liu, M.D. “and to become part of a team that we believe has the potential to revolutionize community oncologic medicine and improve the lives of cancer patients in Maine.”
The MCGI was launched with a grant to JAX from the Harold Alfond Foundation. Rueter serves as the clinical co-lead with MCGI Program Director Andrey Antov, Ph.D., in developing the initiative, liaising with the Maine oncology community and overseeing the clinical design and implementation of the study protocols.
Rueter comes to JAX from Eastern Maine Medical Center Cancer Care in Brewer, Maine, where he was the medical director for EMMC’S Translational Oncology Program and the Oncology Biobank. He has been a hematologist/oncologist at EMMC Cancer Care since 2010, and a member of the JAX adjunct faculty since 2012. Rueter has collaborated with several JAX investigators and technicians on developing new approaches to treating cancers while advancing translational research at EMMC.
After graduating from medical school in Berlin, Germany, Rueter completed his residency in internal medicine at Tulane University and fellowship training in hematology/oncology at the University of Pennsylvania.