JAX appoints three endowed chairs to advance cancer, aging and neurodegenerative disease research worldwide

The appointments of three internationally recognized faculty to endowed chairs at The Jackson Laboratory will shape how diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and age-related immune decline are understood, detected and treated worldwide. By combining large-scale biological data with advanced computational and AI-driven approaches, the new chairholders are accelerating discoveries that can move more quickly from the lab to patients — helping address some of the most urgent health challenges facing aging populations around the globe.

Jeffrey Chuang has been named the Donald A. Roux Chair for Genomics and Computational Biology and Duygu Ucar has been named the Florine Deschenes Roux Chair for Genomics and Computational Biology. These positions were established by former JAX trustee and board chair emeritus David Roux and his wife, Barbara. Cat Lutz has been named the Evnin Family Endowed Chair in Alzheimer's Research, a position established by emeritus Trustee Tony Evnin.

“We are thrilled to honor these scientists for their exceptional contributions to the field, and we’re deeply grateful to the generous donors who made it possible for us to recognize them in such a meaningful way,” said Mary Dickinson, executive vice president and chief scientific officer. “JAX is at the forefront of scientific discoveries that will transform human health. As endowed chairholders, Jeff, Duygu and Cat bring our mission to a new level of excellence.”  

The appointments also highlight the power of philanthropy in supporting outstanding scientists and accelerating research that makes discoveries possible. In addition to providing permanent, sustained funding, named chairs give faculty the freedom to follow a new lead, to respond to unexpected results and to pursue innovative approaches in their work. JAX currently has 17 endowed positions, all funded by private gifts from our generous community of donors.

Meet the chairholders

Jeffrey Chuang is a professor at JAX and at the University of Connecticut Health Center. He also serves as deputy director of the JAX Cancer Center. As a computational biologist, Chuang develops machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches to understand recurrent patterns in images of cancer. He studies how cancer cells are situated in the body, how they move, how they respond to treatment and how they interact with our immune system. His work has profound implications for better ways of detecting, treating and even preventing many types of cancer.  

Duygu Ucar is a professor running an interdisciplinary team to study the wide-ranging effects of aging on the human immune system — for example, why some older adults are more susceptible to disease than others, and why some often benefit less from existing treatments such as vaccines. Knowing that a healthy immune system is essential for a long and healthy life, her team’s ultimate goal is to leverage computational models to improve health outcomes and extend the healthy years of life (healthspan) for those age 65 and older — a demographic projected to double its current size by 2050.

Cat Lutz is a professor at the Bar Harbor campus and serves as the vice president of JAX’s Rare Disease Translational Center, where she leads efforts to help rare disease families navigate the journey from genetic diagnosis to a clinic-ready therapeutic more rapidly. Her work on neurodegeneration in rare disease has broad implications for many neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease. Her research team has been highly successful in demonstrating similarities between neurodegenerative diseases that will enable better drug development and support precision therapeutics for other conditions.

Visit our endowed chair page to learn more about our chairs and the donors who support them.