Congratulations to Dr. Philip Spanheimer on being awarded the 2020-2021 Junior Faculty Award!
Philip Spanheimer, MD
Assistant Professor of Surgery
UNC School of Medicine
Division of Surgical Oncology
SUS Member Sponsor: Ronald Weigel, MD
Research Mentor: Charles Perou, MD
Project: TFAP2C Regulates Estrogen Responsive Transcriptomic States in Luminal Breast Cancer
Dr. Spanheimer graduated from Duke University and the University of Iowa College of Medicine. He did his General Surgery Residency at the University of Iowa including a T32 research fellowship. Following residency, he completed a Complex General Surgical Oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery and a member of the breast cancer research group in Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This proposal focuses on regulation of estrogen response and distinct gene expression patterns at the single cell level within heterogenous breast cancers. He will be mentored by Dr. Charles Perou, who was the first to describe breast cancer subtypes based on gene expression patterns, and focuses on using genomics, genetics, and cell biology to characterize the biological diversity of human tumors and develop improved treatments that are specific for tumor subtype and for each patient. Dr. Spanheimer believes that a granular understanding of regulation of global expression patterns resulting in key phenotypic traits, such as estrogen response, will identify mechanisms of resistance to therapy, patients at risk for treatment failure, and provide targets for novel therapeutics.