O. John Semmes, Ph.D.

O. John Semmes, Ph.D., is a Microbiology and Molecular Cell Biology professor and Anthem Distinguished Cancer Research Professor at EVMS. He is a cancer researcher with internationally recognized expertise in cancer biology and biomarker development. As founding Director of the Leroy T. Canoles Jr. Cancer Research Center and Associate Dean for Translational Research, Dr. Semmes has developed robust translational research pipelines. He established the George L Wright Center for Biomedical Proteomics, the EVMS research histology core and the EVMS biorepository. Dr. Semmes developed the Virginia Clinical Research Laboratory Network, a Virginia-wide initiative to expand collaborative clinical/translational research as a Virginia Commonwealth Clinical Research Network component. Dr. Semmes currently leads the Virginia-UCLA-Toronto Biomarker Characterization Center, an NCI-designated center for biomarker research, as a centerpiece toward building a Diagnostics Discovery and Innovation program. His laboratory’s research is described in 178 scientific articles and has been continually funded by the NIH.