Donna E. Hansel MD, PhD

Dr. Hansel joined the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, as chief of anatomic pathology in 2013. Prior to that, she served as an associate professor in the Department of Anatomic Pathology at the Cleveland Clinic, where she developed a strong research program in bladder cancer cell invasion. Dr. Hansel is certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic Pathology.

Dr. Hansel’s laboratory research focuses on identifying high-yield, targetable pathways in advanced bladder cancer, with a strong emphasis on mTOR signaling and novel downstream targets that are involved in cell motility and invasion. Overall, she has presented her research nationally and internationally, and her work has appeared in more than 130 peer-reviewed publications.

In addition, Dr. Hansel has subspecialty clinical expertise in urologic pathology, including bladder, prostate, kidney, and testicular cancer. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on these topics. She serves on several pathology and urology editorial boards and is the Deputy Executive Editor of Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine.

Dr. Hansel has been a contributor to the Cancer Genome Atlas project for bladder cancer, the World Health Organization “blue book” on urologic cancer, and the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging Manual on urinary tract and kidney cancer. She has been active in the education mission since her academic career began. Dr. Hansel has given multiple residents and medical student lectures each year since she joined UC San Diego and has implemented a research training series for residents in her department.

Dr. Hansel received her undergraduate degree in biology from Johns Hopkins University and received her M.D./Ph.D. degree (MSTP program) from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2001. Following a grant-funded postdoctoral project at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, she returned to Johns Hopkins and completed her residency and fellowship training there in 2006.