Robert A. Hromas MD, FACP

Robert A. Hromas, MD, graduated from medical school at the University of Texas at Houston, where he was named an Outstanding Student in Internal Medicine. Dr. Hromas is chair and professor of the Department of Medicine in the UF College of Medicine. Additionally, he leads the UF Health Cancer Center Cancer Genome and Epigenome Integrity research program. Dr. Hromas trained in blood cancers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center with the Nobel Laureate Dr. Don Thomas and then joined the faculty at Indiana University Medical Center for 13 years before going to the University of New Mexico.
He is a leader in translating research into the discovery of new cancer drugs. A professor and chief of hematology-oncology at UNM, Dr. Hromas also was the deputy director of the UNM Cancer Center, the official cancer center of the state of New Mexico and one of only 66 National Cancer Institute-designated centers in the United States. His background is in molecular genetics and DNA repair. He does drug design in silico, producing and screening cancer drug candidates through computer simulations. Dr. Hromas recently cloned and characterized several novel DNA repair proteins that play crucial roles in both chemotherapy resistance and in HIV integration. He has created new drugs that target these proteins and is testing them for effectiveness in treating cancers resistant to chemotherapy.
He has published more than 135 research articles, including a recent study in the American Journal of Medicine that the new cancer drug, Gleevec, was being prescribed less often for elderly patients with chronic myeloid leukemia than for younger patients. This finding added to the national debate about age discrimination in cancer treatment. Dr. Hromas has held more than $8 million in cancer research grants and numerous national medical and scientific leadership positions. He has chaired grant review committees for the National Institutes of Health and for the American Cancer Society. He has served on the Lance Armstrong Foundation Scientific Board and has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He has won multiple awards, including the Indiana University Board of Regents Teacher of the Year and the New Mexico People Caring Award.