Dr. Daniel J. Leahy chairs the largest department in UT Austin’s College of Natural Sciences, the Department of Molecular Sciences. His research focuses on molecular mechanisms of cell signaling, examining the processes by which proteins and other molecules behave within living systems including molecular mechanisms that regulate growth in normal and malignant cells. Dr. Leahy’s work on one family of signaling molecules —the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor reception 2 (HER2)—has demonstrated how these molecules function in healthy people and in people with cancer. This research has influenced medical professionals’ strategies to treat cancers of the lung, breast, colon and gastric system.

Before coming to UT Austin in 2016, Dr. Leahy was a Professor of Biophysics & Biophysical Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford University and his Bachelor’s of Science in Mathematics from Yale University. He conducted postdoctoral research at Columbia University before joining the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1993.

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