Melissa Fishel , Ph.D.

The IU Simon Cancer Center houses more than 200 scientists conduct research from four different programs. The goals of those programs range from understanding the molecular changes that cause cancer to developing targeted therapies to prevent and treat cancer. Each year, our physician-researchers lead more than 600 active clinical trials for pediatric and adult cancers. Researchers have made protocol-defining discoveries that have changed the way doctors treat testicular cancer, breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, genitourinary cancer, leukemia, multiple myeloma, thymoma and thymic carcinomas, and thoracic cancer. The researchers at the IU Simon Cancer Center are primarily faculty of the IU School of Medicine. The Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research conducts basic science and translational research within the Department of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine, and the center offers exceptional opportunities for collaborations between basic scientists, translational scientists and physicians. Since opening in 1991, the Wells Center has grown from four investigators and three employees to today’s 34 investigators and 230 staff members. By focusing both on discovery basic research and translational studies, bench research findings rapidly move into the clinical setting to help heal sick children. The center’s research programs are multidisciplinary and traverse traditional clinical section boundaries. With the collaboration between scientists and physicians, the center aims to increase knowledge of causes and mechanisms of serious pediatric diseases while developing innovative approaches to diagnosis and treatment of childhood illnesses.

Alisa Wolberg