Gary D. Hammer, M.D., Ph.D. serves as the director of the Endocrine Oncology Program in the Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he holds the Millie Schembechler Professorship in Adrenal Cancer. Under his leadership, the program was selected as one of five inaugural Destination Programs singled out for research and clinical excellence at UMHS. The program is uniquely recognized as an international center of excellence for the treatment of adrenal cancer.

Dr. Hammer is also director of the University Center for Organogenesis, which brings together groups and faculty's basic scientists and clinician's focused on organ-specific problems spanning developmental disorders to cancer. Strong relationships with the stem cell community, tissue and biomedical engineering, and clinical programs provide unparalleled opportunity for translational partnerships.

Research projects in Dr. Hammer's laboratory are aimed at elucidating the mechanisms by which growth factor signaling and transcriptional programs initiate adrenal-specific growth and differentiation with an emphasis on dysregulated growth of adrenocortical stem/progenitor cells in development and cancer. This work has led to the development of new national and international therapeutic trials with biological-based therapies for adrenal cancer that target the molecular defects in cancer stem cells while sparing normal tissue.