As a child, Dr. Gustavo Leone and his family immigrated to Canada from a low-income area in Montevideo, Uruguay. After dropping out of a local university in Calgary, he embarked on a motorcycle journey through the U.S. and South America. He tells stories of how the people he encountered changed his outlook on life, particularly those affected by cancers and disease.
From them on, he was hooked on the excitement and potential of science to cure disease. With more than 30 years of experience in the research field, Dr. Leone formally took the reins as director of the MCW Cancer Center in April of 2020, and was appointed senior associate dean of cancer research and professor with tenure in the department of biochemistry.
“Dr. Leone is relentless in his pursuit of answers to cancer’s toughest challenges,” said his colleagues. “He is magnetic in the way he attracts brilliant minds from across the nation to pursue science and innovation at MCW.”
The MCW Cancer Center is a distinguished leader and innovator in the education and development of the next generation of physicians, scientists, pharmacists and health professionals. The organization discovers and translates new knowledge in the biomedical and health sciences; we provide cutting-edge, collaborative patient care of the highest quality; and improves the health of the communities served.
Under Dr. Leone’s leadership, the MCW Cancer Center underwent major reorganization and expansion during the past three years. As director, he recruited 40 research faculty, expanded the clinical trials program, deepened community outreach and engagement efforts in Eastern Wisconsin, developed three research training programs, and designed and led the construction of a 160,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building in the Milwaukee Medical Research Campus that solely focuses on cancer research.
As a result, MCW Cancer Center made transformational advances in cancer research that have led to a 1.7-fold increase in basic research and a 3-fold increase in clinical research funding. Dr. Leone has published more than 228 research papers in leading scientific and medical journals and received the Dr. Glenn R. and Nancy A. Linnerson endowed chair for Cancer Research (which he currently holds), and the Robert M. and Barbara R. Bell basic science of cancer award for outstanding research discoveries.
“During days that seem harder than usual, I walk through the patient floors and listen to the stories of cancer patients and their families who demonstrate incredible courage in their journey to beat this disease,” he said. “This inspires me to accept the losses and do more to learn and work harder to discover new cancer targets and work with our phenomenal colleagues to develop novel therapies and approaches to treat these patients.”