Kay MacLeod, Ph.D

Research is the pathway to discovering a cure and saving lives. Proceeds of the 23rd Annual Y-Me Softball Tournament will solely support a direct grant to Dr. Kay Macleod, breast cancer researcher, University of Chicago Medical and Biological Sciences, to support our mission.

You can read Dr. Kay Macleod’s bio and research initiatives by clicking here.

About Dr. Kay Macleod

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Hospira Foundation Professor of Oncology Award

In recognition of her outstanding scientific and academic accomplishments, Dr. Macleod was appointed as the Hospira Foundation Professor of Oncology at the University of Chicago in Autumn 2024. This recognition was celebrated at an event on December 9th 2024 attended by all members of the YMe Board who Dr. Macleod recognized in her speech for their invaluable support of her research over the past 10 years.

Faculty Award for Excellence in PhD Teaching and Mentoring

Another highlight of the past academic year was the Faculty Award for Excellence in PhD Teaching and Mentoring which was awarded at the Divisional Academic ceremony June 6th 2025 and recognized at the 539th Convocation of the University of Chicago on June 6th 2025. “Through her passionate, rigorous and encouraging approach to scientific enquiry and training, Dr. Macleod’s leadership has contributed to the development of a future generation of leaders in cancer biology”.

Additional Highlights

Additional highlights of the past year include invited seminar presentations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA where Dr. Macleod trained previously, as well as serving as the Keynote speaker at the 17th Annual Lurie Cancer Center Symposium at Northwestern University. During these lectures, Dr. Macleod presented her most recent research on the role of mitochondrial dysfunction and stress responses in cancer. Members of Dr. Macleod’s lab also presented their research at the Annual AACR Conference that was held at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center in April 2025. Dr. Macleod was also an appointed member of the AACR Awards committee for this conference. In the past year, Dr. Macleod has published several papers including collaborative work identifying a novel gene signature that predicts patient outcomes depending on tumor subtype and treatments as well as work describing how amino acid availability determines sensitivity to treaatments affecting lipid metabolism. Ongoing work is focused on understanding how mitochondrial dysfunction modulates tumor metastasis with two manuscripts on this research area in submission.