Janet Sue Rader, MD, FACOG

Dr. Janet S. Rader is currently the Jack A. and Elaine D. Klieger Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She received her medical degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. She then served as a Research Fellow in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Chicago. Dr. Rader completed a fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Dr. Rader has been a continuous recipient of NIH and ACS funding since 1994. Her research work is in early molecular changes in cervical cancer and genetic predisposition. She is on the steering committee of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) for ovarian cancer and the NCI Cervical Cancer Task Force. She is a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Committee and the Committee on Experimental Medicine of the Gynecologic Oncology Group. Dr. Rader is associate editor for Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention and has authored or co-authored 139 peer-reviewed articles. She is PI for several clinical trials in gynecologic malignancies. She is a member of many organizations, including: The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, The American Society of Clinical Oncology, The American Association for Cancer Research, and The American Society of Human Genetics.

Her laboratory focuses on advancing cervical cancer prevention and control. Infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) is the primary inciting event, but it is evident that additional factors must be involved, since only a small proportion of infected women develop cancer. The laboratory concentrates on identifying genes involved in the progression of cervical cancer through the analysis of molecular changes in preinvasive and invasive neoplasias of the cervix, in addition to identifying host genetic susceptibility polymorphisms in the progression of disease.