“You’re going to think I am crazy, but………..”
-Leah Siskind
Leah J. Siskind, Ph.D.
Professor
Brown Cancer Center
Department of Medicine
Division of Medical Oncology
505 S. Hancock St.
University of Louisville
CTRB; rm 203
Louisville, KY 40202
Office-(502)852-1283
Cell-(301)9283721
Leah.Siskind@Louisville.edu
I was born and raised my entire life in Columbia, MD, where I attended Oakland Mills High School. I then attend the University of Maryland College Park for my undergraduate years where I was also a division 1 swimmer. After obtaining my B.S. in Neurobiology and Physiology (1998), I did a brief stint as a laboratory technician before starting my PhD studies (2000-2003) in the laboratory of Dr. Marco Colombini where I studied membrane and ion channel biophysics. I then did a post-doctoral fellowship in mitochondrial bioenergetics also at the University of Maryland (2003-2006) before training as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Lina Obeid at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC, 2007-2009) where I studies sphingolipid biochemistry and biology. In 2009, was promoted to a research assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at MUSC and a research scientist at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Charleston, SC. I started as a tenure track Assistant Professor in the College of Pharmacy at MUSC in 2011. In 2013, I was recruited as an Associate Professor to the University of Louisville in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Brown Cancer Center. On July 1, 2020, I was promoted to Full Professor and in July of 2023 i moved to the Department of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology. In my free time (what is that?), I can usually be found with my husband and two kids or training for some sort of distance running race (half-marathon or marathon).
Leah Siskind - educational and professional appointments
EDUCATION
9/1994 - 6/1998 B.S. in Neurobiology and Physiology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
9/1999 - 5/2003 Ph.D., in Membrane Biophysics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Pre- and Post-doctoral Training
1998-2000 Research Assistant (Full-time), University of Maryland, Department of Entomology, College Park, MD, Research Area: Nematology
1999-2000 Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Maryland, Department of Biology, College Park, MD. Courses taught: Neurophysiology, Genetics, Principles of Biology
2000-2003 National Institutes of Health Pre-doctoral Research Fellow, University of Maryland, Department of Biology, College Park, MD, Research Area: ion channel structure and function, mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis
2003-2006 Postdoctoral Fellow (Laboratory of Dr. Marco Colombini), University of Maryland, Department of Biology, College Park, MD, Research Areas: mitochondrial bioenergetics, mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis
2007-2009 Post-doctoral Fellow (Laboratory of Dr. Lina Obeid), Medical Univ. of South Carolina, Research Area: aging biology and aging related diseases, nephrotoxicity, apoptosis, sphingolipid biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology
Professional Appointments
2009-2013 Research Health Scientist, VA Research and Development, Ralph H. Johnson Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Charleston, SC
2009-2011 Research Assistant Professor, Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine/Geriatrics, Charleston, SC, Research Areas: mitochondria- mediated apoptosis, sphingolipid metabolism and signaling, nephrotoxicity and nephritis
2012-2013 Assistant Professor, Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine/Geriatrics, Charleston, SC
2012-2013 Assistant Professor, South Carolina College of Pharmacy at the Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences
2013-current Associate Professor, University of Louisville, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Brown Cancer Center
2017-current Director of Graduate Admissions and Recruitment, Director of Graduate Pharmacology, Dept. of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Louisville
2018-current Associate Vice-Chair for Graduate Education and Director of Graduate Studies
2023-current Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Brown Cancer Center