A member of HCI's Scientific Advisory Board since 2004, Max Wicha, MD, is founding director and distinguished professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He coordinates all cancer research and patient care at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and specializes in treatment of breast cancer patients.

Wicha is nationally known for his research in breast oncology, particularly the study of how breast cancer cells grow and metastasize. His research centers around understanding the mechanisms controlling growth, differentiation, and death of normal and malignant breast cells. Currently, Dr. Wicha's laboratory is identifying stem cells from the mammary gland. Future studies will determine factors controlling lineage-specific differentiation and gene expression profiles. In addition, he will study the stem cell as a target for cancer-producing transformation in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Michigan Cancer Center.

Wicha joined the University of Michigan Medical Center in 1980, and from 1984 to 1993 served as chief in the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Internal Medicine. He has served as chairman of the board of the Association of American Cancer Institutes and as past chair for the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Center Support Review Committee. After receiving his medical degree from Stanford University, he trained in internal medicine at the University of Chicago and in clinical oncology and cancer biology at the National Cancer Institute.