Q & A with Mark Onaitis
Congratulations to Mark W. Onaitis, MD, the newly appointed Sheri L. Kelts Endowed Chair of Thoracic Surgical Oncology. As a professor in the Department of Surgery, Onaitis trains medical students, residents and fellows at UC San Diego School of Medicine. His basic science research interests include stem and progenitor cells and lung cancer. His clinical research focuses on quality indicators in thoracic surgery.
Onaitis is a member of the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons. He has published widely and serves as a reviewer for several professional journals. He and his wife have two sons. Here he speaks with us about what drives him as a researcher, how thoracic surgery has changed since he completed his residency, and more.
Would you like to share any remarks about the endowment and your induction?
I am really excited about the new chair because Sheri Kelts is a visionary who wants to push personalized cancer care forward. She has a long history of supporting Moores Cancer Center, the Cardiovascular Institute, and UC San Diego.
What drives you as a researcher? What problem would you most like to solve?
My research involves analysis of the earliest changes in respiratory epithelial cells when oncogenes are activated. Most of the work has progressed in transgenic mouse models, but one of the first uses of the chair endowment will be to analyze early human cancers to identify which cells are present at early stages. Because non-smoking lung adenocarcinoma is presently an epidemic, potentially developing unique therapies against these cancers would help many people worldwide.
How has thoracic surgery changed in the time since you completed your residency and fellowship?
Thoracic surgery is continually changing to involve multidisciplinary teams and to become less invasive. We are lucky at UC San Diego to have access to all of the best technology and to have wonderful medical oncology, radiation oncology, pulmonology, and radiology colleagues.
What is it like to be married to another surgeon, surgical oncologist, Rebekah White, MD?
My wife is my best friend. She is someone that I admire as a surgeon, researcher and person, and we help each other every day.