PNNL

Governor Jay Inslee recently announced the appointment of Karin Rodland, Laboratory Fellow in the Biological Sciences Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to the Board of Directors of the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund. As part of the Board, Rodland will help guide the use of public funds to advance cancer research and improve health outcomes in the state of Washington. She will also work to promote more geographic diversity in the allocation of state funds for cancer research.

Rodland will use her decades of experience as a cancer researcher to fine-tune the peer review process for CARE grants. “The review process needs to be strategic, transparent, and fair,” said Rodland. “This way we can determine which projects will make the best use of public funds in an equitable manner.”

In her own research, Rodland combines mass spectrometry techniques with advanced computational methods to investigate dysregulated signaling pathways involved in cancer. Rodland is one of the founding Directors of the Pacific Northwest Biomedical Innovation Co-Laboratory (PMedIC), a joint research collaboration between PNNL and the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), where Rodland holds a joint appointment as an Affiliate Professor of Cell, Developmental, and Cancer Biology.

Rodland has spent most of her life solving compelling problems in basic and translational biomedical research. She is dedicated to improving patient outcomes both through her research and through her volunteer work. As a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight West, Rodland personally flies patients from the Tri-Cities to hospitals in Seattle for treatment.

Rodland received her AB in Biology and Education from Hood College and her PhD in Biology from Syracuse University. She has been a professor at OHSU since 1985 and joined PNNL in 2001. In 2011, she was elected as a Fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is also an Associate Editor of the journal Clinical Proteomics, a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Human Proteome Organization, and a member of the Science Policy Committee for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB).