Dr. Duane Mitchell

Duane A. Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D. is the Phyllis Kottler Friedman Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery. He serves as Director of the UF Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and Co-Director of the Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy.

He graduated from the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD) at Duke University Medical Center and completed post-graduate training in pathology and neuro-oncology research prior to joining the faculty at Duke in 2005 as an Assistant Professor. During his tenure at Duke, Dr. Mitchell served as the Director of Preclinical Research at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center and as the Associate Director of the Duke Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program.

In 2013, Dr. Mitchell was recruited to the University of Florida and leads a comprehensive neuro-oncology program focused on translational brain tumor research within the Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy. In collaboration with the center’s founder and Co-Director, Dr. William A. Friedman, the Wells Brain Tumor Center has grown to one of the largest brain tumor centers in the United States, with over 100 full-time employees dedicated to brain tumor research and clinical care and drawing patients from over 35 states and internationally for novel brain tumor treatments.

Dr. Mitchell is a leading expert in the development of innovative immunotherapy treatments for adults and children with malignant brain tumors. He has pioneered many novel brain tumor immunotherapies that have been translated into first-in-human clinical trials and multi-center phase 2 studies.

Dr. Mitchell has received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including a 2016 Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award from the Clinical Research Forum in Washington, D.C., induction into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2019, and induction into the Academy of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics of Florida in 2020.

Dr. Mitchell has received over $40 million in research awards as principal investigator and has been continuously funded by the NIH for his cancer research since 2009. His research has been supported by the NIH, Department of Defense, and numerous private foundations, and he is inventor on over 25 patents for novel cancer therapeutics.

Dr. Mitchell has served on several national and international advisory boards for industry, academia, and government agencies, including the NCI Board of Scientific Counselors, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scientific Review Board, and as gubernatorial appointee and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Florida Center for Brain Tumor Research (FCBTR).

He currently lives in Gainesville, Florida with his wife and their three sons.