Dr. Ann Marie Egloff

About Dr. Ann Marie Egloff

Ann Marie Egloff was born in Owosso, Michigan. She grew up with parents who instilled the importance of education and community involvement. Her mother was a sixth-grade science teacher, and her father was a public school educator and administrator.

Ann thrived in school, graduating from Swartz Creek High School with honors and recognition in math and science. As a student, she played varsity basketball, ran varsity track and field, and even joined the swim team as a diver for a season. 

Ann Marie also served on the student council, acted in theater productions, and performed ballet with the Flint Institute of Music. She later attended the University of Michigan, where she graduated with a B.S. degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology.

Ann Marie’s first professional experience laid the groundwork for a robust biomedical science background. She started as a Research Assistant and then Senior Research Assistant at Warner-Lambert Parke-Davis (now Pfizer) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, earning two employee recognition awards during her tenure. There, she worked on molecular cloning and expression of therapeutic targets. She also evaluated small-molecule inhibitors used by cancer and metabolic disease departments.

This laboratory experience solidified Ann Marie’s passion for research, prompting her to pursue a PhD in Biochemistry, Cell, and Molecular Biology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. During this time, she focused on immunology and protein biochemistry, completing a dissertation on immune cell signaling pathways that influence cellular response.

Upon completing her PhD, Ann Marie conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institute. Her research included functional studies of cancer causing gene mutations for which she received an NHGRI award for excellence in research. While at the NHGRI, she witnessed the completion of the human genome sequence and large-scale cancer genetic screening endeavors. These experiences highlighted the emerging potential of cancer genomics for improving cancer treatments.

Ann Marie was accepted into a National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI)-sponsored Cancer Education and Career Development Program at the University of Pittsburgh, where she pursued a combined Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and a postdoctoral scholarship focusing on translational cancer research. This training and research had the explicit goal of translating biomedical research from the laboratory bench to patient care (bench to bedside) and included approaches that sought to tailor treatment to the individual patient’s cancer.

At the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Ann Marie rapidly moved from postdoctoral scholar to Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology. She became a principal investigator of projects interrogating both the genomics of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and investigating cancer therapeutic vulnerabilities. She also became an active and integral member of large team science groups, the Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE). In this capacity, she spearheaded efforts and worked collaboratively to develop methods for integrating genomic and proteomic information to guide treatment–essential early developments toward personalized cancer therapy. 

Her work received wide recognition, leading to funding by major organizations, including the NIH, and thousands of citations by international colleagues. She was also actively involved in the development and curation of extensive clinical biospecimen resources, enabling new levels of discovery through biomarker research and computational analysis.

Ann Marie brought her expertise to Boston University in 2015, assuming a dual role as a Research Associate Professor and Scientific Director of the Department of Otolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery. She developed research infrastructure, fostered mentorship, promoted interdepartmental collaboration, and engaged with patient advisory boards and community members to advance translational research focusing on head and neck cancer.