Andrew K. Godwin, Ph.D.

Chancellor’s Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences Endowed Professor

Professor and Division Director, Genomic Diagnostics, University of Kansas Medical Center

Founding Director, Molecular Oncology, University of Kansas Medical Center

Deputy Director, The University of Kansas NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center

Founding Director, Kansas Institute for Precision Medicine

Founding Director, Center for Genomic Services and Health Equity

Director, Biospecimen Shared Resource, KUCC

Founding Director, Biospecimen Repository Core Facility, University of Kansas Medical Center

Kansas Bioscience Authority Eminent Scholar

Andrew K. Godwin, PhD, is the Chancellor’s Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences Endowed Professor, the Division Director of Genomic Diagnostics, and the Director of Molecular Oncology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC). He leads our institutional efforts in precision medicine. In 2016, he founded the Kansas Institute for Precision Medicine (KIPM) via philanthropic support and has secured ~$24M in grant funding from the NIH/NIGMS Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence program ($12.2M in Phase 1 in 2019 and $11.6M in Phase 2 in 2022) to transform healthcare for patients suffering from various disease states. The KIPM fosters medical advancements by facilitating the next generation of basic and physician-scientists, shaping their research ideas with a precision medicine focus, and making them highly competitive for national peer-reviewed funding.

Dr. Godwin was recruited to KUMC as the Associate Director for Translational Research for the KU Cancer Center in October 2010 after 26 productive years at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA. His engaged participation contributed to NCI designation in 2012, and he was named the Deputy Director in 2013. He is the founding director of the Clinical Molecular Oncology Laboratory, a CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited molecular diagnostics laboratory, which is now part of the KU Health System. Dr. Godwin also serves as the Director of the KU Cancer Center’s Biospecimen Shared Resource and the founding director of the KU Medical Center’s Biospecimen Repository Core Facility. He founded the Biomarker Discovery Laboratory (BDL) in 2016 and serves as it scientific director. The BDL (Harsh Pathak, PhD, Laboratory Director) supports integral and integrated biomarker studies for clinical trials.

Dr. Godwin holds secondary appointments as a Professor in the Department of Cancer Biology, the Department of Internal Medicine, and the Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics, and Immunology at KUMC. He is also an adjunct Professor for the Bioengineering Program at the University of Kansas. He was named a Kansas Bioscience Authority Eminent Scholar in 2010 and the University of Kansas School of Medicine Chancellor’s Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences Endowed Professor in 2012. In 2014, Dr. Godwin received the KUMC School of Medicine’s Achievement Award for mentoring post-doctorate students. Of his awards, he is most proud of being acknowledged for his years of mentoring.

Dr. Godwin has mentored over 150 trainees, including high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral associates/fellows, medical students/fellows, visiting scientists, and junior faculty during his academic career. He was awarded the KU Medical Center’s Faculty Investigator Research Award in 2015, the University of Kansas Cancer Center Director’s William Jewell Team Science Award in 2017, the KUCC Director’s Basic Science Award and the Chancellor’s Club Award for Research in 2018, and the Dolph C. Simons, Sr. Higuchi Award in the Biomedical Sciences in 2020 – the state higher education system’s most prestigious recognition for scholarly excellence. Godwin was presented the 2021 KU School of Medicine Excellences in Mentoring (Faculty) award and the 2021 Cancer Center Director’s Award in Mentoring. In 2024, Godwin received the inaugural “2024 Outstanding Mentorship in Pathology Award”. This award was presented by the University School of Medicine and Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in recognition of his dedication to the mentorship and education of future pathologist.

Dr. Godwin is a leader in the field of translational research and precision medicine. He is internationally recognized for his molecular biology/genetic studies of sarcoma (e.g., GIST and Ewing Sarcoma), breast and ovarian cancer, and his efforts to help bridge the gap between basic and clinical science to improve patient care. Dr. Godwin leads the ovarian cancer working group at KUCC and has contributed over 230 ovarian cancer-related publications since 1991, including a 1992 study that identified AKT2 (in collaboration with Dr. Joseph Testa) and showed its role in ovarian cancer oncogenesis. It was the first of many such publications linking AKT to human cancer and identifying AKT and other molecules in the PI3K/AKT pathway as important targets for cancer treatment. He led one of the first studies demonstrating that KRAS mutations were predictive of response to EGFR-targeted therapies (in collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb) and was involved in the validation studies for the first and only clinically validated, FDA-cleared test for capturing and enumerating CTCs (CELLSEARCH®) in collaboration with scientists at Immunicon (now Menarini Silicon Biosystems) to help inform clinical decision-making.

His laboratories at KUMC continue to focus on various aspects of both basic and translational research, with an emphasis on early detection of cancer, predictive and prognostic biomarkers, liquid biopsies based on extracellular vesicles, molecular therapeutics, companion diagnostics, clinical trials, cellular therapeutics, cancer immune microenvironment, and biosample ascertainment. As a result of his research efforts, Dr. Godwin has been continuously since his first faculty appointment at the Fox Chase Cancer Center (1993-2010) and has helped secure extramural funding exceeding $250M. He has published over 550 peer-reviewed manuscripts and scholarly review articles which have been cited nearly 100,000 times (h index = 144) and has authored 6 patent applications.

Dr. Godwin was a member of multiple disease-working groups for The Cancer Genome Atlas. He is a member of the Early Detection Research Network, the Breast Cancer Association Consortium, and the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2, as well as a tissue source site for the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium. He was the Translational Science Co-chair for many Gynecologic Oncology Group (now a part of the NRG) clinical trials evaluating molecularly targeted agents in recurrent ovarian and endometrial cancer patients. He is a member of the Early Therapeutics and Rare Cancers Committee and was appointed the Vice Chair of the Breast Translational Medicine Subcommittee of the Southwest Oncology Group in 2019. Dr. Godwin was also appointed to the National Cancer Institute’s NCTN Core Correlative Sciences Committee (NCTN-CCSC) in 2021. He has served on numerous grant peer-review panels, including those for the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, the Basser Center for BRCA, and the Mary Kay and Susan G. Komen Foundations. Dr. Godwin is active in ovarian cancer advocacy and has served on the board of directors for various cancer foundations. Godwin has dedicated his scientific career to improve the care for patients diagnosed with cancer.

View a complete list of Dr. Godwin's publications

Ongoing efforts in Godwin's Research Program include scientists at all levels of experience.