Mina J. Bissell

Mina J. Bissell is Distinguished Scientist, the highest rank bestowed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and serves as senior advisor to the Laboratory Director on Biology. She is also faculty of four graduate groups at UC Berkeley: comparative biochemistry, endocrinology, molecular toxicology, and bioengineering (UCSF/UCB joint program).

Having challenged several established paradigms, Bissell is a pioneer in breast cancer research and her body of work has provided much impetus for the current recognition of the significant role that extracellular matrix (ECM) signaling and microenvironment play in gene expression regulation in both normal and malignant cells. Her laboratory developed novel 3D assays and techniques that demonstrate her signature phrase: after conception, “phenotype is dominant over genotype.”

Bissell earned her doctorate in microbiology and molecular genetics from Harvard Medical School, won an American Cancer Society fellowship for her postdoctoral studies, and soon after joined LBNL. She was the founding director of the Cell and Molecular Biology Division and later the associate laboratory director for all Life Sciences at Berkeley Lab where she recruited outstanding scientists and developed a strong program in cell and molecular biology and breast cancer.

Bissell has published more than 400 publications and is one of the most sought after speakers in the field. She has received numerous honors and awards, which include: U.S. Department of Energy’s E. O. Lawrence Award, AACR’s G. H. A. Clowes Memorial Award, the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award, Susan G. Komen Foundation’s Brinker Award, BCRF Foundation’s Jill Rose Award, Berkeley Lab’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Prize, American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor, MD Anderson Cancer Center’s highest honor – the Ernst W. Bertner Award – the Honorary Medal from the Signaling Societies in Germany, ASCB’s highest honor – the E. B. Wilson Medal – and the 2017 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research.