Dr. Skinner is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh and CMO of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Radiaton Oncology Network. His clinical practice focuses primarily on the treatment of malignancies of the upper aero-digestive tract, while his laboratory seeks to identify novel, clinically relevant pathways that mediate radiation response in cancer. His research approach integrates state-of-the-art clinical tissue analysis, in vivo screening methods and in vitro investigation, with a goal of providing multiple avenues to develop rational clinical trials of radiation modulators. Dr. Skinner’s research has been supported by funding from both the NCI and NIDCR, including multiple R01 awards as PI, as well as state and private funding agencies. He is current the PI of the UPMC Head and Neck SPORE grant and has served as the PI of multiple cooperative group and investigator initiated clinical trials, including NRG LU001. This is a multi-institutional randomized trial examining the use of metformin as a radiosensitizer in lung cancer, a concept that was developed in part from work in Dr. Skinner’s laboratory.