Céline Gélinas, PhD

Céline Gélinas, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Resident Member of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, and Senior Associate Dean for Research at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, completed her undergraduate education and Ph.D. degree at The Université de Sherbrooke in her native country, Canada.

She was a student fellow of the National Cancer Institute of Canada and of the Québec Government’s FCAC, and was awarded the Fernand Seguin Award for Academic Excellence and the Jean-Marie Beauregard Award for Academic and Research Excellence. She conducted postdoctoral studies with Nobel laureate Dr. Howard M. Temin at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, as King George V Silver Jubilee post-doctoral fellow of the National Cancer Institute of Canada and as a Medical Research Council of Canada post-doctoral fellow.

Dr. Gelinas joined the faculty of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1988, where she received the Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Award from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and a New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research Award for Outstanding Service to Cancer Research in New Jersey. She was elected to the UMDNJ Stuart D. Cook Master Educators Guild in 2006 and was elected Fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology in 2010. She has extensive experience in biomedical research and education. She oversees the research programs directed toward medical students at RWJMS.

She is the Director of the RWJMS Distinction in Research Program and of the Summer Research Fellowship Program for medical students. She currently teaches in the Biomedical Sciences course in the M1 undergraduate curriculum, and the M2 Digestive Systems, Nutrition, and Metabolism course. She also teaches in the Medical Biochemistry course for Physician Assistants and in the PSP-AccessMed Biomedical Careers Program for undergraduates.

She is the on-site faculty advisor for medical students conducting independent projects with non-RWJMS faculty. Dr. Gélinas is a member of the graduate program in Molecular Biosciences, the graduate program in Biochemistry, the graduate program in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and the graduate program in Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology. She lectures in the Medical Biochemistry course in the Masters in Biomedical Sciences program, in the Molecular Virology course, and in the Ethical Scientific Conduct course for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Her research interests are in the mechanisms involved in cancer development, progression, and tumor cell resistance to anti-cancer treatment. In her laboratory, she has trained 13 Ph.D., MD/Ph.D, and M.S. students, 12 post-doctoral fellows, and 10 undergraduate students.  She has served on the thesis committees of over 80 Ph.D. and 15 M.S. students.