Lance Miller, PhD

About Lance Miller

Lance Miller, PhD, completed his doctorate at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2001. He studied the molecular biology of breast cancer at the National Cancer Institute, where he first worked with microarray technology and established a DNA microarray core facility for the institute. He later helped develop the Genome Institute of Singapore, part of a multi-billion-dollar project that established a multi-institutional biomedical research program for the government of Singapore, similar to the National Institutes of Health. He was recruited to join the cancer biology department of Wake Forest School of Medicine in 2008.

Lance Miller’s primary research interests center around the use of functional genomics methods to better understand mechanisms of cancer growth and survival. He focuses on tumor-immune system interactions in aggressive forms of breast cancer, including triple negative breast cancers, but he also collaborates in studies involving lung, colon and appendiceal cancers. Through gene expression profiling, he is developing a genetic perspective of cancer that examines the similarities and differences between and within types of cancers in order to better understand the nature of the disease.

Miller seeks to translate his discoveries into technologies that will impact patient care. Using genomic technologies such as next generation sequencing and DNA microarrays, he discovers diagnostic and prognostic markers that help inform patient treatment strategies. As co-director of the Cancer Genomics Core, he helps move this genomic research into the clinical field by determining new directions for research and therapeutics and examines ways to provide clinicians with the information needed to practice precision medicine. His research may also indicate potential therapeutic targets, which could lead to collaborations with pharmaceutical companies and clinicians that will improve patient diagnosis, treatment and outcomes.

The translational aspects of Miller’s research challenge him to advance his understanding of cancer and genomic variations. He believes that cancer genomics requires a multidisciplinary approach in which clinicians, technologists, basic scientists and industries partner to explore the field’s potential. His own research generates possible cancer diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets that can be explored through multidisciplinary cancer research and clinical trial programs at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.