Invitae Appoints Dr. W. Michael Korn as Chief Medical Officer for Oncology

Invitae, a leading medical genetics company, has announced the appointment of Dr. W. Michael Korn, M.D., as its chief medical officer for oncology, effective March 13, 2023. Dr. Korn brings decades of experience in the field of gastrointestinal cancers, implementing precision oncology principles in clinical cancer care, and designing a novel database on targeted cancer therapeutics.

At Invitae, Dr. Korn will lead the medical oncology team with the goal of enabling an integrated portfolio in cancer, with an emphasis on somatic testing development. Invitae’s comprehensive oncology portfolio aims to accurately and reliably identify patients at risk of developing cancer and enable care for patients diagnosed with cancer through advanced molecular diagnostics and data interpretation.

“We’re delighted that Dr. Korn has joined our team. His extensive experience in both academic medicine and the commercial sector, combined with his dedication to advancing precision medicine throughout a patient’s cancer journey, will contribute greatly to advance our mission of bringing somatic testing to the care of cancer patients. Given Invitae’s focus on our personalized cancer monitoring (PCM) assay that uses circulating tumor DNA for determining prognosis, surveillance, early detection of relapse and assessment of a patient’s response to therapy, this is an important time to have Dr. Korn’s expertise on our team,” said Robert Nussbaum, M.D., chief medical officer at Invitae. “In addition, Dr. Korn will be a key contributor to our clinical research efforts, the design of our tests, our physician education efforts and the building out of customer experience and clinical support for both oncology providers and patients alike.”

Before joining Invitae, Dr. Korn served from 2017 to 2022 as chief medical officer at Caris Life Sciences. He was instrumental in developing AI-driven molecular signatures and advancing clinical and translational research in precision oncology. Dr. Korn remains on faculty at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) as clinical professor (volunteer) in the Division of Hematology/Oncology.

At UCSF, he founded and led the Precision Oncology Initiative and the Molecular Tumor Board and was the lead investigator of clinical trials exploring new treatments for advanced cancers. Dr. Korn’s laboratory focused on the development of rational combination therapies for cancer using systems-biology approaches, and his scientific work has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications.

“I am thrilled to join Invitae and help move the precision oncology field forward in the best interest of our patients,” said Dr. Korn, chief medical officer for oncology at Invitae. “Invitae is well positioned to build on its leading position in germline hereditary cancer testing to improve the care of cancer patients. Invitae’s goals are to enable oncologists to provide more precise prognoses, monitor remissions more sensitively, detect relapses requiring alterations in therapy more rapidly and identify targets for precision cancer therapy, thereby improving clinical care across a patient’s entire cancer journey. I am excited about the company’s vision to advance the development of a comprehensive oncology portfolio.”