Mickey Williams

The Molecular Characterization Laboratory (MoCha) was established by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD), to focus on development of state-of-the-art molecular technologies for clinical research. Laboratory goals are to assist in the development and application of well characterized and validated clinical assays to support cancer patient management and clinical research. Ongoing projects include the development and implementation of analytically validated NGS assays for selection of patients for clinical trials (e.g. NCI-MATCH, Pediatric MATCH and NCI-MPACT). MoCha provides genomic characterization for the NCI’s Patient Derived Model Repository. Other activities include development of reference and quality control materials for use in clinical assays. MoCha is actively pursuing development and implementation of circulating tumor DNA and single cell sequencing assays.

Mickey has been active in the use of molecular technologies for drug-target discovery. During his thirteen years at Genentech, he developed novel assays to support clinical studies and discover new therapeutic targets. He was the author of the first quantitative “real-time” PCR papers and contributed to the development of this powerful technology. Prior to joining FNLCR in 21, he was a senior research group leader at Roche Molecular Diagnostics. While at Roche, he led the research effort and managed two large multi-national clinical assay studies: The MILE Study (microarray innovations in leukemia), and a collaboration with the LLMPP (leukemia and lymphoma molecular profiling project). He also initiated 2 projects that have subsequently been approved by the FDA as IVD tests. He has published over 5 manuscripts and is an inventor on over 3 issued U.S. Patents. Mickey received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.