ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2026
The Young Physician-Scientist Awards (YPSA) recognize physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.
About the awardee
Mary (Maggie) Mullen, MD, MSCI, is an Assistant Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at Washington University in St. Louis. As a surgeon-scientist, her research focuses on targeting DNA damage repair to overcome platinum resistance in ovarian cancer, with a strong emphasis on translational impact and improving outcomes for patients with ovarian cancer.
Dr. Mullen earned her medical degree with a distinction in research from Saint Louis University School of Medicine. She completed her residency, fellowship, and Master of Science in Clinical Investigation at Washington University. Her postdoctoral work focused on targeting AXL, a receptor tyrosine kinase, to enhance chemotherapy induced DNA damage (Mol Cancer Res 2022). This work provided the preclinical rationale for a prospective clinical trial evaluating this novel combination. In her independent lab, she has led one of the first clinical validations of RAD51 foci, a functional marker of homologous recombination (HR), as a biomarker predictive of therapy response (Clin Cancer Res 2024). Her lab then demonstrated that replication stress marker phosphor-RPA2 predicts response to platinum and PARP inhibitors in HR-proficient tumors (J Clin Invest 2025), opening therapeutic options for patients with HR-proficient cancer. This patent-pending biomarker is now being evaluated in a prospective clinical trial. Additionally, her lab has identified the COPS9 signalosome/COPS5 as a novel regulator of Fanconi Anemia proteins and platinum chemotherapy response leading to the design of first-in-class COPS5 inhibitors.
Dr. Mullen has emerged as a national leader, serving as NRG Oncology Ovarian Translational Research Co-Chair, member of the GOG Partners Investigators Council, Siteman Cancer Center Emerging Leader, and Director of the WashU Gynecologic Oncology Biorepository (Gyn Onc, 2024). Her achievements have been recognized by the Damon Runyon Foundation, RSDP, AACR, and NCI Early-Stage Surgeon-Scientist Program. Committed to mentoring, Dr. Mullen oversees research and clinical trainees and has received multiple teaching awards.