Albert Einstein College of Medicine has appointed Britta Will, Ph.D., associate professor of oncology, of medicine and of cell biology, and the Diane and Arthur B. Belfer Scholar in Cancer Research, as the permanent director of the Ruth L. and David S. Gottesman Institute for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine.

Britta Will, Ph.D.

Faculty Profile

“After an extensive national search, Dr. Will emerged as the clear choice to lead our esteemed institute, which she has been a member of since 2015,” said Yaron Tomer, M.D., the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean at Einstein and chief academic officer at Montefiore Einstein. “She has demonstrated scientific excellence, commitment to mentorship and education, and exceptional leadership abilities at the College of Medicine and the Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center (MECCC), and we’re immensely happy she has agreed to take on this role.”

Dr. Will assumes the role from Ulrich Steidl, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of cell biology, who has served as interim director for the past four years. Dr. Will is the first permanent director of the institute since the passing of Paul Frenette, M.D., Ph.D., the institute's founding director, in 2021.

“I am honored and excited about the opportunity to lead and expand the collaboration and innovation that are the hallmarks of our institute’s dedicated scientists, physicians, trainees, and staff,” said Dr. Will. “Together, we will continue advancing fundamental research into stem cell function and tissue and organ regeneration. We will especially foster discoveries which will help to mitigate and eventually reverse chronic degenerative diseases, such as dementia, diabetes, lung disease, immune system erosion and bone marrow failure, as well as early phases of cancer.”

In her NIH-funded laboratory, Dr. Will’s research focuses on ways to restore blood regeneration in older adults and those with cancer. Her lab has discovered essential cellular pathways that allow adult hematopoietic, or blood-forming, stem cells to generate blood throughout their life. Dr. Will and her team have identified mechanisms that can be targeted by therapies to enhance healthy stem cell function in stem cell transplantation, bone marrow failure, blood cancer, and in aging.

Dr. Will is also co-leader of the stem cell biology & cancer biology program at MECCC, director of preclinical research at MECCC’s Blood Cancer Institute, and director of the cancer stem cell pharmacodynamics laboratory.

Dedicated to training the next generation of scientists, she was a member of the Ph.D. admissions committee for five years and has been a member of the MSTP admission committee since 2016. She has mentored 40 undergraduates, M.D. and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty members during her time at Einstein. In addition, she is a preceptor for three pathway programs, helping to inspire and train aspiring scientists from the Bronx.

Dr. Will has won a range of honors and awards, including Einstein’s Ceriale Mid-Career Investigator Award, research scholar awards from Gilead Sciences, the Sinsheimer Foundation, Feldstein Medical foundation, as well as the Leukemia Research Foundation; she also received the 2020 Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research, and is a current Scholar of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She is co-chair of the molecular hematopoiesis workshop of the European Hematology Association, co-chair of the 2025 working group on aging in hematopoiesis at the Federation of European Biochemical Societies, and a member of the American Society of Hematology’s scientific committee on myeloid biology.

Dr. Will underwent graduate training at Harvard University and received a Ph.D. in cell biology from Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg in Germany. After completing her postdoctoral fellowship at Einstein, she became an instructor here and joined the faculty in 2015.