Elsa R. Flores

Elsa R. Flores, Ph.D., is a Senior Member in the Department of Molecular Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Cutaneous Oncology and Thoracic Oncology. She also holds a professorship in the Department of Oncologic Sciences and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF) Health Morsani College of Medicine. Over more than two decades, Dr. Elsa R. Flores has built a career centered on understanding the p53 family of tumor suppressor genes, particularly the roles of p63 and p73 in cancer development, metastasis, and treatment resistance. Her research has shaped the broader scientific understanding of how these genes regulate stem cell maintenance, metabolism, and tumor progression, work that has been featured in some of the field's most prominent journals.

Elsa R. Flores earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1994. She went on to complete her Ph.D. in Cancer Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999, conducting her doctoral research at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research. She then returned to MIT for a postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Biology at the Center for

Following her postdoctoral training, Dr. Elsa R. Flores began her independent academic career at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where she was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology in 2004. She advanced steadily through the academic ranks, earning tenure as an Associate Professor in 2010 and full Professor with tenure in 2015. During her time at MD Anderson, she took on significant leadership roles, including Co-Director and later Director of the Genes and Development Graduate Ph.D. Program, and Co-Leader of the Metastasis Research Program under the institution's NCI Cancer Center Support Grant.

In 2016, Elsa R. Flores relocated to Moffitt Cancer Center, where she was named Chair and Senior Member of the Department of Molecular Oncology, a position she held until 2022. She simultaneously took on the role of Professor with tenure at USF and became Leader of the Cancer Biology and Evolution Program under Moffitt's NCI Cancer Center Support Grant. In 2022, her responsibilities expanded further when she was appointed Associate Center Director and Division Chief of Discovery Science at Moffitt, a role she held through 2026. In this capacity, she oversaw six academic departments spanning Drug Discovery, Immunology, Metabolism and Physiology, Molecular Oncology, Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis, and Bioengineering, encompassing 59 faculty members. She was instrumental in establishing Moffitt's new Department of Bioengineering in 2022 and served as Executive Project Sponsor for the research programming, design, and construction of the Moffitt Discovery and Innovation Center at Speros.

Throughout her career, Dr. Elsa R. Flores has maintained an active and well-funded research program. She has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on numerous federally funded grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute, including a long-running R35 Outstanding Investigator Award and a P01 program project grant focused on identifying metabolic vulnerabilities in lung cancer. Her most recent research funding includes a 2026 All Star Translational Award from the V Foundation for Cancer Research supporting work on targeting "undruggable" pathways in tumor progression and therapy resistance. Her research contributions have also led to five patents and patent applications related to her discoveries in p63 biology and cancer therapeutics, along with a licensing agreement for the development of cancer progression biomarkers.