Mary Beckerle

[1] Her lab discovered EWS/FLI to disrupt the internal cellular skeleton, which decreases the ability of cells to adhere to their proper environment.

[3] Before continuing her education, she took a year off and worked in a cellular biology research laboratory at University of Texas Southwest Medical Center.

Her education then continued at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where she was a postdoctoral fellow in Anatomy and Cell Biology.

Also in 1999, she was awarded the Ralph E. and Willa T. Main Presidential Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at the University of Utah.

She holds the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Utah, where she has also been promoted to a distinguished professorship in the biology department.

[12][13] In subsequent days, members of the family made media appearances, published full page newspaper ads reiterating their support for cancer research and Beckerle, and even called for the termination of top university officials.

[15] Some Huntsman Cancer Institute faculty and staff were among over 3600 individuals who signed a petition requesting Beckerle be restored to her position.

On 19 April, roughly 100 demonstrators marched from the Huntsman Cancer Institute facilities across the university campus to the Office of President Pershing, calling for Beckerle's return.

On the morning of 25 April, the university's board of trustees met in a closed session, after which Pershing briefly spoke to reporters, mentioning that an announcement would be forthcoming later in the day.

Within a few hours, it was announced that Beckerle would be reinstated as CEO and Director of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and would report directly to the University President, bypassing Vivian Lee.

[16] On 28 April, Vivian Lee announced via email that, effective the same day, she was stepping down as the university's senior vice president for health sciences, dean of the medical school, and CEO of the healthcare system.