Josephine Taverna, MD

Josephine Taverna, MD, was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and raised in New York City. She is an associate professor in the Division of Hematology Oncology and the Department of Molecular Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio. She specializes in treating patients with thoracic cancers at Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center. 

She graduated with her undergraduate degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University and received her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Akron General in Akron, Ohio, and her fellowship training in hematology-oncology at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. She completed research fellowships in skin oncology at Boston Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, drug development at the Institute for Drug Development at UT Health San Antonio and cancer prevention and control at the University of Arizona.

She’s a physician-scientist whose research is focused on harnessing single-cell omics from the bench to select targeted therapies for lung cancer patients. Recently, she has been developing an independent research program in lung cancer therapeutics at Mays Cancer Center.