Melissa McKay-Daily, PhD

Health Science Policy Analyst

Melissa McKay-Daily, PhD, holds a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and a doctorate from Emory University. She trained previously at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), first as a postdoc and then as a Research Fellow, in the Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Signaling. While there, she investigated the role of the KSR1 scaffold protein in regulating signaling through the RAS/MEK/ERK pathway.

Following her time at NCI, Dr. McKay-Daily worked for 5 years in drug discovery at Otsuka Maryland Medicinal Laboratories. Her focus was on mechanism of action studies and biomarker identification and characterization for new small molecule anti-cancer agents. In 2017, she returned to NCI as a contractor based in the Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP). Over the last few years, she has worked with CDP and CTEP to coordinate the review and tracking of correlative studies for CTEP-sponsored early phase clinical trials. She has also worked with various NCI stakeholders and contractors to identify, develop, and implement various initiatives to improve these processes.