Aleksandar Sekulic, M.D., Ph.D.

Aleksandar Sekulic, M.D., Ph.D., is director of dermatology and translational research at City of Hope® Cancer Center Phoenix and Physician-in-Chief at City of Hope’s Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), also located in Phoenix. Inspired by a desire to bring research innovations from the laboratory to the clinic, Dr. Sekulic is a renowned physician-scientist who has pioneered new approaches to skin cancer, with a particular focus on immunotherapy and precision medicine. 

As a board-certified dermatologist, Dr. Sekulic treats a wide range of skin cancers, from melanoma to cutaneous T cell lymphoma, pigmented lesions and epidermal neoplasms. His goal is to provide whole-person, individualized care for every patient, supported by innovative cancer therapies. Dr. Sekulic is building the new dermatology and cutaneous oncology program at City of Hope Phoenix that will harness the power of City of Hope’s and TGen’s research programs to offer advanced care for skin cancer patients. 

Dr. Sekulic is a highly experienced oncology researcher who has co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed articles, led studies on skin cancer genomics and precision oncology, and designed clinical trials that have led to new U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved therapies for basal cell carcinoma. In his role at TGen, he oversees the development of new studies and programs that build on this body of work, with the goal of bringing the most up-to-date therapies into clinical practice at City of Hope. 

Dr. Sekulic earned his medical degree at the University of Zagreb in Croatia and his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences-immunology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, where he also completed a postdoctoral research fellowship, as well as a residency and fellowship in dermatology. Before joining City of Hope, he was associate director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, deputy director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, a professor of dermatology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and vice chair of the department of dermatology at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. He is a member of multiple professional associations, including the American Academy of Dermatology, the Society for Investigative Dermatology, the Society for Melanoma Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.