Melissa McKay-Daily, Ph.D.

Dr. McKay-Daily holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Colgate University and a doctorate in biochemistry, cell and developmental biology 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, serving as Scientific Program Manager in the Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP). In this role, she worked with CDP and the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) to coordinate the review and tracking of correlative studies for CTEP-sponsored early phase clinical trials. She also worked with various NCI stakeholders and contractors to identify, develop, and implement various initiatives to improve these processes. In 2021, Dr. McKay-Daily joined CTEP’s Clinical Trials Operations and Informatics Branch (CTOIB) where she continues to coordinate and track biomarker review and specimen analysis for early phase trials and assists with additional CTEP projects.