.jpg "Leomar Ballester, MD,PhD photo")
Associate Professor
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. Ballester completed a B.S. in Biological Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez in 2001 and an M.D. degree at the UPR School of Medicine in 2011. He also completed a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences in the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Ballester joined the National Cancer Institute for Residency training in Anatomic Pathology (where he also served as chief resident). This was followed by fellowships in Molecular Genetic Pathology at Baylor College of Medicine and Neuropathology at the Houston Methodist/MD Anderson Cancer Center program. He is triple board certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic Pathology, Neuropathology, and Molecular Genetic Pathology. In July 2017, Dr. Ballester became Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where he also served as codirector of the molecular diagnostics laboratory. In September of 2021 Dr. Ballester joined the Department of Pathology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he also holds a joined appointment in the Department of Translational Molecular Pathology. In addition to practicing clinical neuropathology and molecular diagnostics, he is also the principal investigator of a research laboratory focusing on the development of CSF biomarkers for diagnosing and monitoring patients with CNS malignancies.