Alan Tackett, Ph.D.
As executive associate dean for research in the UAMS College of Medicine, Dr. Alan Tackett works to advance research and collaboration across departments and research groups in support of the college’s mission to improve health in Arkansas and beyond.
A distinguished professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dr. Tackett has served in many leadership roles at UAMS and Arkansas Children’s, including Deputy Director of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at UAMS since 2021. He has directed the Center for Translational Pediatric Research (CTPR) – a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) – in the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute since 2017. Dr. Tackett has directed the NIH IDeA National Resource for Quantitative Proteomics at UAMS since 2016. He has also served on numerous institutional committees.
Dr. Tackett earned his doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology at UAMS under the mentorship of Kevin Raney, Ph.D., graduating in 2002. He completed postdoctoral training in cancer epigenetics and proteomics at the Rockefeller University in New York. He joined the UAMS faculty in 2005 and rose through the academic ranks to become a distinguished professor in 2023. He holds secondary faculty appointments in the College of Medicine departments of Pathology and Pediatrics.
While serving on the UAMS faculty, Dr. Tackett has built an internationally recognized research team focused on uncovering new therapeutic strategies to treat metastatic melanoma and developing the next generation of molecular profiling technologies to identify cancer biomarkers. He has been funded as principal investigator by five different NIH institutes for both basic and translational research across the biomedical research spectrum. He has been continuously funded by the NIH throughout his career.
Dr. Tackett has published more than 150 scientific articles and holds multiple patents stemming from his research. He has shared his expertise on more than 60 NIH study sections and review panels. He is currently vice-president and president-elect of the National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators.
Among many honors, Dr. Tackett has served since 2016 as the inaugural recipient of the Scharlau Family Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at UAMS. He was named Investigator of the Year by the Arkansas Biosciences Institute in 2018, and he was named a Fellow of the Arkansas Research Alliance in 2021. In 2024, he was selected by his undergraduate alma mater to receive the Hendrix College Odyssey Medal for Research.
Contact Dr. Tackett: 501-686-8152 | AJTackett@uams.edu